OneandahalfSlices Pot Roast
From the @whiskey_CA_mmelier Collaboration Dinner
This is the main course for the Whiskey Pairing Dinner and, my, what a deep, flavorful pot roast this is! Let me start by saying that I sourced a 4.6 pound chuck roast from the Spring House Farm Store to feed the four of us and had no regrets. A simple pot roast is easy enough to pull off especially if you have a slow cooker, but this really takes the flavor profile up a notch to make this velvety, sinful, fall-off-your-fork roast with plenty of fall veggies. Pairing. For the roast, @whiskey_CA_mmelier wanted something to play with bourbon (all of our fav), especially since we went rogue and kicked off the evening with a scotch pairing (how dare we). He selected several aged bourbons that were exceptional but definitely dominated the roast. It wasn’t until we made our way around to the milder Noah’s Mill that things started to make sense. Noah’s Mill from the Willet Distillery- those who haven’t tried it are missing out. And it complemented this roast perfectly.
what you need
A 3-5 pound chuck roast
2 onions, 1/2 diced and the rest quartered
4-6 thick carrots, cut into chunks
4-5 celery stalks, 2 stalks cut into chunks, 2 stalks diced
4-5 red potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 cloves garlic, sliced finely
1 bundle of fresh thyme
1 bundle of fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 table spoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2-2 cups good red wine
2 cups beef broth
3 tablespoons black coffee
1 tablespoon soy sauce or Tamari
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Pairing. Noah’s Mill Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey from the renowned Willet Distillery.
how to make it
Heat oven to 325 and heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Truss the roast (in other words, tie it up) and brown it on all sides. Remove from Dutch oven and set aside on a plate.
Lower stove heat to low. Add one more glug of olive oil, the sliced garlic, the minced onion, and the diced celery to the pot (I also added a few diced shallots for good measure). Season with salt and black pepper. Sautee for a minute or two. Deglaze the pan with the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and coffee, scraping up all the brown bits from the bottom as you stir and bring the mixture to a simmer (might need to raise heat to low-medium).
Toss in the bay leaves, the bundle of rosemary/thyme, and the beef broth, and bring the liquid to a light boil. Situate the roast back in the liquid trying not to let the roast pin the herb bundle to the bottom.
Place half the chunked carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes around the roast, which should be sticking out of the liquid just a bit. Top with another glug of wine, and season generously with salt and pepper. Secure the lid on the Dutch oven and throw the whole shooting match in the oven for 2 1/2 ish hours depending on the size of your roast (my 4.6 pound roast took 3 1/2 hours but a smaller roast will likely take less time).
Remove from oven and serve warm. The liquid should be mostly cooked down by now to a sort of gravy. You may have to spoon some fat off the top which is perfectly normal.
Sazerac
This is the opening cocktail for the Whiskey Pairing Dinner. The Rye Sazerac is one of the oldest, prohibition-era cocktails. It’s classic, elegant, and simple. With rye whiskey, lemon, absinthe, and bitters, a Sazerac is as refined as a cocktail can be. Here we present this simple cocktail recipe as a forward to the rest of a classic meal. The absinthe on the nose provides an interesting twist to a classically whiskey-based cocktail. We used Sazerac Rye as the base.
Spicy Brussels
Brussels Sprouts are one of our favorite falltime veggies, especially when they’re made crispy. There are so many unique toppings for sprouts (sprouts!) that they’ll never get boring. Here they are paired with a round, fruit-forward Orkney Island Scotch Whiskey to really accentuate their sweetness.
Pecan Pie
This is the dessert for the Whiskey Pairing Dinner generously provided by The Piemaker. I’ve never been a huge pecan pie fan (nor was I a big Key Lime Pie fan) until The Piemaker came into my life. This pecan pie is as ‘from scratch’ as it comes, with hints of bourbon and maple folded into the filling, served with a luxurious maple cinnamon cream. This is a decadent dessert – decadent is an understatement. But if you’re looking to level up your Holiday meal game, this is the place to start. We definitely felt the need to eat one and a half slices… 😃