Tuscan Pot Roast in the Slow Cooker; Keeping the Kitchen Cool

It’s quite hot and sticky here in North Florida. The humidity settles in so thickly it has texture. The idea of keeping the oven cranked up to roast a piece of meat is not appealing……..so I turned to the crock pot. This also frees up my time to use the oven for a very short period to bake an Italian loaf. The good news first: it smelled so wonderfully good when the mushrooms, plum tomatoes, beef, wine and carrots were simmering gently in the pot. Also, it freed up some time to do other projects and prepare the bread.

(Photo was taken after assembled in slow cooker, prior to cooking.)



The bad news, although in the grand scheme of things I suppose it's not bad...just disappointing. It did not turn out rare. I thought 8 hours on low heat was too long so I on;y cooked it 6 hours. Still too long. It was well overdone, although edible, but not at all to our liking with a red center.

If anyone has a suggestion to cook a pot roast in a slow cooker AND attain a rare end result, please, please, please email me! Maybe next time I should try 2 hours and hope the veggies aren't raw and crunchy. (big sigh) Below is the recipe if you'd care to try it. At least I can turn this into a soup :-)


Ingredients

1/3 cup olive oil
1 2 1/2- to 3-pound bottom-round pot roast
2 large onions, quartered
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced (2 cups)
2 large carrots, thinly sliced (2 cups)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
Handful of white button mushrooms
salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes, chopped

Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the roast on all sides. Transfer the roast to a large slow cooker. Leave the fat and oils in the skillet.

Into the abandoned skillet add the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables; transfer to the cooker.
Pour the wine into the skillet, swirl about a little and scrape up leftover bits. Add the contents of the skillet to the cooker, along with the mushrooms, salt, oregano, and tomatoes (plus 1 cup of their liquid).

Cook 8 hours on low heat, or 4 hours on high heat.

Note warning about the cooking times!