Pot Roast with Port Sauce

Wine has really enhanced the dinning experience at my house. I've done mostly pairings since that first excursion to Cinder, so tonight is the first time I am serving a dinner I cooked in wine.

On the menu: Pot Roast with Port (Indian Creek 2007 Ruby Dahlia Dessert Wine) Sauce, My (Laura's) Au Gratin Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli and Huston Vineyards 2008 Private Reserve Red Wine.

Pot Roast with Port (Indian Creek 2007 Ruby Dahlia Dessert Wine) Sauce – slow cooker recipe, I adapted this from a recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Crockery Cookbook copyright 1994, Pot Roast with Herbed-Port Gravy, based on ingredients I had on hand. Here is my adapted recipe:

1 4lb beef chuck pot roast

1 tblsp Olive Oil

1 chopped Sweet Onion

¾ Cup Indian Creek 2007 Ruby Dahlia Dessert Wine (Port or your favorite red dessert wine)

½ Cup Ketchup

2 tblsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp dried Thyme

2 tsp dried Rosemary

4 cloves pressed (or minced) Garlic

1. Trim fat from pot roast. If needed cut roast to fit your crock pot. In a large skillet brown roast on all sides in hot oil. Drain off fat and transfer meat to your crock pot.
2. In a bowl combine onion, port (red dessert wine), ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, rosemary, and garlic. Pour over pot roast.
3. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on high setting for 4 to 5 hours. For programmable crock pots you could do 2 hours on high, then the remaining 6 to 8 hours on low.
4. Transfer roast to a serving platter, let sit for 10 minutes, then slice. Pour broth/gravy into a gravy boat and serve with the roast. If your roast cooked long enough to become fall apart tender, shred with a fork and serve it as shredded beef (would be really good over noodles or mashed potatoes this way).

My (Laura's) Au Gratin Potatoes – Baked in a 425F oven

6 to 8 Medium Idaho Russets, french fry cut

1 sliced Sweet Onion

2 cups Grated Cheese

2 tblsp flour

½ to 1 cup Heavy Cream

1. Place potatoes and onions in a large casserole dish.
2. Add 1 cups cheese and the flour. Combine together with your hands.
3. Pour Heavy Cream over the mixture.
4. Place remaining I cup of cheese over the top of the mixture (you may need to add a little extra to cover the entire casserole, we love lots of cheese in our house).
5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes until top layer of cheese is brown and bubbly.

• Note: I don't cook with a lot of salt but when I do I use a Sea Salt grinder, and would add it during step 2.

Steamed Veggie

This is where you add the veggie of your choice. I just happened to have broccoli in the fridge, even though it's Hubby's least favorite, the kids and I love it.

Huston Vineyards 2008 Private Reserve Red Wine

I'm choosing this wine mostly because it's what I have left in the rack. I forgot to go to Indian Creek over the weekend to pick up my Wine Thirty selection, which includes their limited release Tempranillo but I'm not sure which white, and another bottle of their Merlot. Hubby took-off to Seattle last weekend with my (our) last bottle of the Merlot as a gift for his dad.

Huston Vineyards is the new kid on the block. Like most wineries in this area they are family owned. We met Gregg and Mary during Wine Weekend (more about that later). I really enjoyed talking with them. Melanie from Cinder is their wine maker, and she did a really great job with their wines. They currently have just two wines their 2008 Private Reserve Red and their 2009 Chicken Dinner White. Both are worth having in the wine rack whenever possible, I need to double check to see if they're in at the Boise Co-Op Wineshop yet. I seem to recall Mary telling me that they were....yep, just got an email from the wineguys@boisecoop.com, they do indeed have the Huston Vineyard wines.

Their 2008 Private Reserve Red is an award winning Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah-Malbec blend. It paired really nice with the sausage they served during Wine Weekend so I am sure it will work really well with tonight's roast.

Indian Creek 2007 Ruby Dahlia Dessert Wine

As with any port style wine a little goes a long way. This is a great wine to cook with and just as great to sip with cheesecake or angel food cake. All I'm really going to say is, YUM.