Welcome to Food We Love, our Sun-Times video series featuring stories about Chicagoans family food traditions, secret recipes, special ingredients and unusual favorite dishes. Each week we’ll hear a new story about food and family and learn some amazing recipes that you can try at home. Our host is Chicago journalist Linda Yu who loves cooking at home, as well as exploring new restaurants throughout the city.
We’re proud to welcome Arun’s Thai Restaurant as the presenting sponsor.
Today’s episode: Jim Rose shares his favorite pot roast recipe
ABC 7’s Jim Rose and wife Lakesha share their pot roast recipe
Two of my favorite memories of working with Jim Rose at ABC7 have to do with Chicago sports championships: the Chicago White Sox World Series parade and the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup victory rally. In each case, we were covering the tens of thousands of Chicago fans and the ecstatic celebrations of their teams’ victories. No scripts, a lot of ad-libbing, and JR’s knowledge, generously shared, made our coverage go smoothly.
That’s because we had worked together at ABC7 for more than three decades. Along with our audience, I had learned about JR’s love of sports, love of good stories, love of car racing, and wariness of locker room champagne celebrations (he’s the one who started bringing goggles to protect himself from all that eye-stinging champagne!).
But there are sides to JR that the public doesn’t get to see …and I’m excited that in my video series for the Chicago Sun-Times, “Food We Love,” you get to see more of his personal side.
Lakesha is his beautiful and gracious wife. I knew she had impeccable taste and was an interior designer. She and JR complement each other since he loves working with wood and builds amazing cabinets. I guessed that Lakesha was also a good cook. What I didn’t know was she and JR each grew up with a delicious tradition. Sunday pot roast! In fact, they didn’t realize it until quite a few months after they started dating. Because the tradition was important to both of them, they’ve stepped it up a notch.
So, join us at SunTimes.com and find out the special ingredients Lakesha adds to her recipe, and what the Rose family pot roast has to do with the Chicago Bears win/loss record.
Jim and Lakesha Rose’s Pot Roast
This recipe is inspired by Ina Garten of The Food Network.
Ingredients
- 1 4-5 lb. prime boneless beef chuck roast, tied
- Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
- Flour, enough to lightly coat roast
- 2 tbsps. olive oil
- 1 ½ tbsps. Kosher salt
- 2 ½ tsps. black pepper, freshly ground
- 2 cups carrots, chopped
- 2 cups yellow onions, chopped
- 2 cups celery, chopped
- 2 cups leeks (stalk and bulb), chopped
- 5 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 2 cups of red wine (Burgundy is good)
- 2 tbsps. cognac or brandy
- 1 2-ounce can whole plum tomatoes, pureed
- 1 cup chicken stock (homemade recommended)
- 1 chicken bouillon cube
- Thyme, 3 fresh branches
- Rosemary, 3 fresh branches
- 2 tbsps. flour
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Rinse roast and pat dry with paper towel. Season entire roast with salt and pepper to taste, then gently roll in flour until lightly coated, including the ends. Set aside.
In large Dutch oven heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil at medium temperature. Add roast and sear 4-5 minutes on all sides. Remove roast and place aside.
Clean Dutch oven and add 1 tbsp. of olive oil. Add carrots, onions, celery, leeks, garlic, 1 tbsp. salt and 1 ½ tsps. pepper. Cook at medium heat 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender, but not browned. Add wine and cognac and bring to a boil.
Add tomatoes, chicken stock, bouillon cube, 2 tsps. salt and 1 tsp. pepper to the above ingredients. Tie thyme and rosemary together with kitchen string and add to Dutch oven.
Place roast back in Dutch oven, bring to a boil, then cover. Place in oven and cook at 325 degrees for 2 ½ hours. Turn temperature down to 250 after an hour. Let sauce simmer. Meat should enough for a fork to glide through. If you use a cooking thermometer temperature should read 160 degrees. Transfer roast to carving board. Trim fat if desired. Discard thyme and rosemary bundle.
Skim fat off of sauce in Dutch oven. Transfer half of mixture to blender or food processor to puree. Pour puree back into original pot, place on stove burner and simmer on low heat.In a small bowl place 2 tbsps. flour, add butter, mash together with fork, then blend into simmering sauce. Continue to cook sauce for another two minutes, stirring to thicken. Add more salt and pepper if desired.
Add roast to Dutch oven, let set for a few minutes to absorb sauce. Serve along with, or atop, French style potatoes (see recipe).
Jim & Lakesha Rose’s French-style Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes
- 3 tbsps. butter
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Wash potatoes, leaving skin intact.
- Place water in the bottom portion of a steaming pot. Make sure level is low enough to not touch potatoes. Place potatoes in upper portion. Steam until a knife can easily glide through potatoes, about 30-40 minutes.
- In a separate pan add butter, milk and cream and heat until a slow simmering boil begins. Keep at low heat to retain temperature.
- Remove potatoes one at a time from steamer. Remove skin from potatoes (should be easy from the steaming). Cut potatoes in half. Place potatoes, one at a time, in a French food mill (milling makes the potatoes more refine) or use a old-school potato masher, to ground to desire texture.
- Add milk and cream a little at a time in equal increments until potatoes have a smooth, slightly liquified consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Tip: potatoes can be made ahead. To retain consistency add a little more milk and cream after warming.
- When finished cooking, or reheated, serve with roast. Enjoy!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this segment of “Food We Love with Linda Yu.” Check the links below to watch Linda’s other #foodwelove videos. Each one has a great story plus recipes for you to try at home.
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