Home Sweet Home

It has been a busy past month and I am ashamed that it has taken me this long to post another great meal. Noel and I moved across town, we no longer live up the Hill from hell!! We moved to Fenway and it has been great so far! Easy to park the car, we have so many great bars and restaurants in the hood and we live across from a park, Max loves that. The apartment we moved to is great too, it's bigger and has a much better lay out. When Noel first saw the apartment she was thrilled with the "grown up kitchen". Our kitchen has more cabinets and counter space which makes it much easier to cook in. Plus, it has a dishwasher, yet for some reason Noel still hasn't done her fair share!!! The only problem is the stove is electric, but that hasn't slowed me down.

Tonight I wanted to make a good old fashion home cooked meal. A meal that would help make this new apartment feel more like home and what is better for that than Pot Roast. This is a meal that is easy to make and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy all over.


What You Need
1 1/2 to 2 pound pot roast
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
few sprigs of fresh thyme
large carrot cut up
6 fingerling potatoes
cup of red wine (I used an Old Vine Zinfandel)
1 can beef broth (I didn't have beef broth so I used a can of beef stew I had)
salt
pepper
1 bay leaf
tablespoon oil (I used a spicy sesame oil from Boyajian)

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Salt and pepper the roast. On the stove top, add olive oil to a dutch oven and brown the roast on all sides, about five minutes. Take the roast out of the dutch oven and add the onions and cook until softened about seven minutes add the garlic and cook until the kitchen has that great smell. Add the roast, the wine, a bay leaf and the thyme to the dutch oven and let it simmer a few minutes. Put the dutch oven in the oven and cook for hour and half. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for another hour.

See how easy that is? Definitely a meal that makes you feel at home. The pot roast came out perfect!! You don't even need a knife to cut the meat. The carrots and potatoes were perfectly cooked and helped make the meal. This is something I will cook over and over again!!

The Wine 
So I always say drink the wine you cook with. It makes for an easy pairing. As you know from past posts I don't cook with anything I wouldn't drink. Tonight's wine was The Immortal Zinfandel from Peirano Estate. I never have been a huge fan of Zinfandel until I tried this wine. It comes from the oldest vines that are on their original root stock in the US. They are about 113 years old. But how can that be? Original root stock? Wasn't there a bad out break of Phylloxera? If you don't know what Phylloxera are, they are tiny bugs that attack grape vines. They were brought to the world when the US exported local grape varieties to Europe. The wild grape vine of North America had 1000 of years to evolve to become immune to these pests, but the wine grapes vines of Europe were at major risk. The pest nearly wiped out the French industry and put a major hurt to the rest of Europe and eventually the WORLD. Chile is the only country that claims to never have had Phylloxera. People finally figured if you graphed the american root stock to the wine vines then the Phylloxera were harmless. This all happened about 120-130 years ago, so how could Peirano have vines on their original root stock. Peirano Estates is located in Lodi California and the soil is really sandy. Phylloxera can not live in sandy soil.

The older the vine the harder it is for the vine to create the fruit. So the fruit is smaller and more concentrated in flavor. It not is not uncommon to get three, four even five tons of grapes per an acre. The older the vine the less fruit they can produce per an acre down to one maybe two tons per acre. This wine is divine!! From the second it is HAND picked, they treat the grapes with white gloves. The wine has great aromas of spicy cherries and earthy red fruit. The palate doesn't disappoint either with its sweet cherries, strawberries and spicy cocoa. This Zinfandel is a wine that any wine lover would enjoy. Even people that usually dislike Zin, like myself.