My favorite dinner guest

I love feeding people who love to eat.  I have no use for the “food is just fuel” crowd. And my hands down favorite eaters are the non-cooks who love to eat. Why? They make the BEST dinner party guests.

There are few opportunities in life when you have the chance to feel like goddess, genius, and Houdini simultaneously. Feeding a food-loving non-cook will do it every time. What you think is just throwing a few ingredients is pure magic to them. It’s as though you’ve just pulled a rabbit out of your ear dressed in a tuxedo doing a perfect Sinatra singing I’ve Got the World on a String…in French. I’m not kidding – it’s THAT miraculous! No matter how many times you feign modesty, it happens, every time.

Explaining how you made the dish doesn’t destroy the magic. As I recite recipe or explain technique, the non-cooking food lover’s head starts to cock to one side, their eyes glazed and smile growing. You know that adorable look puppies get when you talk to them in a high-pitched voice? That’s the look! Because they know that you know they will never make it, and you know that they know you will make it for them again. It’s the perfect circle really – a symbiotic relationship that makes everyone happy. Plus you get to feel like the best thing since sliced bread.

The suggestion for a recipe to share came from an authority on this subject, one of my BEST non-cooking-food-loving friends. While the non-cook may not care how something is made, they have excellent memory of what was made. I think this Red Wine Pot Roast with Porcini is the best pot roast I’ve ever had. Buttered noodles or mashed potatoes make a nice side for this, but in my mind there’s nothing better than dumplings to sop up all that good gravy. There are plenty dumpling recipes online, but since my Oma used Panni Potato Dumpling mix, who am I to differ? 😉

Red-Wine Pot Roast With Porcini 

(Inspired by a recipe from epicurious.com)

Makes 6 servings

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 4-pound boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 celery stalks with some leaves, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 TBSP chopped fresh marjoram, or a 1 tsp dried
• 3 cups or 1 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup red wine (a cabernet works well here)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Bring broth to simmer in saucepan. Once it’s simmering, turn off the heat, add mushrooms, cover and let stand until soft, about 15 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer mushrooms to cutting board. Chop coarsely. Reserve mushrooms and broth separately.

Generously salt and pepper the meat. Heat oil in large ovenproof pot over medium-high heat. Add meat and sear until brown on all sides, about 15 minutes total. Transfer meat to large plate. Pour off all but 1 TBSP drippings from pot, or if you don’t have that much, add more oil to make about 1 TBSP. Place pot over medium heat. Add onion and celery. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and sauté until beginning to brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic, chopped marjoram, and reserved porcini mushrooms; sauté 1 minute. Add roasted tomatoes and their juice to pot. (If you are using canned tomatoes, crush tomatoes one at a time with your hands into pot.) Cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot. Add wine and boil 5 minutes. Then add reserved mushroom broth, leaving any sediment behind. Boil 3 minutes.

Return meat and any accumulated juices to pot. Cover and transfer to oven. Cook 1 1/2 hours. Turn meat and continue cooking until tender, about 1 1/2 hours longer. This is a great recipe to make a day ahead. Just cool and put pot a into the fridge. When you are ready, reheat on stove until heated through and proceed to next step.

If you are eating it right away, remove meat to a cutting board and tent with foil. Skim any fat from surface of juices in pot. Bring juices to boil and cook until liquid is reduced to about 4 cups, about 5-7 minutes. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Cut roast into 1/2-inch slices. Transfer to platter. Spoon juices over.