About the Book
When I found this book and read it for the first time, I had to stop after each chapter, sigh, and just let it all sink in. Laurie Colwin is the kind of writer I would love to be someday. Ms. Colwin, who died in 1992, wrote a monthly column for Gourmet magazine, lots of short stories, and 6 novels. I adore them all and have probably reread them each about 20 times.This book is a collection of some of her Gourmet columns. These columns were probably the main reason I bought that magazine. They are insightful, beautifully written, soothing, and contain some of the best recipes I have ever made.
I absolutely love her recipe for Pot Roast, which is slowly cooked with red peppers until meltingly fork tender. Recipes for gingerbread, chocolate cake, chicken salad, and orzo with broccoli di rabe have become favorites at my house. Be sure to try the recipes when you buy the book. I know it's tempting to just keep it by your bedside and read it for comfort!
This recipe is a version of Pot Roast With Vegetable Gravy. It is included in Friday Night Supper, an essay all about slowing down and enjoying a wonderful dinner on the weekend.
Favorite Recipe from the Book
Pot Roast
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 pound chuck roast
1 tablespoon paprika
3 red bell peppers
2 onions, chopped
1 carrot, cut into chunks
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup red wine OR beef stock
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
8 ounce can tomato sauce
black pepper
Heat olive oil in heavy pan over medium high heat. Sprinkle roast with paprika and brown, about 15 minutes total. Place in Dutch oven and add bell peppers, onions, carrot, and garlic.
In the same skillet used to brown roast, add wine, vinegar, sugar, and tomato sauce, scraping to loosen any brown bits. Pour over the meat and vegetables, add pepper, and cover. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 4-5 hours.
When the meat is tender, remove and cover it with foil to keep warm. Remove vegetables from the pan with a slotted spoon and push them through a sieve. (This is messy, but essential to get rid of the vegetable skins). Place in a saucepan, add the meat juices left in the pan and cook over medium heat until thickened.
Slice the roast and spoon the gravy over it.
Her comment at this point is: People often eat this in total silence in which case you may assume that you are not going to have any leftovers.
Final Thoughts ...
The essay I love most in this book is called "Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant". She writes about her very first adult apartment, a studio in Greenwich Village with a hotplate and no kitchen. Her place had a high ceiling, which was a good thing, since a low one would have made my apartment feel like the inside of a box of animal crackers. She cooked a lot of eggplant at the time, and invented all sorts of strange dishes that she ate at her desk with her feet up on her small wicker endtable, watching the evening news in her cozy apartment. She writes about her routine, the foods she cooked there, the parties she gave, and how after years and years, some things never change.
Now I have a kitchen with a four burner stove, and a real fridge. I have a pantry and a kitchen sink and a dining room table. But when my husband is at a business meeting and my little daughter is asleep, I often find myself alone in the kitchen with an eggplant, a clove of garlic and my old pot without the handle about to make a weird dish of eggplant to eat out of the Meissen soup plate at my desk.
Sigh.
