Oh, oh, it's magic, you know!

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Newsflash: I love love love an easy meal.  I'm honestly one of the laziest cooks I know.  I love to turn out something fabulous, but I hate the time/sweat/tears that go into some creations.  Which is one reason the bf does most of the savory cooking – baking (at least the kind I favor) is much less about prep time and focus than it is about throwing stuff together and chucking it in the oven, then having a nice chin-wag and a cup of tea with a friend (or watching The Real Housewives of NYC).

But that's exactly what I love so so much about this pot roast.  It makes use of our slow-cooker, which, due to space restrictions, sits on a high shelf in our kitchen and therefore rarely gets used.  But oh, man, is that thing ever awesome!  It operates like an oven, without heating up the house all day.  It sits on the counter and does magical things to meat and veg, and in 9 hours you come back from work/class/gallivanting and dinner is served!  Seriously.  Magical.

To make this pot roast, I literally got out of bed, peeled an onion and chopped it into quarters, stuck the quarters in the slow cooker with some roughly chopped raw potatoes and carrots, threw in some sea salt and ground black pepper, then set a cheapo brisket cut on top of it all.  I poured in some beef stock, threw a little more sea salt on the meat, and covered it all up.  I set the thing on low and left it there for 9 hours.  And it was delicious!  The meat was tender, the potatoes weren't mealy at all, and the carrots were cooked but not mushy!  I felt so smug, and yet I'd only spent 5 bleary-eyed morning minutes putting it together.  Best. Invention. Ever.

The only thing I will say about this type of cooking is that you have to get your shiz together early.  Like by 10am.  Which isn't a problem if you're a morning person, but while I do get up before 9 even on weekends, I don't really function at a high level until I've had lots of tea and moved around a bit, which usually doesn't happen for a couple of hours (seriously, I need an hour and a half to get ready to leave for work, and actual dressing/hair/makeup only takes 20 minutes).  The great thing about this particular recipe (if you can call it that), though, is that even an un-caffeinated bum like morning-me can do it!  So if you don't like to spend a lot of time/energy cooking, I highly recommend the slow-cooker.  It's magic.

Slow-Cooker Pot Roast:

(serves 2-4)

In the bottom of your slow-cooker, place:

     1 onion, roughly cut into quarters and pieces separated

     2 potatoes, washed and cut into eighths

     2 carrots, washed and cut into large pieces

    

Sprinkle with sea salt (not too much, if you're using a salty stock) and freshly ground black pepper, and then set on top of the veggies:

     brisket, whatever size fits in your cooker (I used an 850g/1.5lb cut)

Sprinkle with a touch more salt and pepper, and any herbs you feel like using (rosemary would probably be delicious), then pour over:

     1.5-2c stock or water or red wine (or a combo of them all)

Set the cooker to low and leave to cook for anywhere from 7-9 hours.  Serve straight from the slow cooker and tuck in!