“At Home” by Gavin Kaysen, features more than 100 recipes ranging from quick weeknight dinners to show-stopping weekend projects, as well as utilitarian pantry staples, kid-friendly meals, and family favorites all organized by season, including:
The Perfect Pot Roast with Kale and Squash Salad
Watermelon and Tomato Salad with Sumac Vinaigrette
Grilled Branzino with Brown Butter, Tomato, Olives, and Bread Crumbs
Pappardelle Pasta with Pork Ragu
Swedish Pancakes
And more!
Try Gavin’s Pot Roast as we discussed excerpted from the book “At Home” by Gavin Kaysen
Pot roast is a very nostalgic dish for me and by far my most published recipe (you can find versions of it all over the Internet). It was one of my grandmother Dorothy’s two signature dishes, and she’d make it anytime we visited her, no matter the season. It was also one of the first recipes I ever cooked from start to finish as a kid, and the first dish I put on the menu at Spoon and Stable, where you’ll still find it today. The great chef Sean Brock always says that in the South, nothing can compete with your grandmother’s corn bread, and I feel the same about pot roast in the Midwest: Dorothy’s is the best, and every time I eat it, I feel like she’s giving me a big hug. Pot roast certainly works as a meal by itself, but I like to pair it with a salad made with the contrasting textures of raw and roasted kale, dressed with a tangy buttermilk vinaigrette.
The Perfect Pot Roast
2 pounds boneless beef top blade roast
fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium red onion, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small rutabaga (about 8 ounces), peeled and cut into 12 to 16 pieces
4 cremini mushrooms, halved
1 parsnip, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 head garlic, top trimmed to expose cloves
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
¾ cup red wine, preferably cabernet
2 cups beef broth or stock
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Season meat generously with salt and pepper.
2. In a large Dutch oven or other heavy ovenproof pot with a lid, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add meat and sear until a dark crust forms, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
3. Reduce heat to medium and add butter to pot. Melt butter and add all vegetables and garlic, stirring frequently and scraping bottom of pot, until vegetables start to color, 8 to 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until it darkens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add bay leaves, rosemary and wine, and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to a thick gravy consistency, 5 to 7 minutes.
4. Return meat to pot. Add broth, cover pot, transfer to oven, and cook until roast is very tender and starts to fall apart when you lift it, about 2 hours and 20 minutes.
5. Let roast sit at room temperature at least 10 minutes. Transfer meat to a cutting board and carve into 1½-inch slices. Skim fat from surface of stew. Discard bay leaves and rosemary stems. Squeeze any garlic cloves remaining in their skins into stew and discard skins.
6. To serve, lay slices of roast in shallow bowls along with vegetables and a generous amount of cooking liquid ladled over top. Serve with Kale and Squash Salad (recipe follows).
Kale and Squash Salad
Buttermilk Vinaigrette
¼ cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/3 cup olive oil
fine sea salt
Salad
8 oz. Tuscan kale, washed, dried and stems removed
olive oil, for drizzling
fine sea salt
ground white pepper
1 large acorn squash, quartered and seeded
½ tsp. light brown sugar
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup Marcona almonds, toasted and lightly crushed
1. Make the buttermilk vinaigrette: In a blender, purée buttermilk, vinegar and mustard until well combined. With machine running on low, stream in oil until smooth. Season with salt. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Make the salad: Preheat oven to 220°F. Line a sheet pan with foil. Arrange 1/3 of kale in a single layer, drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt and white pepper. Transfer to oven and bake until crispy, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, put remaining kale in a large bowl, add a pinch of salt and gently massage kale about 2 minutes to tenderize it. Increase oven temperature to 375°F. Line a second sheet pan with foil. Lay squash skin-side down on lined pan. In a small bowl, combine 1 tsp. salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Rub butter onto squash flesh and sprinkle evenly with spice mix.
4.Transfer sheet pan to oven and bake until squash is tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from oven, and once cool enough to handle, peel squash and cut into 2-inch cubes. Add crispy kale to bowl with raw kale. Add almonds and some of buttermilk vinaigrette and toss well. Divide onto plates and top with squash. Drizzle with more vinaigrette and serve.
Episode 43: Gavin Kaysen