The Ten-FIDY Pot Roast

Last week, I completed week 3 of my half-ironman training. As of right now I am following last year's plan and have found it easier than last year. Could be because I am "less green" in the triathlon area, or maybe because I just finished a half-marathon in February, meaning I had less "off" time in running. Last year, if I remember correctly, I did not complete my third swim a week (for many weeks) whereas, I am really making sure it is incorporated and followed as planned.

I do need to do a couple things....sleep better and eat better. I had a great week with the detox but quickly fell off during the second week. Week 2 was very difficult. We lost a really good friend so it was a hard week to get through training/eating/sleeping. You don't realize how much emotional stress can play on your body, how tired you can be. I got about 3/4 of the workouts in but was just going through the motions and almost felt I should have taken a week off. On the plus side, it really helped relieve some stress. The silver lining was spending an incredible amount of time with my friends, especially my girlfriends.

This Monday was a crappy day, it was rainy and blah. The night before I took out a seasoned pot roast I bought at Whole Foods. I wish I had taken a picture of it, it was a beautiful piece of meat. Anyway, I wanted to cook it with beer instead of wine. I had a meeting on Monday so I wanted to put it in early so that meant what was in the house by way of beer? Ummm, for those that don't know Mike and I, you can be damn sure there will be a selection....So on tap we had Scaldis (not a good choice), Victory Headwater Pale Ale (nah, too light) and Oskar Blues Ten-FIDY (an Imperial stout). I really wanted to use a smoked porter but we didn't have a bottle in the house just a random assortment of beers that we would probably rather drink than use for cooking purposes. So I went with the Imperial Stout. If you haven't already had Ten-FIDY, you really should try it. It has a nice chocolate caramel flavor, which I thought would go nice with the roast. It has a slight bitterness but smooth at the end.


Ten-FIDY Pot Roast
3.5 lb roast (already seasoned with parsely, lots of black peppercorns)
1 large shallot
8 garlic cloves
A couple swirls of vegetable oil

Heat oil over med-high heat, add garlic, shallot and simmer for 5 min. Add beef using tongs, sear on each side about 1 min per side.

In the crockpot add the following:

4 potatoes (peeled or unpeeled) - chopped
1 onion chopped
4 carrots - chopped
1 box of beef broth
1 large pint of Ten-fidy

Take meat, and scraping of garlic/shallots and throw in crockpot - put on high until up to a boil and then turn to low and simmer all day (1-2 hours per pound - I had it in for about 8 hours total).

Ten-FIDY Gravy
Take 3 cups of the juice of final product in crockpot. Pour through a sieve and heat in a saucepan on medium. Add 3 tbspn of flour - slowly while whisking. Add 1 tspn of sugar and 1/4 cup of Ten-fidy, bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper and let simmer for 15-20 min till thick. You can add more flour depending on the level of thickness and you may want to taste to add more or less salt.

We served this over German egg noodles, my dad bought us from some little German store at Peddler's Village in PA.
I have to say - BEST ROAST EVER!!!!!