Moroccan Pot Roast

The October fair is back. After two pandemic years, the church fair two blocks over returned and the smell of funnel cake and frying dough reached our house on Friday evening and Daddy said, "We're going," and we went. It is the most ordinary thing — a church carnival with a Ferris wheel and ring toss and a booth that sells daube and rice in paper bowls — but after two years of its absence I understood something about it I hadn't before: the ordinary things are the things. The extraordinary is made of ordinary moments accumulated.

I had a daube beef in the paper bowl and it was exactly right — the slow-braised beef soft in the thick gravy, the rice absorbing it, the particular communal noise of the fair all around. MawMaw was there with her church friends, a group of women her age who materialize at these events the way they materialize at funerals and graduations, which is to say reliably and in good shoes. She saw me and held my face in both hands and said, "You look older," and I said I was probably seventeen and a half and she said, "That's older."

AP Chemistry midterm this week. I studied systematically, made flashcards, reviewed every lab we'd done, sat with the reaction mechanisms until they stopped feeling arbitrary. The exam was hard and I think I did well. Not performed-well but actually-understood-it well, which is different and better. Mr. Arceneaux grades on accuracy and I respect that about him even when it is not in my immediate interest.

I've been planning what I'll cook when a college acceptance comes — whichever one comes first. Mama says we'll celebrate whatever it is with a proper dinner but I told her I wanted to cook it myself. She said that was fine. So I've been deciding: I think it should be Daddy's gumbo, the full version, because it is the most complex thing I know how to make and because it is what our family makes when something has been accomplished that matters. When the time comes I want to make the meal.

That paper bowl of daube at the fair — soft braised beef, thick gravy, rice soaking it all up — is the kind of food that stays with you not because it’s fancy but because of everything happening around it: MawMaw’s hands on my face, the Ferris wheel noise, Daddy deciding we were going and meaning it. When I started thinking about what I’d cook for my own celebration dinner, I kept coming back to that same instinct: slow-braised beef, something that takes time and rewards the wait. This Moroccan Pot Roast is what I landed on — deeper in spice than daube, unfamiliar enough to feel like mine, but built on the same idea that the right meal for a moment that matters should come from patience and a heavy pot.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 1/2 to 4 lb beef chuck roast, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with juices
1 cup beef broth
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup green olives, pitted
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Fresh cilantro, for garnish
Cooked couscous or rice, for serving

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 325°F. Pat the chuck roast dry with paper towels and season all over with 1 teaspoon salt and all the black pepper.
Sear the roast. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the roast and sear without moving it for 4 to 5 minutes per side until a deep brown crust forms. Transfer the roast to a plate and set aside.
Build the base. Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Bloom the spices. Add the cumin, paprika, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, and turmeric to the pot. Stir into the onion mixture and cook for 1 minute, letting the spices toast slightly in the oil.
Add the liquids and vegetables. Pour in the diced tomatoes and beef broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the carrots, chickpeas, olives, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir to combine.
Braise. Nestle the seared roast back into the pot, spooning some of the braising liquid over the top. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover tightly and transfer to the oven. Braise for 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours, until the beef is completely fork-tender and falling apart.
Rest and shred. Remove the pot from the oven and let the roast rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Transfer the beef to a cutting board and shred or slice into large chunks. Return the meat to the pot and stir gently to coat in the gravy.
Serve. Ladle the pot roast and gravy over couscous or rice. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Moroccan Pot Roast — The Meal I’m Saving for the Day the Letter Comes