Pot Roast with Asian Black Bean Sauce

I have been feeling unusually tired for two solid weeks. Heavy fatigue around three PM that doesn’t lift until I lie down for thirty minutes. Sleeping ten hours a night and waking up not rested. A heavy mid-afternoon mental fog that makes seminar discussions feel further away than they should. Dustin asked me Tuesday at dinner if I was okay. I told him I might be coming down with something, that the start of junior year had been heavier than expected, that I’d sleep through the weekend and bounce back. I am not coming down with something. I haven’t put the pieces together yet, but the pieces are visible to me peripherally and I am not looking at them directly.

Sunday I made pot roast with Asian black bean sauce because Dustin had requested a fusion-leaning Sunday meal and the apartment had a three-pound chuck roast on managers’ special at the corner grocery. Asian black bean pot roast is the kind of cross-cuisine dish that lives at the intersection of American slow-braised pot roast and Cantonese fermented-black-bean cooking.

The technique: a three-pound chuck roast salted heavily on every surface, seared in oil in a Dutch oven for ten minutes until deeply browned on all sides. Out to a plate.

The braising sauce built in the same pot: two yellow onions in half-moons, a four-inch piece of fresh ginger sliced thin, six cloves of garlic minced, all sweated in the rendered beef fat for ten minutes. Three tablespoons of fermented black beans (Chinese fermented black beans from the Asian-foods aisle — rinsed briefly to remove excess salt, then mashed lightly with the back of a spoon to release their flavor). Half a cup of low-sodium soy sauce, a quarter-cup of Shaoxing rice wine (or dry sherry as substitute), three tablespoons of brown sugar, two cups of low-sodium chicken broth, two whole star anise pods, a tablespoon of sesame oil.

The chuck roast nestled back into the sauce. Lid on, three-twenty-five oven for three and a half hours until the meat shreds with two forks.

Pull the roast to a cutting board and shred. Return to the pot to coat in the reduced braising sauce. Off the heat, finish with sliced scallions and a tablespoon of rice vinegar.

Served over jasmine rice with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro. The dish reads as something between American pot roast and Cantonese braised beef — deeply savory, slightly sweet, with the unmistakable funk of fermented black beans running through. Dustin had two helpings. I had a small portion and could not finish it.

Fermented black beans, lightly mashed. Star anise. Three and a half hours at three-twenty-five. Here’s the build.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 3 hrs 30 min | Total Time: 3 hrs 50 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 to 4 lbs boneless beef chuck roast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium yellow onion, sliced into half-moons
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
3 tbsp Asian black bean sauce (jarred)
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 cup low-sodium beef broth
3 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, quartered
2 green onions, thinly sliced (for garnish)
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds (for garnish)

Instructions

Preheat and season. Preheat oven to 325°F. Pat the chuck roast dry with paper towels and season all over with salt and pepper.
Sear the roast. Heat vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the roast 3–4 minutes per side until a deep brown crust forms. Transfer roast to a plate and set aside.
Build the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to the same pot and cook 3–4 minutes until softened. Add garlic and ginger and stir for 1 minute until fragrant.
Make the sauce base. Stir in the black bean sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Cook for 1 minute, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
Add broth and roast. Pour in the beef broth and stir to combine. Return the seared roast to the pot, nestling it into the liquid. Bring to a gentle simmer.
Roast low and slow. Cover the Dutch oven and transfer to the oven. Cook for 2 hours.
Add vegetables. Remove the pot from the oven. Tuck carrots and potatoes around the roast. Cover and return to the oven for an additional 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, until the beef is fork-tender and vegetables are cooked through.
Rest and serve. Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes. Slice or pull apart the roast and spoon the pan sauce generously over everything. Garnish with sliced green onions and toasted sesame seeds.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pot Roast with Asian Black Bean Sauce