Recipe: Evan’s Passover Pot Roast

Pot Roast lives in my soul.  I think my Aunt Min’s pot roast has to be one of my very first taste memories.  She made it with a ton of onion, ketchup and ginger snaps.  The onion for sweet, the tomato ketchup for sweet and sour and the ginger snaps for  pungency and thickening.  It was never a brisket, always a chuck roast.  The characteristic balance of sweet and sour  is emblematic of Jewish Holiday Cooking all over the world.  Over time my personal pot roast recipe has changed.  Now when I make it I use a trick borrowed from Mark Bittman.  The meat is dredged in sugar so it caramelizes to a deep brown, then the pan is deglazed with sherry vinegar.  The sweet and sour flavors are amped up and people really love it.  You can customize the additional ingredients however you want.  Bittman’s original recipe had fresh cranberries and orange juice.  For the Jewish holidays I add dates, whole garlic cloves, a bit of tomato sauce and orange.  The recipe is here.  Watch me make it take a look at the video I did for The Jewish Federation: