My new toy

Seeing as the Christmas season is upon us, I took this opportunity to be adventurous in my dishes, cooking things that normally I would not have had the time/reason/energy to cook. These dishes required a dutch oven. As much as I wanted a "Le Creuset" dutch oven, I decided (polite way of saying that I was forced by the evil tight grip of financial constraint) to buy a substitute.  It's cast-aluminium instead of cast-iron, and it has a glass top instead of a cast-iron one, BUT it did come in that fun burnt orange color, so almost a win-win! (sarcasm radar = off the charts)
Now that I had my dutch oven, I had to test it out before the big show of Christmas Eve dinner. Similar to the way you should never wear a new pair of shoes for the first time to a big party or event, I figured that the risk of disaster was too high to cook for the first time in my new dutch oven on Christmas.
I had been watching a lot of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics, and there was a episode where she makes "Company Pot Roast", apparently an elevated pot roast. This seemed like a perfect dish to try in my new toy.
And then the snags hit...
First, I couldn't find chuck roast, so I got rump cap roast. I really should educate myself more on cuts of meat, seeing as I have no idea of what's what.
Second, I couldn't find leeks. Ok, we'll just take them out of the equation.
Third, I didn't have brandy, and as I live in a Muslim country, I couldn't find any. I suppose I could have gone searching on the alcohol black market, but the seemed a bit too sketchy for just a pot roast. So scratch the brandy.
Fourth, I couldn't find chicken stock, and didn't have any home-made. Thank god I had brought some good quality "fond de poulet" from Brussels, but I nearly depleted my stocks with this meal.
After assessing the damage to the recipe's integrity, I began cooking. Luckily all seemed to be going well, even with all of my adjustments.  One major tricky bit was the salt. I knew that my "fond de poulet" was inherently salty, so I tried to remove the salt from everything else.

Finally, a few hours later, the pot roast came out alright. But I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Don't get me wrong, it was good, just not fantastically amazing, as the reviews would have one believe. Perhapsthose missing ingredients were the cherry on the cake, leaving me with just a cake. 

At least I know now that my dutch oven works well, but unfortunately I have nothing to compare it to, as I have never cooked with a real cast-iron dutch oven. 

On the plus side, I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a recipe I knew very well, and they were absolutely delicious!! 

I roasted 2 heads of garlic by cutting off the tops, pouring on some olive oil and salt, and throwing them in the oven for 45 minutes. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture and take note of the temperature, but I'm guessing it was around 200 Celsius. 

Next, I peeled and cut into quarters a kilo of potatoes and boiled them until soft. Then I drained them, threw in about 4 tablespoons of butter, 200g of heavy cream, and 200g of sour cream and began mashing. I also added one head of roasted garlic cloves. 

I decorated the pot roast and the mashed potatoes with the garlic cloves from the other head of roasted garlic. 

I would definitely make the mashed potatoes again, but as for the pot roast, I would only try it again if I had everything the recipe called for, down to the last grain of salt. 

But mission accomplished, I was feeling confident to tackle Christmas Eve dinner!