Pot-Roasted Meat with Mushrooms
The real work happens before the pot ever sees the oven. Meat, mushrooms, potatoes and carrots are each browned separately, in their own pan, and only then layered up. That crust built in the skillet is what gives the dish its depth — braising everything from raw never gets there.
After that the vessel does the cooking. A horshchyk, the narrow-necked unglazed clay pot standard in Ukrainian kitchens, lets almost no steam escape, so a kilo of meat (about 2¼ lb) and the vegetables stew in their own juices while the spoonful of smetana — full-fat sour cream, around 20% butterfat — and the knob of butter on top melt slowly down through the layers. One rule with unglazed clay: it goes into a cold oven and heats along with it, or it cracks. A heavy lidded Dutch oven is the safe substitute and can start hot.
Soaked dried porcini stand in well for the button mushrooms; pour the strained soaking liquid into the pot instead of water. And hold the garlic back — it is grated over each serving after the oven, which is the only way its sharpness survives.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 447 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Brown the meat; boil and then saute the mushrooms.
Cut the potatoes into matchsticks and fry until half-cooked; grate the carrots and saute them as well.
Layer in the pot: meat, mushrooms, onion, potatoes, carrots.
Top with sour cream and a knob of butter.
Place in the oven and braise until done.
Sprinkle with grated garlic when serving.
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