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Tomatillo-Chipotle Pot Roast

serves 6-8

(I tripled this last Saturday for a huge dinner party and it was a big success. I've made it before, too, and it's easy and damn hard to fvck up.)

3 large garlic cloves - UNPEELED
2-4 canned chipotle peppers in adobo*
1/2 lb (about 6 medium sized) tomatillos
about 1/2 tsp salt
about 1/4 tsp sugar

3 Lb. boneless chuck roast - tied up ("Diamond Jim" roast is cheap and works great)
1 Tbs olive or veg oil
Salt

4 carrots
4 boiling potatoes
2 chayote squash (optional, if available)

handful of chopped fresh cilantro

*you can buy canned chipotles in adobo in mexican groceries or often in the ethnic food aisle of a well-stocked supermarket -- a little can usually has about 8 or so peppers. (fyi, chipotles are actually jalapenos that are dried over wood smoke and the canned ones are reconstituted in a mystery "adobo" sauce; they're smoky tasting and very spicy.)

On a hot griddle or cast iron pan, roast the garlic in its husk, turning now and then, for about 15 minutes, until it's soft (it'll blacken in spots).

Pull the husks off the tomatillos and rinse in cold water to remove the sticky stuff. Place on a shallow baking sheet and stick under a hot broiler for five minutes until they're blackened in spots; turn them over and broil for another five minutes. They'll be soft and mushy and charred a bit.

Put the charred. mushy tomatillos (with any juice in the pan), the garlic (which you've now removed from its skin), and the chipotles in a food processor and puree.

Taste it and adjust the seasoning. Add a chipotle if it's not spicy enough. It should have a pretty hefty kick to it, and you should be able to taste the smokiness of the peppers. Tomatillos have a sharp, almost citrus-y taste. Add salt to boost the flavor and sugar to take off the sharpness of the tomatillos.

(At room temp, this is also a great salsa with chips at this point, and keeps for a day or two in the fridge.)

Smear the salsa (you should have about a cup and a half) on the meat and let sit in the fridge a few hours or overnight.

Scrape as much of the sauce as possible off into a bowl. Heat the oil in a big pot like a dutch oven that can go on the stove and then in the oven. Brown the meat about five minutes each side.

Remove the roast from the pan, add 1/4 cup water to the pot and deglaze (over high heat scrape up all the brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pan).
Add the reserved salsa that was scraped off the meat. Put the roast back in the pan, turn around a bit in the sauce, cover tightly, and cook @ 325deg. for about 2 hours, until just tender.

Add the vegetables, which you've cut up, stir them around to coat with the sauce in the pan, and continue cooking 30-45 minutes until meat and veggies are tender.

Remove roast and vegs from pan, skim fat from sauce, reduce the liquid a bit on stove top. (If it's really watery, you can make a roux with flour and thicken it a bit.) Salt if necessary.

Slice up meat, put on platter, surround with vegetables, pour sauce over all, sprinkle with cilantro.

Now I'm really hungry from describing this.

Another note: You can also cook the meat until tender, take it out of the pan, throw the cut-up vegetables into the pot, and cook them on top of the stove. This is a much easier way, especially if your pan isn't very big. Then you can remove the veggies and reduce/thicken the sauce on the stovetop.)