Roast Beef with Potatoes, Cabbage, and Onions: A Favorite Recipe my Mother Used to Make
My Mother had a recipe that She loved to cook. She would take a roast beef and boil it in a large pot of water, and then she would add potatoes, cabbage and onions. This recipe tasted really good.
I remember this recipe as far back when I was a little girl growing up in a very small town in the mid-west. My mother learned it from her mother, and my mother would make it once in a great while. And, it was really good, too. I love cabbage, especially when it is cooked until it is nice and tender.
It is really easy to make, too. You need a (beef) roast, 6-8 potatoes, 1 head of cabbage, 2 medium onions, and a pinch of salt (optional).
My mother would fill the pot with water, add a pinch of salt and add the beef roast. If the roast has any fat on it, the fat can be trimmed off. She would set the pan on the stove and light the burner and turn it on medium to medium high. It takes it a little while to start boiling and you have to keep your eyes on it all the time. She would always have to be careful, in case it would boil over. If it started to boil over, then my mother would turn the heat down some. The roast does need to cook probably 2 to 21/2 hours until it is very tender.
When the roast is getting close to being tender, then 6-8 potatoes would need to be washed, peeled and cut into quarters, and then added to the pot with the roast, which is still in the pot cooking. She would always remember to stir the contents of the pot every once in awhile. Next,My mother would take the cabbage and clean it under cold-running water in the kitchen sink, and she would peel off the outer part of the cabbage and cut the rest of it into around 3-inch pieces and put all that into the pot with the roast beef and potatoes. Also. around the same time as the cabbage, she would add the onions (which she would have to wash in cold-running water, then stripped of its outer layers, then cut into 1-inch pieces. After the onion is cut into pieces, the pieces are put into the pot with everything else. Once everything is in there, then all you have to do is wait for the potatoes, cabbage, and onions to become tender.
The roast beef can be taken out and cut into bite-size pieces after it becomes tender, then be put right back into the pot. (Stirring the contents once in a while will help to keep the potatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pot). Serve on a plate and you can add some of the juice from the pot on to the potatoes, and add a little salt for taste. (Optional)
