Pumped Up Pot Roast

I came across this recipe for this particular pot roast years ago and have been waiting since then to have an opportunity to make it.  The right time presented itself over the holidays (yes, I made this over a month ago. Don't judge me.) when my family decided to reintroduce an old tradition and have a classic Christmas Eve dinner-- naturally at 3 o'clock in the afternoon for my Pap-pap's sake.

I'm not usually much of a pot roast fan.  I feel the same way about it as I do traditional beef stew.  Something about the combination of white potatoes and carrots and celery ends up seeming...bland. Unexciting. Predictable in a not good way. But this roast recipe caught my eye because it took your basic ingredients and amped up the flavor a few million notches (I don't know what the increments in this particular metaphor would be, but a million seems high, right?) Chef Anne adds a variety of root vegetables to make your basic "meat and veg" combo more exciting, but then she takes it a step further by adding figs, orange peel, and star anise.