my mom used to make some interesting recipes when i was a kid. some were awesome and one or two were, unfortunately, dismal failures. (i’ll tell a cute failure story at the end.)

i had forgotten about rouladen until i stumbled upon a recipe for it. i started to do a bit of research and although my mom’s recipe was more in the way of an appetizer, most of the recipes were for full blown meals. i decided to go for the full blown meal. the recipe i followed is at the end…it came from this site.

right off the bat, i realized that i had forgotten a few things at the grocery store (since i didn’t bring the recipe with me).  i bought only 2 steaks rather than 4 as the recipe called for since i couldn’t remember how many it said.  i would totally do 4 next time for my family of 4.

first things first…set your oven to 375° to preheat.   then rinse and dry the steaks and set aside.

i peeled, halved and then sliced the onion – as thin as i could with no mandolin.  i LOVE onion…the more the better!

i then sliced the sweet pickles as thin as i could. they are a mess but it doesn’t really matter in the end.  i REALLY need to invest in another mandolin since mine was lost in the move.

(aren’t these bowls beautiful? a gift from mom!)

the next step is to lay the steaks out flat and use your hand to tenderize the meat a little bit. i learned this on some cooking reality show…it tenderizes without terrorizing the meat.

yikes...not a pretty hand and wrist!

salt and pepper each piece of meat according to your tastes. then spread liberally with mustard. the recipe called for dijon mustard but i bought a german brat mustard that has horseradish in the mix…it was really good!

i was VERY liberal with the mustard...i didn't really measure.

after spreading with mustard, lay bacon on the steaks in strips. the recipe calls for 2 strips on each steak but since i consider bacon the food of the gods…i made sure there was enough bacon to cover the whole steak. (i forgot to take a picture with just the bacon! i’m not great at this whole ‘food blog’ thing!)

anyway…after adding the bacon, you then layer the steaks with alternating rows of pickles and onions.

i am an EXTREMELY messy cook. by the time i’m done my counters and stove look like disaster areas. it just can’t be helped.

after you’ve layered the pickles and onions, carefully roll the steaks from the widest end to the short end. you can then either tie it or use toothpicks to hold it together.

oops!

the next step in rouladen is to make the gravy.  the different recipe sites i checked out mention that in germany you can actually buy a package to make rouladen gravy. since they don’t have anything like that here, i had to make my own. i didn’t have all of the ingredients so i improvised and i thought it came out great.

gravy ingredients...

i used my chopper thing (that should be it’s official name) to take care of the onion and carrots. it goes so much faster that way! i used to see celeriac everywhere in croatia but i’ve never seen it here in california. i haven’t checked fresh markets though. i don’t even know where a fresh market is here!

the chopper thing!

yum!

canned can be so much easier...

add the chopped onion and carrot to your skillet with some butter or evoo and saute until the onions start to look soft. now you add the tomatoes.

i didn’t have fresh tomatoes since we used them all for tacos. i had diced tomatoes in a can which i usually use for chili so i used those instead. i think the tomato ‘broth’ really adds a depth to the gravy. mix those in well.

now is the time to add the broth, tomato paste and spices. heat that through.

the 'gravy'

while that is heating, take your rouladen rolls and lightly roll them in flour. then brown them lightly in a skillet with evoo. take care not to cook the beef but only to brown them lightly.

browning...nicely.

when you’ve browned the beef, gently transfer it to a casserole or deep sided roasting pan. pour the gravy over the top. it may or may not cover the rouladen but i like it to. i used a two quart casserole and it was too small to hold all of the gravy that i made. granted though, the amount of gravy i made was meant for a 4 piece rouladen recipe, not two. i would use one of my roasting pans next time.

this looks so good to me!

put a cover on your dish of choice and put in the preheated oven.  i baked mine for about 75 minutes.  it was plenty for two rouladen.  for four, you should increase the baking time to 1 hour 45 minutes.  when i took the rouladen out they were very tender, practically falling apart.  i’m not great at making tender beef so this was a wonderful surprise!

you can either strain your gravy, puree it or use it as is.  i strained the gravy to use over potatoes and then used the vegetables in the gravy to serve over the top of the rouladen.  i forgot to take a picture of the finished product though.  sorry!

i served my rouladen with salted potatoes and fresh, steamed baby asparagus.

i hope you enjoy!

ingredient list below.

rouladen

4 pieces of beef
8 slices of bacon (or as many as it takes to cover the beef)
1 large onion
¼ cup (strong) dijon mustard (apply as liberally as you would like)
6 – 8 sweet & sour pickles (approx. 8 cm long)
freshly ground sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste
plus:
3 tbs oil (for frying)
8 small skewers or toothpicks
flour to coat the rouladen

rouladen gravy

2 to 3 onions
1 carrot
¼ celeriac (i hope you can find it!)
1 clove garlic
1 large tomato (or one can of diced tomatoes)
1 tbs tomato paste
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
½ liter soup broth
freshly ground sea salt and pepper

now on to that funny story.  my mother was extremely ambitious one meal and decided to try and make duck a la orange.  it all seemed to be going very well.  she called us to the table and served the beautifully done plates.  she had substituted cornish hens i believe, for the duck.  this wasn’t a problem though.  the problem was the fresh orange.  as she was grating the orange rind, she accidentally got some of the white pith.  as you may or may not know, this is VERY bitter.  she was making her plate at the stove and when she came to the table she saw that my brother and father had very cleverly created white flags from their napkins and toothpicks as in ‘we surrender…whatever this is you’re serving, we give up’.  this story is repeated whenever food comes up in the horan households.  mom takes it all in stride.

listening to a little movits! from their album Äppelknyckarjazz while cooking to get in that happy mood!