One of my favourite treats growing up, these braised meat rolls are super delicious and pretty easy to make. While the technique and ingredients are nothing that special, I think the key to great rouladen is to start with great meat.

While a lot of people will use flank steak and cut it thinner, I think the best idea is to seek out a butcher or deli where you can get the proper cut of meat. Here in Calgary we have a couple of great German delis and we get our rouladen meat from Paolini’s. Basically what you are looking for is a very lean piece of beef that is probably a foot and a half long, maybe 6 inches wide and very very thin. I think typically it’s cut from round steak.

In any case, once you’ve got the meat you are on your way! While the meat may cost a little bit extra, it’s worth it because it’s very lean and there is zero waste so you’re getting everything out of every penny you spend on it.

Ingredients:

1. •Rouladen meat (1 slice per roulade, count on 1-2 per person depending on what else you are having)
   

2. •Bacon - 1-2 slices per roulade
   

3. •1 large onion (maybe 2, depending on how many you are making)
   

4. •Couple of carrots
   

5. •Dill pickles
   

6. •Deli Mustard - note: if you are going to the deli to get some meat, pick up a tube of German mustard - look for one that’s medium spicy (mittelscharfe). In a pinch use Dijon mustard, but finding the German stuff does make a difference
   

7. •Beef Stock
   

8. •Salt & Pepper
   

9. •Unsalted butter
   

10. •Olive Oil
    

11. •Kitchen twine, or toothpicks
    

The Recipe:

First off, prepare the filling. Basically you will create sticks of onion, carrot and dill pickle. The key is to make sure that they are all about the same size (it just makes it easier), so make sure to get an onion that is big enough etc. The overall length of your filling should be about as wide as the slices of meat.

So here you have all the filling vegetables ready - note that they are all about the same length and thickness - you may have to use more than one onion, because the outer 1/3rd of the onion really is the only part that’s big enough (I just put the rest in a Ziploc bag for use later).

Then start with the meat. Here  you can see a beautiful piece of beef, ready to roll. Note that there are 2 pieces in the picture and they are very thin - about 1/8th of an inch! Because the size of the meat is kind of awkward, make sure you have enough room to work with. What I do is take a cookie sheet and put a piece of parchment paper or wax paper on the bottom to make cleanup easier. Lay out your pieces of meat on top of the paper and then you just assemble them in place.

OK here is the basic procedure. Lay out a piece of meat and coat one side of it liberally with the mustard. Don’t worry - it may look like a lot but I guarantee it won’t taste like mustard! Next, about 2 inches from the narrowest end, place your fillings: a few slices of bacon, and on top at a minimum, a piece of carrot, onion, and pickle.

Place the flap of meat on the left (the short end) over the filling and then roll the whole thing up to the end. Use kitchen string or toothpicks to hold the roll together. Don’t forget you’ll have to to remove these when serving them up, and you don’t have to stitch it up completely - once you’ve browned the roulade in the next step then you’re pretty much OK, so just pin it so it can’t unroll...

Once you’ve done all of the rolls congratulations - that’s the hardest part of this!

Next, put a pan on medium-high heat and put in a splash of olive oil and a good knob of butter (ed- a ‘good knob of butter’ = more than you think is safe ;¬D). Once the butter has melted, put the rouladen in and brown them on each side, turning them when they have some brown on them.

Once all sides are brown, take them out of the pan and place them on a plate and add the next ones, and if the pan is dry, put in a little more olive oil and butter..

Here you can see the rouladen pre (bottom) and post (top) browning.

So now let it cook low and slow for the next couple of hours at least.  You can leave it longer if you like, as long as the temperature is low, it will just continue to braise and become more tender and delicious.

Once it’s ready you can put them on a platter, cover them with foil and then bring the sauce to a boil to reduce it, add some cream and you have a lovely sauce to go with it.

Serve with some potato and a salad and you’ll have a hearty and unique meal.

Have a go and let me know what you think!