My husband frequently tells our kids “there’s no such thing as multi-tasking”. What he means is that while you may well do more than one thing at a time, you are always going to be doing one of those things less well than the other one. And, after arguing this point back and forth for a few weeks, my kids are starting to concede that Dad is right. (And so am I…) Even when our oldest tries to listen to music and read a book at the same time, he’ll find that sometimes he is listening more to the music and at other times he is reading more intently. When our youngest tries to do his math homework and talk school with his brother at the same time—there are lots of do-overs.
And when I cook, I’m like everybody else—there are days when I think I have so much to do that I race around the kitchen doing all kinds of things in addition to preparing our dinner. I might be filling out forms for school, and checking email, and racing back to stir the sautéing onions and answering the phone to get the kids social lives straightened out. Sometimes, after a session like this—we sit down to dinner and I am disappointed in the result. Not necessarily bad, but not nearly as good as it is when I really pay attention to what I’m doing.
So if you’re in the mood to pay attention to what you’re doing in the kitchen, here is one of my favorite recipes. It’s a little bit of trouble to make—and definitely better when made with concentration (and not while multi-tasking). When I’m careful and I do it right—it is delicious—taking my time with each step and then moving on to the next. There is nothing difficult about making rouladen—but taking care to pound the meat thinly, evenly placing the filling on the slices, rolling them up carefully and securely, sautéing them patiently until they are nicely browned, all of these little steps add up to a really good dish that makes enough for leftovers which taste just as good or better than the original. I’m going to try to listen to my own advice here—slow it down a little—enjoy the process and then the result will be well worth the effort.
Beef Rouladen
12 servings
Preparation Time: 1 Hour
Cook Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Ingredients:
12 slices of top sirloin, pounded thin so that each slice measures about 4” wide and about 8 to 10 inches long
1 tablespoon (maybe more) dried marjoram
¼ cup Dijon mustard (maybe more depending on how thickly you spread it)
8 slices of bacon, chopped into small dice, divided
3 cups finely chopped onion, divided
½ cup finely chopped parsley
½ cup finely chopped chives
12 small cornichons (or small 1” strips of dill pickle)
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ cups thinly sliced carrots
1 ½ cups of red wine**
1 cup fresh or canned beef broth
1 teaspoon flour blended with 2 teaspoons of water
1 cup heavy cream
Preparation:
Set aside ½ cup of the chopped bacon.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining bacon, 2 cups of the chopped onion, the parsley and the chives. Set aside.
Spread plastic wrap or wax paper on a work surface and lay out the beef strips. Sprinkle them lightly with salt and pepper and the dried marjoram. Spread a very thin layer of mustard on each strip.
Spread the bacon, onion, parsley and chive mixture evenly over each beef strip. At the bottom of each strip, place a cornichon, or 2 to 3 of the dill pickle slices. Beginning at the bottom, roll each strip of tightly as you can without squeezing the filling out, and secure them with toothpicks or small skewers.
Heat the 2 tablespoons of butter in a Dutch oven and add the carrots, the remaining 1 cup onion and the remaining ½ cup bacon. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are lightly browned. Remove the vegetables and the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the Dutch oven and when heated, add the beef rolls and cook, turning every few minutes until they are nicely browned (you will probably need to do this in batches so as not to crowd the rolls, and then set them all aside.)
Add the wine and beef broth to the pan, and stir to dissolve the crusty bits that have stuck to the pan. Stir in the flour and water mixture. Return the beef rolls to the pan along with any juices that have accumulated on the plate. Add the vegetable and bacon mixture and cover. Cook on low heat, turning the rolls occasionally for 1 hour.
Remove the beef rolls from the pan to a plate. If you have an emulsion blender, use it in the pan to puree the vegetables and the sauce together until smooth. If not, place the liquid and the vegetables in batches in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and return the mixture to the Dutch oven. Stir in the heavy cream and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the beef rolls, cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes to heat thoroughly. Serve with buttered noodles.
Note: if you’d rather make this without wine, use 2 ¼ cups low sodium beef broth instead.
