Posted by: Nancy Skee

Ever hear of Rouladen? Me neither, but here's what happened.

It was the end of a long day, and Awesome Tom was just finishing putting the side porch fence railing back together. That was a job and a half for sure. In come guests Troy and Lisa ready to share a bottle of German wine before everyone had to move on to the next agenda items.

As we were sitting and enjoying the delicious Reisling, Tom started talking about how his Grandmother-in-Law would make a fantastic dish of rolled up meat in gravy, and he can't remember what it was called, but it was soooo, good....Troy asked, "You mean rouladen? I can show you how to make it!"

And the next day he did. Click here for Troy's first-ever video performance, with Lisa on as camera man.

Nancy and Troy Make Rouladen

Ingredients:

12 slices of bacon

One large onion cut into thin slices

6 pieces of top round, sliced 1/8” thick. (You need to go to your local butcher and have him slice from a whole piece of top round for you. It’s bigger than those tiny roasts, more like 4” x 8”. He’ll know what to do.

Salt and pepper

About ¼ c. or so of Dijon mustard

6 wedges of quartered dill pickles

3 T. butter

1/3 c. flour

3 c. beef broth

1 c. red wine, semi-dry

Assemble the rolls:

1. Cook bacon in a large skillet, remove from pan and reserving bacon drippings

2. Sautee sliced onion in bacon drippings until carmelized. Remove from pan.

3. Lightly spread mustard on each slice of meat and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Place two slices of bacon, whole or crumbled, on top of the mustard.

5. Top with sautéed onions.

6. Place one dill pickle on the heavier end of the meat and roll up lengthwise. Secure with string or tooth picks. Set aside.

7. Brown each roll on all sides in the pan in which you did the onions and bacon. Set aside

To Make the Gravy:

1. Scrape up pan drippings. That has a lot of flavor to make a delicious gravy. Add the butter and melt in the pan on low.

2. Add the flour, stirring until incorporated and there are no lumps. This will be the base to thicken your gravy.

3. Slowly add the beef broth, continuing to stir out all the lumps.

4. Add the wine, cooking and occasionally stirring for about another 5 minutes.

5. Troy’s secret ingredient: Pour a little of the pickle juice into the gravy to give it an extra kick.

Cook:

1. Place rolls in pan, put on the lid, and bake about 30 minutes until tender. Turn halfway through the baking process so both sides of the roll have simmered in the gravy.

(If you don’t have a pan large enough to hold the rolls, place them in a baking dish, pour the gravy over them, cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake.)

See how easy that was? Let me know how your shot at it turns out!