Beef Rouladen

Rouladen... Can't tell you how much I love these. This is my favourite dish EVER! They are tender, tasty and the gravy always turns out. This is a special occasion meal which means I don't eat this often. There is always hope though. Sometimes Oma has some Rouladen cooking in her kitchen!
So when I made these the other day, there were some surprised family members. It was a special occasion...Everyone's birthday!  We needed our Rouladen fix.
 They are time consuming and a little messy to make but really worth it.
Ok, so what makes these so good?  It's a combination of pan searing, slow braising or quick pressure cooking and a filling of bacon, onions and a pickle slice. Yes, a pickle. Let's not forget the gravy, beefy, brown and delicious.

To start you will need some beef leg cutlets. These can be purchased at some grocery stores but not all. Your local butcher should know how to cut these correctly.  It's cut from the top round portion of the animal.
You will know it is the right piece by the shape. Usually, 10-12 inches long, 3-6 inches wide and a quarter inch thick. I don't use veal. Top round has great flavour and a nice colour.

Your filling is a nice dijon or German style mustard (please no yellow mustard!). Bacon strips cut in half, chopped or sliced onions and slices or quarters of pickles.

Before you start, make sure you have all your pickles, onions, bacon, mustard, salt, pepper and toothpicks ready and handy. Someone standing by to help is not bad either. (Thanks Marie!) It's a lot easier when you start handling the meat.
Lay out your meat, lightly salt and pepper, then spread with mustard and filling.

I like to cut my rouladen in half. It's more appetizing to have two small rouladen than one big one.
I ended up with 20 rouladen!

 Tuck in the sides and roll up. Use one or two toothpicks to secure together.

Place a few in 1/4 to 1/2 inch oil preferably in a cast iron pan. Sear all sides. Make sure you get some nice browning on the rouladen. Unfortunately this picture doesn't show how brown they should be. After each batch, you can place them in a slow cooker, a casserole dish or a pressure cooker. I chose the pressure cooker because it's fast and the meat is very tender.When you are done browning your rouladen, you will deglaze the pan with a good quality beef broth. (I use organic, mostly because it is not too salty and has good flavour). Place the liquid and all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan in the pressure cooker with your rouladen. Cook for 20-30 minutes. Separate the fat with a gravy separator, pour into a saucepan and thicken with a mixture of cornstarch and flour.

Pour the gravy over the rouladen.

Because the process is fairly long, you might want to make this a day ahead. Cover with foil and put in the fridge. The next day you pop it in the oven for 45-60 minutes or until nice and hot.
Serve with spaetzle and sweet and sour cabbage or peas and carrots. Delicious!

This is the recipe for 20 small rouladen:

Beef Rouladen

10 large beef cutlets (cut in half)

1 large or 2 small onions

10 slices of bacon

5 pickles, sliced or quartered into spears

Approx. 15 to 20 teaspoons dijon or german mustard

Salt and Pepper to season.

1 litre beef broth

Season and lay out the meat, spreading about a tsp of mustard on each piece. Place bacon, onions and pickle on each piece and roll up securing with toothpicks. Sear the meat and place in a casserole dish or pressure cooker. If using pressure cooker, cook for 20 - 30 minutes with liquid used to deglaze pan. If you want to braise in the oven I would cook for about 2 hours.

For the Gravy:

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water or broth

Mix until smooth. I use a shaker to avoid clumps. but you can mix in a cup. Bring the liquid you strained from the cooked rouladen to a boil in a sauce pan and whisk in this mixture until thickened.