Unfortunately my in-laws rarely cook with exact measurements. So if I want to learn to make one of their family dishes I must learn to do so by watching very carefully. One of my favorite dishes is Rouladen. This is thinly sliced top round beef stuffed with bacon, onions, and pickles. Sounds weird but trust me when you have this dish you will love it!
Step one: Find a good butcher who is familar with how to slice Top Round Beef for Rouladen. I’m told this can be a challenge. You may want to take the butcher these photos so he can see what you need. As you can see the meat is sliced very thin and relatively wide.
Step two: Season the meat with salt, paprika, and white pepper.
Step three: Coat each slice of the meat with the spicy mustard. If you can find the Lowensenf German mustard this would be the best.
Step 4: Next you’ll dice up 1 onion, barrell pickels and bacon. Note to keep portions equal. No real measurements here. My father in law also gets slabs of Schaller and Weber bacon which he uses. Although I’m sure you could just get regular bacon. For the purpose of dicing it makes it easier to have a slab.
Step 5: Mix up the combination of onions, bacon, and pickles. Put several spoonfuls on the bottom of each round top filet. Then roll up the meat. You’ll need to use cooking twine to secure the ends of each and the middle. This prevents the suffing from coming out while cooking.
Step 6: Place each meat bundle in a non stick pot under medium heat. You want to brown each piece on all sides.
Step 7: Add a bit of water as necessary to assure you don’t burn the meat. You’ll want to let the meat simmer for an hour to an hour and a half tops. Carefully making sure a bit of water remains in the pot to prevent burning. My father in law kept the lid a bit off as shown.
Step 8: About half way through the cooking add a dalop of the mustard on each top of meat.
Step 9: The meat will become fork tender and you won’t need a knife to cut the meat. Remember to cut off the twine before serving! And don’t tie them so tight you can’t get them off (I did this and we had to work around it – lol).
Step 10: Making the gravy. Simply add a bit of corn starch to the remaining contents in the pot as well as a dalop of sour cream. Bring to a boil and the gravy will firm up. The gravy is wonderful!
Serve with red cabbage and potatos and you have a perfect German meal. Yumm-O!
