Rolling past the century mark...

Roulades De Boeuf - Braised Stuffed Beef Rolls

I had a day off, and it coincided with an historic event in culinary history, so I decided to tackle a recipe that was a bit more epic. What could be more epic than something with a choice of three, yes three, French names that translate into a single English name -- "Braised Stuffed Beef Rolls." Doesn't that sound yummy? Nah. What sounds yummy are these awesome names: Paupiettes De Boeuf. Roulades De Boeuf. Petites Ballotines De Boeuf. How are they for fancy and epic sounding? Whichever you want to call them, that's what I decided to cook. Oh, and perhaps you ask why I needed to prepare something epic? That's because this is my 100th post on this blog!!!

Wooooohoooooo!! Congratulations for choosing to read my 100th post! Who would have thought that I would have survived this long without a major injury from my cooking or a major illness, also from my cooking. It has been fun and I can't believe how many things I've been able to make and all that I've learned from it. Lately I've also managed to get meals prepared pretty close to the planned dinner time...until this one. Let's just say that I started working on this dinner around 1:30pm and we ended up eating at 8:50pm. I did also prepare an apple tart during that time (which will be written about in my next post) and I wasn't rushing to finish (I was enjoying the experience) but I was glad that no dinner guests were coming over, thanks to COVID-19 stay at home orders.

On top of being epic and letting me do some fun things (like using a hammer to cook!) these things tasted really really reallllllllly good! I started off with a pound of ground sausage to which I added an onion that had been sauteed for a couple of minutes, just enough to soften up the onions. Sort of like "artistic license" I did use a little "culinary license" here. Julia told me I was supposed to use 6 ounces of lean pork ground with 6 ounces of veal and 3 ounces of fresh pork fat. Since I don't have a meat grinder (head sous chef, Elizabeth, says I'm not allowed to add one to our kitchen), I don't have any veal (honestly, I've avoided veal since learning how those little calves are isolated and kept for veal), and when I looked around the fridge I didn't have any pork fat lying around. Our neighbor has a dog but no pig so it makes it really tough to come up with fresh pork fat around here. Instead, I chose to use pork sausage and it worked out nicely!

The sausage and onions were put into a mixing bowl and combined with a clove of garlic, 1/8 teaspoon of thyme (no wonder dinner was served so late, I used a lot of thyme making this! Get it Thyme = time?), some allspice, pepper, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/4 cup of parsley, and one egg (I used that egg substitute so Elizabeth could eat this). Once again, following Julia's instructions, I mixed everything thoroughly using a wooden spoon. I still don't get it -- what's so special about using a wooden spoon to mix up these ingredients? I suppose I could try again and use a metal or plastic spoon and see if it tastes different. Nope, that ain't going to happen. Once thoroughly mixed, this stuffing mixture was set aside until a bit later. I was having so much fun making it I forgot to take a picture of the mixture (hey, that rhymed!), sorry.

Now it was time to prepare the beef -- starting with a 2 1/2 pound piece of top round. I sliced it, across the grain, into pieces about 1/4" thick. These were then individually placed between two sheets of waxed paper and pounded down to 1/8" thick. Julia suggested using a wooden rolling pin or wooden mallet. For the fun of it, I did try using my wooden rolling pin but it didn't work anywhere near as well as my meat mallet. The problem with the rolling pin is that there is less surface contacting the meat than with the mallet. Alghough I didn't have a wooden mallet, the metal tenderizing mallet is spiked on one side for tenderizing and smooth on the other side for the purpose of making these flat little slices. I don't recommend using a sledge hammer (too heavy, but it would be really fast) or a carpenter's claw hammer (not dishwasher safe).

Now it was time to make the rolls themselves. The thin slices were laid out flat and a large spoonful of the stuffing mixture was spread out. The whole thing was then rolled into a roll that ended up being about 1 1/2" in diameter. Two pieces of white string were used to tie the rolls so they'd hold together during cooking. I'd sort of dreaded this step -- I thought it would be difficult to roll it up without smooshing out the stuffing and then expected everything to spring back open before I could tie it but none of that was the case. I learned as I made them that I could actually put a thicker layer of the stuffing on each piece than I thought so put about 1/4" of the stuffing on pretty much the entire slice, it works! I'd like to extend a special thanks to my talented sous chef, Elizabeth, for cutting 18 pieces of string for me -- I think she realized we wouldn't eat until midnight if I'd cut up the string...

Next, a little oil was added to the metal casserole and heated to a moderately high heat. Each of the rolls was browned, on all sides, in the pan doing three or four at a time. Lesson learned -- just use a little oil. Julia said use 2-3 teaspoons of oil, I just used 2 but found that things quick popping and spattering (ouch!) when there was just a very thin layer of oil in the pan. In the future I'll be using a lot less oil when just browning something like this.

Once they were browned, the heat was lowered to medium and a half cup of sliced onions and a half cup of sliced carrots were put in the pan for about 4 minutes to lightly brown. After that I added 3 tablespoons of flower and thoroughly mixed it in and let it cook for about 2 minutes. The carrot/onion mixture was then removed from the heat and to all of that I then added a cup of white grape juice (or you could substitute white wine) and 1 1/2 cups of beef bouillon.

Finally, the home stretch! Each of the beef rolls were then arranged evenly in a single layer in the casserole. I didn't need to add any additional beef bouillon but the goal was to have the liquid just barely cover the tops of the rolls. I was able to use some more of that cheesecloth to make a large herb bouquet (I wonder if I should give Elizabeth an herb bouquet next Valentine's Day instead of flowers?) made up of two large cloves of garlic, parsley, bay leaves, and a half teaspoon of thyme (where has the time gone!). The herb bouquet went on top and then the pan went back on the stove and was brought to a simmer and then covered and put on the bottom shelf of the oven which was preheated to 375. Everything spent the next 90 minutes in the oven with two brief visits so that I could baste everything. WARNING: This smells really good while in the oven!

Once the time was up, everything came out and the rolls were plucked from the juice and set aside on a serving dish for their strings to be removed and to wait for their sauce. I skimmed the fat from the top of the liquid and put the casserole back on the stove on a moderately high heat to reduce the liquid. This reducing process not only makes the sauce less liquidy but, most important, it concentrates the flavor so the sauce will be much tastier. After boiling down to a thickness where the sauce will coat a spoon, a mixture of 1/3 cup of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard were stirred in and simmered for about one minute. Then, voila! It was done!!

Some sauces was spooned across the waiting rolls and served. The extra sauce went into a gravy boat so we could add more if we wanted -- we did. Every part of this dish was soooooooo good. For some of the recipes I've done, the meat is tasty but the sauce is the star of the show. For this, both the meat and the sauce were both outstanding!

This meal felt worth of the 100th post -- it involved sharp knives, hammers, lots of steam, wooden spoons, tossing things in a pan. All of those were things I hadn't really used 100 posts prior. Although dinner was a bit later than planned (I'm still slow), it was delicious and from scratch using all fresh ingredients. Perhaps I am learning something along the way? If you ever have an afternoon off, maybe you should try this (or go back to post #1 and start with something simpler). In any case...

Bon Appetit!