After three years, five e-mails and one phone call from Canada, I finally sat down to write up the recipe for my hometown area Rouladen.

I had promised my best Korean friend residing in Canada a copy of my recipe for three years. Well, taking photos of the process, organizing my thoughts and remembering to do it, was always in the back of my mind, slumbering on the back burner.

I was finally prompted to clean up my act when she called me a few days ago, again mentioning the recipe.

Since this was such a strenuous act (not, it took me twenty minutes to write it up), I reckoned I might as well put it on my blog for future reference.

 

German Rouladen

Ingredients:

thinly sliced beef (any cut is OK, because they steam for a long time)

chopped onions

thinly sliced smoked streaky bacon (called Dörrfleisch in Hesse, Bauchspeck in Bavaria)

ketchup, mustard (optional)

Directions:

1. Add some ketchup to the flat beef cut (see Roulade in the front).

2. Then cover beef with strips of smoked bacon and chopped onions (see Roulade in the back).

3. Roll the meat, starting from the narrower end.

4. Tie with a typical Rouladen Nadel (see pin). If none available, you can also use old-fashioned thread. Be sure to remove this before serving.

5. Brown Rouladen in the frying pan before adding them to the steam cooker (Mine is so old, I don’t know if there is much pressure left, so any cooking pot might do).

 

6. Cover with water. Add two bay leaves, some peppercorns and cloves (two or three each).

7. Let steam at medium heat – I have it on 5 (scale 1-10) for about 90 – 120 minutes.

8. Meat should be really tender when you test it with a fork.

 Recipe for gravy

1.  Use the meat broth instead of water for your gravy making.

2.  Prepare your store-bought gravy based on the directions.  Then before serving, add some ketchup, sugar (1 tbsp for 1/2 l of gravy) and a bit of German Maggi (soy sauce will do, too).

Best served with potato dumplings and red cabbage.

Option: Curly noodles also do fine, but then serve salad on the side.