December 29, 2017
Friday Flavour: Beef Rollade
Well. Christmas is over and we’ve now come to the last Friday of the year. Very soon, we all will be looking back to the many Fridays before this wondering what has been eating us eats have been worthy of our Friday rendezvous.
Usually, I am all about a big cook-out towards the end of the year. Not this year.
This time my mood for cooking has plummeted to the lowest low. That means no Roasted Turkey and all the special food spread I usually make at this time of the year. I have been exhausted and I haven’t been at all in the mood to cook anything except for some light everyday cooking.
Enter Silver Bullet. He took over the kitchen last week and decided on a new recipe requiring the use of Dutch Oven. He made us a delish Beef Rollade:
So yes, we now have our first Dutch Oven; thanks to couponing from a local supermarket in which we have religiously been collecting stickers in the last few months to exchange for a Dutch Oven with only one-forth of its original price.
Not a very bad deal I say!
Back to Silver Bullet’s Beef Rollade. It’s beefy, it’s filling, it’s flavourful and oh-so-tender! If you are still scouring for ideas of what to cook for new year’s eve, give this one a go.
Your family will love you for it!
- 1 beef roll
- 2 carrots
- 2 sticks of celery
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
- 1 bundle basil
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 tbsp butter
- 375 ml good quality red wine
- 125 ml meat stock
- 2 cloves
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp honey
- Clean carrots and celery. Chop them in fine blocks.
- Peel onio and garlic. Chop them fine.
- Wash rosemary and take off the leaves. Save a few leaves of basil for garnish and finely cut the remaining leaves and stalks .
- Wash the tomatoes and cut them into cubes.
- Heat the butter in a large Dutch oven. Add the beef roll in the hot pan and fry the meat till it easily lets go off the bottom of the pan (i.e does not stick) so it would give the meat the right crust.
- Roll the beef a little bit and repeat the process till the roll is browned all around. Take the meat out of the pan and put it on a plate.
- Add tomato, celery, carrots, rosemary, basil, onion, cinnamon, bay leaf, cloves and garlic in the pan. Stir well and fry briefly. Push the vegetables aside and put the beef back in the pan
- Add stock and wine till the beef is submerged.
- Close the lid and let it cook on low heat for about 3 hours. The sauce need to bubble a little bit, otherwise the meat will not be tender.
- Peak in the pan every now and then to make sure that everything is still going well. Turn the meat every 20-30 minutes to make sure that most part of the meat is continuousy submerged in the sauce .
- Take the meat out of the pan and put it on a plate. Cover loosely in aluminium foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing it.
- While the meat is resting, finish the sauce by blending whatever that is left in the pan. Make sure the cinnamon is taken out as it can be over-powering. Flavour the sauce with salt, pepper and honey
- Cut the rope of the beef roll and cut met into a 1cm slices.
- Pour the sauce over and serve!
- Use a Dutch Oven for great results!