Birthday dinner!

When someone in our family has a birthday, they are allowed to ask for a special birthday dinner. My father always asks for steak & lobster, while my mother always asks to be taken out for dinner. I, however, always ask for a special dish called Rouladen.  You could almost consider it a "German haggis," only with better ingredients (beef and bacon instead of porridge and stomach).  Mom says it's easy to make, just time consuming.

Here is our family recipe.

Rouladen

8 slices bacon
4 pieces top round steak
4 t. mustard
1 medium onion, chopped-1/2 cup (may use onion flakes instead)
4 medium dill pickles, finely chopped-1/2 cup (may use sweet relish instead)
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ cup finely chopped carrot
1 cup dry red wine
1 envelope or t. instant beef broth
1 ½ cups boiling water
½ t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
3 sprigs parsley
1 T. butter
1 T. flour


1) Cook bacon; drain; chop coarsely. Save 2 T. bacon fat in skillet.

2) Pound steak to 1/4". Spread with mustard; sprinkle with bacon, onion & pickle; roll up and tie with string.

3) Brown rolls in bacon fat. Remove from pan.

4) Saute celery & carrot in same pan; add red wine. Dissolve beef broth in boiling water; stir into wine mixture with salt, pepper & parsley. Return rolls to pan; cover. Bring to boiling; lower heat & simmer 1 ½ - 2 hours, until tender. Remove rolls to serving platter & keep warm.

5) Pour liquid into blender & puree. In same pan melt butter; add flour & lightly brown; add liquid until mixture thickens.

6) Remove strings from rolls; slice into pieces, if desired.

Serve with mashed potatoes (gravy works equally well over both meat & potatoes) and either beets or red cabbage.

Guten appetit!