Beef Roulade

For my first post on this blog, I thought I'd share something I made a couple of weeks ago. It was attempt to try something slightly more complicated than my normal fare, and it came out excellently! The recipe is known as Beef Roulade, although my version is not quite as perfect as the pictures I found on Google when researching the recipe.

To make Beef Roulade, start with some thin steak, and then make it even thinner using the magical implement known as a rolling pin. You're going to want it to be about 1/2 - 1 cm thick in total. Depending on size, cut the steaks in half to make pieces about the size of your hand. Lay them out flat and along the centre of each piece lay a piece (or two if you like!) of prosciutto. On top of this, put a mixture of herbs to taste - I used parsley, garlic and parmasan cheese, but you could use anything you like to get a different effect.

Next, wrap the steak rolls up tightly and pin them together with toothpicks. Try and make them as tight as possible so that they hold their shape while cooking. Fry them in a big pan in a little oil for long enough to brown the outside but not cook them entirely, and then put them on a plate and cover them with foil. It's now time to be all fancy and look like you know what you're doing in the kitchen. Pour a can of crushed tomatoes in the same pan and add a glass of red wine to it. Mix them together, and then let them reduce by half. While you're waiting, feel free to reduce the bottle of wine by half by imbibing. Worst case scenario: you get tipsy and forget you're cooking. It helps to have someone else around to remind you so that you don't miss your awesome meal.

The final step, once the red wine and tomatoes have reduced to a nice sauce, is to add the steak rolls back to the pan and cook them for a couple of minutes in the sauce. Don't overdo it, they're very thin and won't take long. Take them out of the pan, pop them on plates and serve with whatever you prefer. In this case I went for a light salad and a toasted roll with aioli spread on it. Serve with a glass of the wine (if any is left over) and bask in the glow of being able to toss around words like 'roulade' and 'red wine reduction' as if you were a real chef!

Enjoy! (As a side note, don't eat the toothpicks. They're not good for you.)