Pork Rouladen with Grapes and Apple Sauce

Even though I have prepared dozens of dishes using pork tenderloin as a main ingredient, I am still amazed at the versatility of this tender cut of meat. In this version I pounded medallions of tenderloin very thin, less than 1/8 inch, and made roulade with ham and cheese. It is lot simpler to prepare and cook than it is to describe it in recipe.

Ingredients

For Rouladen:
1 pork tenderloin cut into 4 equal pieces by weight
4 slices of Swiss cheese or any other melting cheese
4 thin slices of ham
Herbes de Provence
Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper
Butcher’s twine
2 Tbs. olive oil

For Sauce:
3 shallots or 1/2 onion, finally chopped
1 cup seedless green grapes, cut in half
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup of dry white wine
Worcestershire Sauce
Frank’s Hot Sauce
1 Tbs. Olive oil
1 Tbs. butter

For side:
Mashed potatoes using 3 baking potatoes, Milk, Sour Cream, 1 cup of Green peas, White pepper, Nutmeg and Salt.

Directions
Place each pork tenderloin piece between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. With a mallet, lightly pound out the pork very thin, about 1/6 to 1/8 inch. Uncover the pork and season both sides with salt and pepper. Spread thin layer of mustard on one side and lay slice of ham and cheese on top (see picture below). Start rolling from one end while keeping the roll tight. About one turn from the end, fold the sides over and finish the roll. Secure the roll with butcher twine and set aside.
Heat 2 Tbs. of olive oil on medium high heat in heavy bottomed pan. Brown the pork rolls on all sides until golden brown, remove to ovenproof plate and roast in 400 °F oven while you prepare sauce.
Discard oil, add butter and oil and sauté shallots in same frying pan, then add grapes, apple slices, wine, Worcestershire and Frank’s sauce and simmer until apples are very soft and sauce is thick. Remove pork from oven and serve with sauce and mashed potatoes.

Beef Rouladen (Hovězí Ptáčky)

As far as I know most European country has a version of this meal. In some places pork is used but mostly very thin piece of beef roast is the traditional cut.

The filling varies from place to place, not only between countries. In North Bohemia traditional filling is smoked bacon, sausage, onions, hard boiled egg and pickle. This time I made half sized version but recipe is for a full sized Rouladen.

Ingredients:

Rouladen

4 slices of rouladen beef (see note bellow)

4” piece of Polish Kielbasa, skin removed and cut into 4 pieces, lengthwise

1 hard boiled egg, quartered

4 pickles, cut in half, lengthwise

4 slices smoked and pre-cooked bacon or ham

1/2 chopped onion

Dijon mustard

Hungarian Paprika

Black pepper and salt

Note: Rouladen beef is cut from rump or round roast and is about 1/4” thick and about 6” wide and 10” long and is tenderized with mallet. This makes the beef quite larger and tender.

Sauce

2 slices smoked bacon, chopped fine

1/2 chopped onion

Dijon mustard

Hungarian Paprika

Black pepper and salt

1/2 cup of red wine or Marsala

Direction:

Place beef on cutting board with wider end closer to you.

Spread about 1 Tbs. of mustard on front half ob beef and season with paprika, pepper and salt.

Place bacon or ham on top, followed by sausage, pickle, onions and egg.

Make sure that all toppings, except bacon, are on a nice pile. Start rolling away from you. After 1 and 1/2 turns fold the sides over to enclose the filling and finish rolling. Make sure the roll is tight. Secure with butchers twine around and across.

This time I did half size rolls.

Heat frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil and 1 Tbs. of butter on medium high. Brown rolls on all sides and set aside. Do not crowd in pan.

When all rolls are browned discard the oil and butter. Add 1 tsp. of fresh butter and chopped bacon. Brown bacon and then add onions and sauté till golden brown. Pour in wine and scrape all fond from bottom of pan. Add chopped pickles and return beef rolls into pan, bring to gentle simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Add wine as necessary if sauce is too low.

Add mustard and chopped eggs and simmer for 5 more minutes. Do not boil or mustard will become bitter.

Remove rolls from pan, cut the twine and slice into 1/2” thick slices.

Serve on preheated plate with the sauce and rice.

Dinner Ideas or My Week in Kitchen

Actually, this is what I have prepared last week J.

Last week I prepared our meals using first item that caught my eye in fridge, freezer or pantry.  Basically, I was just improvising all week long. Most meals were sort of inspired by weather. It was all over the board, one day it was sunny and in mid 20s and next day the temperature stayed in single digits.

Bok Choy and Noodle Chicken Soup

Nice comfort food. With Long Asian egg noodles it is nice vegetarian lunch. Beside bok choy I have added julienned carrots and green onions.

Pork Tenderloin Schnitzel with Potatoes.

As usual, I used Panko instead of traditional bread crumbs for that extra crunch. Served with wedge of lemon and gherkin on side. Leftover schnitzel is great with rye bread as a sandwich.

Beef Rouladen with Rice.

I will post full recipe later today.

Green Beans, Red pepper, Hot Italian Sausage and Potato Sauté.

Nice peasant meal and simplicity itself. Start boiling potatoes cut into serving pieces. Meanwhile, sauté sausage with skin removed, add green beans and julienned red pepper and drizzle little white wine over it to create some steam. Cover and cook about 3 minutes. Mixed in boiled potatoes and serve. Because the sausage is so strongly flavored you don’t really need additional herbs or spices.

Thin Crust Pizza

I used my own pizza dough and sauce. For topping it was 4 cheese mix and toped with zucchini, red pepper, sweet onions, Cremini mushrooms and hot Italian sausage. Our favorite and I bake it almost every week.

Beef Congee

It never stops amaze me what you can do with just one half cup of rice, some stock and 1-1/2 to 2 hours of your time. For topping I used shredded flank steak marinated with soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil, freshly roasted peanuts, green onions and arugula. Arugula was a substitute for coriander that I didn’t have. Congee has to be cooked very, very slowly, just a little bubbles coming up, or it will burn.

Salmon with Green Beans and Red Pepper.

This meal deserves its own post. I will post full recipe right after the Rouladen recipe.

Beef and Mushroom Stew with Dumplings

The stews are so difficult to photograph. Anyway, this is regular beef stew with about dozen quartered cremini mushrooms added just 10 minutes before plating. Short cooking time doesn’t shrink them and they don’t release all their juices. This stew had more mushrooms then meat and tasted great.