German roulade and cabbage with pan sauce!

It's officially Fall and for me that means it's time for roasted meats!  The apples are at their peak right now, so why not incorporate those into your dishes as well!  This is a simple meal that uses very few ingredients.  It just takes a little time and a little skill with kitchen twine.


List of ingredients:

1 large flank steak, or very flat cut of meat

It is beautiful, no?

5 strips bacon diced
1/2 cup diced dill pickles
1/2 large onion diced
1/4 cup mustard (not the yellow kind, Grey Poupon will do)
Salt and pepper
Twine for tying

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Dice up the bacon and brown in a pan.  While the bacon browns, spread one side of the meat with the mustard.  Spread it almost all the way to the edges.  When the bacon is almost done, add the onions and sautee lightly to soften them.  Reserve some of the bacon grease.  Sprinkle the pickles, bacon and onion evenly across the meat.  Roll up your roulade and secure tightly with your kitchen twine.  Salt and pepper the outside of the roll.  In the bacon grease, brown the roulade on all sides.  Put it in the oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours depending on the size of the roll.  Remove from the oven, tent with foil and allow to rest for about 15 minutes before slicing. 

While this was all going on, we made some incredible cabbage.  Here's how we did it:

1 head read cabbage shredded
1 medium onion sliced thinly
2 tart green apples peeled and sliced thinly
2 tbsp butter
1 cup beef stock
1 cup apple cider vinegar
pinch ground cloves
pinch allspice
3 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup brown sugar
salt to taste

Heat a large dutch oven, and melt butter.  Sautee the cabbage, apples and onion together to soften slightly.  While these are cooking, combine the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.  Add to pot.  Cover and cook over low heat for about an hour.  Stir occasionally.  It is better to cook this longer than not long enough.  It is also WAY better the next day! 

PAN SAUCE:

Remove the roulade from the oven, and allow to rest on a cutting board.

Reserve the drippings from the pan you cooked it in.  I feel it's easier to cook the whole thing in a cast-iron skillet if you're going to make a sauce from the drippings.  You can get all of the good bits that way!

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the drippings pan.  Add 1 tablespoon of flour and whisk to combine.  Cook the roux until it is golden brown, about 1 minute and a half.  Deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine.  Scrape up all of the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add 1/2 cup of beef broth and stir vigorously.  Finally, add a shot of worcestershire sauce to give it that beefy flavor.  Pour into a gravy boat if you have one, or don't!  We don't have one....

Serve and bring the leftovers to work the next day.  We did!

Matt's plating job, he thought he was pretty fancy: