Saturday, December 15, 2012

Pork Rouladens

Dec 14 2012

I wanted to make some beef rouladen. I went to my butcher and he didn’t have any nice cuts of round steak but had some nice pork tenderloins. I would do pork rouladen so I bought four of them. I had read where pork was probably the first meat used for rouladen.

I searched for recipes and read different cooking procedures. I settled on one at food.net by Tea Girl that sounded good and would be a guide for me. I didn’t have Malzbier, a sweet malt beer, so I couldn’t use that. I couldn’t find crème frache at either grocery in town so I substituted Greek yogurt and cream cheese mixed together. She used raw bacon but wanting to cut some fat I did mine on my smoker first.

I did the bacon on my smoker at 275 deg. It took about 50 minutes, and put it in the fridge to cool. I mixed about two heaping Tbs. of the yogurt and a Tbs. of cream cheese well. Peeled and diced a granny smith apple and mixed all with four Tbs. of sauerkraut and some crumbled bacon, then in the fridge.

Tea Girl browned her s in some oil then covered with the liquid and simmered about an hour. I planned to smoke mine for a half hour at 175 deg. then go to high on my smoker until browned.

Time for me to pound out the pork and make the rolls. It didn’t go well; length wise the rolls would be too large and so went the other way but had trouble getting the stuffing covered with the meat and secured with tooth picks. I needed to tie them with butchers twine. When I looked for it I couldn’t find it. I ask my wife where it was; “I don’t know the last time you used it you said you were going to put it in a different place”. I remembered where I used to keep it she kept covering it up with other things so I moved it! But now I couldn’t remember, old age! I gave up trying to fine it and proceeded with the tooth picks. I did pretty well with two of them but not so good with the other two; it would have to do. They were covered and went in the fridge until ready to cook.

Looking one more time for the butchers twine I found it! I tied them before going on the smoker and felt better, they didn’t look too bad! I got them on; smoke mode at 175 deg. for a half hour then went to high and in twenty minutes they looked good. I had a cast iron skillet heating on the stove with the vegetable broth; I removed the tooth picks and placed them in the skillet. I added more broth to cover and brought to a boil then turned down the heat to simmer.

I cooked some of my favorite store bought spaetzel to have with the rouladen. Just before the spaetzel was done I removed the rouladen to the oven to hold at 190 deg. while I made the gravy. I used a jar of Heinz pork gravy and added about one cup of the vegetable broth; brought to a boil then added slurry of a Tbs. of corn starch and water to thicken.

I drained the spaetzel in a colander, added a couple of pats of butter to the pan then added the spaetzel back in. I cut the twine from two of the rouladen and plated them. I added the spaetzel some parsley flakes and gravy. We had some Italian bread and Kerrygold Irish butter with it.

The pork was a little dry and tough; we cut it up and added more gravy and it was pretty good.

I wasn’t going to post this but I guess I should share some of my not so good cooks too. My basic recipe I think was a good one. The next time I make rouladens, beef or pork, I will not try to brown on the smoker. I think that is what dried them out. I will just use the smoker for the bacon.

I just sliced one up thin and had it with gravy over toast for lunch and it was better the second time around!

Printable Rouladen Recipe

Bacon on the smoker


Apples, sauerkraut and bacon


Mixed with the yogurt and cream cheese


Pork fillets


Rolled and toothpicked


Tied after finding my twine


Browned on my smoker


Simmering in the broth


My Plate


Smokin Don

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