One of Ken's favorite dinner's is a German favorite, Roladen. As a little girl I remember both my Mom and my Grandma making it. When we were last in Munich, we ate delicious roladen and since that trip it's become a fairly regular part of our menus. Not long ago I brought more meat home that I had planned to make for roladen for that night's dinner so I decided to give freezing whole roladens a try. While I don't generally enjoy frozen meat they were delicious -- the secret I think was long and low. I put them in the crock pot with a little beef stock and ta dah!
ROLADEN
3 lbs of quality beef, sliced as thin as possible (I get the Milenesa cut; could be a local thing???)
2 onions
bacon
dill pickles
stone ground mustard
beef stock
salt and pepper
Slice pickles into spears
Slice onions (fairly thin)
Salt and pepper both sides of the beef. Spread stone ground mustard on one side.
Lay a piece of bacon long ways on the beef; place a few pieces of onion and 2 or 3 spears of pickle on one end of the meat. Roll, tucking onion and pickle inside.
After meat is rolled up, wrap another piece of bacon (or 2...) around the exterior of the roladen.
Place in pan, add a little beef stock to the bottom of the pan, cover rolades with any left over onion, pickle and bacon. Cook for about an hour.
OR wrap each rolade in a small size freezer Ziploc; seal. Gather them together in a larger bag and freeze.
To prepare in crockpot -- add roughly 3/4 C of beef broth to the bottom of the crock pot, unwrap frozen rolades, place them in the crock pot, cover and cook for 6 - 8 hours (or until you get home). Note: I also add an extra piece of pickle and/or onion in each bag so that there's a little extra in each bag. That way I don't feel like I need to cut and add anything to the crock pot. It's ready to go.
Enjoy with mashed potatoes or noodles and a veggie.
