TRADITIONAL GERMAN BEEF ROULADEN

Step 1

Place each round steak between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and use a meat mallet to pound the round steaks to ¼" thickness.

Step 2

Season the steaks with 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, and garlic powder. Set aside while preparing the filling.

Step 3

In a large oven-proof skillet over medium/high heat, cook the bacon until almost crisp.

Step 4

Drain off some of the fat, reduce the heat to medium, and then add the carrots, celery, and onion to the pan and cook until the vegetables are almost tender (about 5 minutes).

Step 5

Stir in the pickles, dill weed. and season with the remaining ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.

Step 6

Remove the filling to a bowl and allow it to cool slightly. Set the skillet aside for later.

Step 7

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Step 8

Heat the skillet to medium/high and brown the beef rolls well on all sides.

Step 9

Remove the browned beef rolls to a plate while you make the sauce.

Step 10

Reduce the skillet heat to low, and stir in the Merlot wine to deglaze the pan by scraping up all the browned bits that have stuck to the bottom.

Step 11

Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.

Step 12

Carefully pour in the beef broth and any remaining carrot, onion, and bacon filling you may have leftover, along with the reserved ½ cup of diced carrots, and ¼ cup of diced celery.

Step 13

Nestle the browned beef rouladen back into the pan. Cover the oven-proof skillet and cook in a preheated oven for 2 hours.

Step 14

Once fully cooked, remove the beef rouladen to a plate and cover to keep warm.

Step 15

Stir the cornstarch into 1 cup of water (making a slurry) and pour into the sauce in the skillet.

Step 16

Cook the sauce over medium heat until it thickens.

Step 17

Serve the beef rouladen over noodles or spaetzle and spoon the thickened sauce over top.

Step 18

Garnish with additional dill if desired.