Saturday night and I am creating in the kitchen for M and I. It’s a couple of steaks basically, but with a few interesting twists - they are stuffed and rolled.
Here’s the basic recipe…
First off I softened some shallot and garlic in a pan; not really properly cooked, but part way. It was about 5 cloves of garlic and, on the shallots, I wondered and then decided on just one, and that’s shallot.
For everyone still with me after that terrible joke, here’s what I did next.
I took the two steaks (this was the fiddly bit, not having one of those rotary slicing machines) and cut them acrossways into quite thin pieces. Then kind of like a jigsaw, assembled them into rough rectangles.
Then each rectangle was spread with soft cheese, and the garlic and shallot was sprinkled on top, with a few turns of the pepper grinder on them.
Then a layer of spinach.
And finally, just as you would when making a swiss roll, I gently rolled it all up, and used cocktail sticks to hold it together while it cooks.
It is going in the oven on quite a low heat, 150 degrees, for 45 minutes with some accompanying vegetables. We have aubergine, peppers and green beans.
The idea is that, a little like a roast joint, the meat on the outside, on the top, will cook quite well. I am aiming for medium to well done for those parts. Then as we go closer to the middle, with less direct heat the steak will gradually become more medium, then medium rare and hopefully, right in the middle, very nicely rare. It should also stay very moist, with the cheese and spinach in there. Add to that, the shallot and garlic, and black pepper, it will have some good extra flavours and seasoning.
Fingers crossed it turns out well. I will update when it comes out and we have eaten it.
Here’s the final tray going in the oven. The green beans will go in a little later, they take less time.
I am not going to be the kind of food blogger or tweeter who shares everything I eat. It will only be when I try or eat something particularly special.
Aslo, I am blogging in real time, so this might turn out awful, and I will have to show you the results if it does. Fingers crossed.
Comments open, tell me what you are cooking? What would you do differently? Anything else?
UPDATE - RESULTS
We have eaten, it was very nice but there are a few things I would do differently next time, learnings. First though photos…
As you can see, it’s about medium in the middle, and quite well done on the outside. 45 minutes was a bit long, it would probably have been just right in 25 to 30 minutes. Also it had dried out a bit which would be better if cooked for a shorter time.
Next time I’ll get the veg started first (that turned out just right) and add the steaks about twenty minutes later.
It tasted very nice but I thought of a few different things I might try. On the spinach, no reason it couldn’t be rocket which might be nicer. That depends on taste.
Also, rather than spreading the soft cheese straight from the pot, I would stir in a few generous spoonfulls of horseradish first for an extra flavour.
And finally, though Co-op steaks are very good, I would go to a butcher and get some very good steak, sliced for me very thinly and evenly in the shop. That would make the rolling easier and ensure that it all stays together better, and therefore keeps more moisture inside.
I will try it again in a few weeks.
Steak Swiss Roll!
This sounds interesting. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I tend to like my steaks quite simple though. Tonight we had roast chicken and iceberg and avocado salad with a blue cheese dressing. Worked v well. Let’s meet up before you emigrate xxx