fruippé

Last night I had an old friend joining us for dinner and when I asked the boyfriend what I should make, he of couse replied, “meat!”- no surprise there- and so meat it was. The lamb roulade had been a hit and I had been wanting to experiment with roulades a bit further, so I decided to simply go on my memories from last time and see what I came up with. A recent grocery trip had yielded some new pestos, so I decided that meant stuffing was in order.

Here’s a quick description of how to replicate this dish and make your meat-eating friends or significant other happy:

• Take meat (pork loin, chicken breast, lamb, what have you) and either a) get a piece that is thick enough to be stuffed, or b) flatten it (as I did). To flatten, place the meat on a cutting board and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. then beat vigorously (I hit it with a rolling pin- a meat tenderizer should work just as well!)
• Place stuffing ingredients in middle of meat pieces, leaving room on the sides and bottom/top so as to (mostly) avoid spilling. You can stuff with a large number of ingredients. I went with traditional basil pesto, red bell pepper pesto, salt, pepper, and grated parmesan cheese this time around. You can experiment, however, with a wide range of sliced meats (meat in meat! the boyfriend loves the idea), cheeses, spreads, vegetables, and more.
• Roll up the meat and tie with kitchen twine (or some similar string (you can purchase this at your local culinary wares store if you want to be fancy- or just get some twine from the craft/home store for much less, it’s really the same)) in as many places as necessary to ensure no spillage. This can be 3-5 times per roll, depending on how poorly you stuffed them (I once had to tie 6… that was not a fine stuffing job, I can tell you!)
• You can now rub the rolls in some spice to add extra flavour if you so desire. I used cumin and pepper- I bet red pepper flakes would have gone well, too.
• Take 3 cloves of garlic and 1 tablepsoon of butter (or vegan soy butter! I will continue to plug this substitution because there’s no reason not to do it) and bring to a simmer. Add in the meat rolls and begin searing. Add in 1/3 cup of dry sherry or a dessert wine (something that will caramelize) to give a nicely-coloured searing.
• Once the meat is well-coloured on all sides, transfer to a baking dish and bake in a 380 degree oven for 8-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat.
• Remove from oven and cut the strings, then slice as per your desired thickness.
• For the rice, I made a traditional spanish rice but 1) cooked it in a home-made lamb stock I had been meaning to find use for, and b) added in freshly-sliced cherry tomatoes for a bit of a crunch

As per usual, I perhaps had a bit too much fun with the plating, but the boys enjoyed it :). I should have cut the strings down so that there wouldn’t be such an excess, but I have an odd fear of them coming apart during roasting… but it’s probably a better idea for you to do so!

You can make this dish in so many different ways- what meat and stuffings would you use?

 Backpost: Today H came to visit. As per usual we had plans for cooking dinner then continuing the sewing of our dresses- which we have now been in progress on for about 6 months- and naturally didn’t get around to sewing. But when you’ve got excellent company and fun Greek food to be playing with, how can you be thinking of dress patterns?

I had picked up a Greek recipe book at Half-Price Books recently (their coupons are terrific)  and as I had seen Ina Garten skew some meat a few days prior, suggested chicken skewers with a Greek sauce. H brought over the cucumber, zucchini, and bell pepper, I got out the chicken, lemon, and yogurt, and thus began Greek Night.

A few interesting things I learned in the process: a little garam masala + olive oil coating kept the chicken nicely moist and flavourful during the grilling process; half a lemon is plenty for the yogurt sauce; my grater and the cucumber were not friends by the end of their evening date; perhaps a thicker yogurt would have yielded a better consistency (I skipped on the Greek yogurt and went with European-style in its stead).

I had recently visited Sago in the Triangle (very nice place, if you enjoy cilantro as much as I and the boyfriend do) and they sport some very yummy honey rice. Deciding that this could surely be recreated, rather than let the rice fluff on its own, I tossed the jasmine rice with honey every 3-5 minutes (H took over this after the first few times and is now a honey expert) and it was a delicious result. I highly recommend adding honey to jasmine rice. Mmmh.

That said, it was a wonderful evening and a lovely first Greek experience. H and I try to cook sew once a week (or every other week, if it’s a busy time) and will surely be continuing the Greek trend in the future, as we’re both avid Mediterranean cuisine enthusiasts. For now, some pictures from the evening: