meat

When I got home from Germany, I searched cookbooks in vain for a recipe close to one my host mother had made. Finally, after much experimentation, I came up with this version which is pretty close to hers. I found these only at one restaurant in Germany and at only one German restaurant in the U.S. They are a real pain to make, so I usually make them once a year for Rosh Hashanah evening. I serve them with roasted potatoes (Cut redskin potatoes into wedges—1/6ths or 1/8ths—spread in a 9x13 baking dish, sprinkle liberally with paprika, onion salt and garlic powder, drizzle with olive oil and bake at whatever temperature the rest of your dinner is at until tender—about 1 ¼ hours, stirring often) and red cabbage (this is a much-requested, but copyrighted recipe so I can’t post it here) with turban loaves of raisin challah.

• 8 x ¼” thick slices of beef shoulder (for non-kosher beef, use boneless beef bottom or top round steak), pounded with a meat mallet and rubbed with black pepper (also with salt if the meat is not kosher)

• 1lb ground beef

• ½ c oil

• 1 ¼ c bread crumbs

• 1 onion, chopped

• 3 eggs

• 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

• ¼ c dill pickle, chopped

• ½ t dried marjoram

• ¼ t garlic powder

• ~6 c beef broth (or a combination of broth, water and wine)

Combine all of the ingredients from the ground beef to the garlic powder. Divide this filling into eighths. Roll the beef slices around the filling and secure with a toothpick. Place in a baking dish and cover with the broth. Cover the baking dish and bake at 350ºF for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until a meat thermometer indicates they are finished. If you prepare the filling too far in advance, the dill pickle seems to preserve the meat and it stays pink, so you’ll have to use a thermometer to determine doneness.

Serves 8