Braciole?

Every heard of it?  Neither had I until my good friend Debbie introduced me to it.  It's a very slow cooked beef dish where the beef has a savory filling rolled up inside and is slowly braised over a period of time.  Every since I had Debbie's I've wanted to try it myself.  However when I asked Debbie how to make it she said something like, "you pound the meat, roll it up with string...maybe put some garlic in or parmesan and then cook it in your gravy for about 8 hours."  Now I'm no master chef, but I'm very familiar with this description.  In general terms it usually means the chef or cook has prepared the meal so many times that they are giving you the essence of what they do.  I know this because I have a tendency to simplify my recipes too.  So I set about finding a recipe.  I never found one I liked very well and forgot about this treat until I was flipping through...wait for it:

It was the last place I would have thought to look, but honestly should have been the first.  So tonight I decided to give the recipe a shot.  Here's an overview of what went down.



First I made a filling of bread crumbs, prosciuto, shallots, parsley and a lightly beaten egg.  It said to finely diced all, but I just used a food processor.

That's my Mom's classic Westbend cheapie from the '80's.  I've yet to find one that works better.  Then I moved on to the beating part. 

It looked something like what you see above.  I was left with something that looked like this:

Then I put about 2TBS of prepared filling on the hammered meat ( which I should point out at this point, if you are a freak like me and fear cross contaminating your kitchen...approach this recipe with caution as a big mess is about to happen in said kitchen.)  Now the really fun part, I rolled up the hammered meat with the filling inside like a meat burrito.  Then I tied the things with string.  There's no picture of this part as I was busy hyperventilating about the mess I had made and the possible spread of germs.   Next I had to brown the meat burritos.  That looked like this:


When I was done I had four meat burrito's and big SIGH, I could set them aside for a moment to get the sauce going.



After quickly washing my Westbend, I chopped some onions and carrots.  Yep CARROTS.  I know they are traditional in Hunter's sauce I think but  I had my doubts.   Honestly though,  it really added to the flavor of the sauce.  First I chopped them:


And next it called for me to cook them for 5 minutes.  Here is where I had my first problem as they did burn a little bit.  If I make this again, I'll pay closer attention...

After this point, it was time to make the sauce.  It included these guys:

I used Malbec because Debbie likes Malbec and she inspired me to try this so it seemed the thing to do.  This is not the best one I've ever had but in this case and for this purpose,  it was ok.   Now the recipe calls for about 1/2 cup of each of the above items plus tomato puree which for inexplicable reasons I don't show above.  :)  However I added more and if I hadn't I definitely would have had a problem.  Once your sauce is boiling you add your beef back in, which looks a bit like this:

Next I let this simmer covered on lowered heat for 1-1/2 hours give or take.  I may or may not have let it go about 15 minutes longer.  :)  Then the recipe called for thickening the sauce by simmering uncovered a bit longer after you removed and kept the beef warm.  I did this step but honestly my sauce was probably thick enough.  Here is what the finished product looked like once I cut into it.  And no,  I don't have a picture of the plated meal because I'm a terrible photographer and the one I took is out of focus.  Let's never speak of it again.

All in all this Braciole was pretty good, but it wasn't Debbie's.  My Braciole's were gigantic in comparison to hers and not nearly as tender.  But I must say the flavor was intense and the sauce very unexpectedly pleasant.  If I were doing this again I would make the individual beef rolls smaller and cook the whole thing longer.