Vegetable stuffed beef rolls

I haven’t cooked this dish in years. The last time I did, I had not yet met the man who would be my husband.

This dish was inspired by the traditional morcon. The procedure is similar, except that the filling are vegetable sticks–carrots and celery–and spicy sausages. Tender cuts of beef like sirloin or top round are used for morcon. The rolled beef is browned in oil and sliced. Morcon is an excellent dish if served at the right temperature. Otherwise, the beef dries up. Moreover, morcon cannot stand reheating.

When I first cooked my beef rolls, it was for dinner party with cousins, aunts and uncles. I was still in law school and that was probably the first time that the “public” became aware that I could cook. Which I found strange since most people knew that my mother couldn’t tell soup from sauce, so whom did they think was doing the cooking?

While I was stuffing the beef at midmorning yesterday, my older daughter started complaining that there wouldn’t be enough–something she never says if the food did not look interesting to her. I told her there would be–beef rolls always look less than the actual amount until they are sliced and served. Well, there was enough. And, there were no leftovers unless you count the tablespoon or so of sauce.

Ingredients :

350 g. of beef brisket
2 bell peppers or 1 can of sweet pimientoes
2 onions
2 tomatoes
1 head of garlic
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery
1/4 c. of tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. of dried basil or 2 tsps. chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper
1 tsp. of chili sauce or 1 hot chili pepper
sugar to taste
water
1/4 c. of olive oil

Cooking procedure :

Cut the beef brisket into 3 pieces. Slice each piece into 1/4″ thickness. Lay each piece flat on the chopping board and pound with the dull side of a heavy knife or cleaver. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Finely chop the garlic, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers or pimientoes, carrot and celery. Stir the chopped vegetables together and divide into two portions. Set one portion aside.

Place about a tablespoon of the chopped vegetables at the center of each piece of meat. Roll and secure with toothpicks.

Heat a heavy saucepan. Pour in the olive oil and heat. Test the temperature by dropping a little water into the oil. If it spatters, the oil is hot. Place the beef rolls, one by one, in the hot oil. Cook over medium-high heat until all sides are browned. Add the remaining chopped vegetables, tomato paste, bay leaf, basil, salt, pepper, sugar, chili pepper or sauce and enough water to cover the lower half of the beef rolls. Blend well, rolling the beef rolls in the sauce. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender. Add more water if it dries up, no more than 1/4 c. each time. At the end of the cooking time, the sauce should be thick and reduced by more than half.

Transfer the beef rolls to a plate and cool. Remove the toothpicks and cut the rolls into 1/2″ slices. Arrange the beef slices on a plate. Pour the sauce over them or serve the sauce in a separate bowl.