Today I would like to introduce you to traditional Silesian cuisine. This dish comes from southern part of Poland, and traditionally is served with choowy-goowy dumplings (made with potatoes and potato starch) and grated beetroots. Oh, and it’s amazing! Roulades are made with beef, which is quite pricey, so most often, at least at my home, it has been made with beef shin.

According to Wikipedia beef shin (also called a beef shank) is not very popular piece of beef. But in my opinion it’s very tasty, and it’s also cheaper, than other parts of beef. So you don’t need to spend a lot, to eat decent piece of good meat.

You won’t find beef shin in the supermarket (at least I haven’t), but if you pop in to the butcher, you’ll find plenty.

You might think it’s tough and dry, but if you prepare it properly, it will be very tasty. That’s why I like to cook it in own sauce, and recommend adding slice of smoked bacon to each roll, so the fat from bacon will moist the meat, and add some extra flavour.

Beef shin rolls can be also made in slow cooker. Especially if you want to make a big batch and freeze for later. You’ll find directions for crock pot below.

delicious beef shin (shank) rolls

INGREDIENTS

· nice shaped beef shin (about 1 kg) to be able to slice in cutlets
· 1 large onion
· few sour pickled cucumbers
· fiery mustard
· natural rock salt
· black pepper corns
· 2-3 bay leaves
· for no keto: 2-3 tsp plain flour, for keto: 1 tsp coconut or almond flour or none
· pinch of garlic granules
· pinch of sweet pepper
· 2 tbsp fat (goose fat, lard, clarified butter, coconut oil)
· optionally: thin smoked bacon slices (as many as many cutlets you have)

You’ll also need toothpicks or thread to tie the rolls.

DIRECTIONS

Slice your beef shin in about 1 inch cutlets (you can also ask your butcher to do it for you), then take the meat mallet and beat them quite thin. Be careful not to make holes. Sprinkle each cutlet with some natural rock salt and pepper.

Cut onion in pieces, cucumbers along way in quarters.

Spread some mustard over each cutlet (place a slice of bacon if you like), place piece of onion and quarter of cucumber. Roll in tightly and fasten with a toothpick, or tie with thread.

Heat the pan with 2 tbsp of chosen fat, place the rolls and fry on each side until golden brown. Add pinch of salt (not too much, water will evaporate, it’s easier to add some salt later on than oversalt), bay leaves, garlic and sweet pepper and pour some water all over it. Not too much, just to cover half of the rolls. Cover the pan with lid and simmer until tender. It took me about 90 minutes. Flip them halfway through. Meat should be tender if you stick the fork in it.

OK, when our meat is ready, we can make sauce. Personally I don’t like the texture made by coconut flour, so I reduce the amount of liquid and leave the sauce as it is. If you don’t mind the texture, add about a teaspoon of coconut flour to thicken the liquid.

If you’re not on keto diet, and you don’t mind using white flour, take a small cup, mix 2-3 teaspoons of plain flour with few teaspoons of water, then add some hot liquid from the pan, stir and pour to the pan stirring, so you won’t get lumps.

If it happens, that you have to much liquid left in the pan, you can easily reduce it taking the lid of and leaving the pan on high heat for couple of minutes (that’s why don’t add too much salt at the beginning, because if you’ll need to reduce amount of liquid, it will become more salty).

SLOW COOKER DIRECTIONS

If you like this recipe, and want to make a bigger batch for later you can use a slow cooker. After frying rolls on the pan, place them in the slow cooker. You can put some extra pieces of onion and couple garlic cloves, so the sauce will be even more full of flavour. Pour some water or chicken/beef stock (beef bones broth will be perfect as well) a bit of salt, pepper and the rest of spices. Cook for about 8 hour on “low” or 6 hours on “high”. When the rolls cool down, you can freeze them in portions. Freeze the liquid separately in smaller containers – it will be a great base for the sauce.

I’ve been making them many times, both ways. Slow cooking is definitely better and easier if you want to make a bigger batch and save for later.

Enjoy!