Meat Roulade With Cranberry And Croutons Fillings

Christmas is barely 3 weeks away and I am sure many of us will be either dining out in restaurant or slogging in the kitchen for hours preparing a scrumptious dinner for the family :)  For the Piggy family , meat is a must have item on the table. I am going to introduce you to this wonderful Meat Roulade  ( French term for ' rolled ' )with lots of fresh cranberries and fresh italian parsley as a finishing coat for the roasted meat roulade.  Roulade can be either savory or sweet.  Besides the fresh cranberries, I added a layer of ' turkey stuffing ' to give an extra flavor to the meat roulade.  I have two more packets of fresh cranberries in the freezer and I love the tang bitterish after taste of this berries and it is truly a great filling for this pork loin roulade.  A great dish to serve for the coming Christmas.  And if you are still blank as what to cook for the coming Christmas dinner...try this....flavorful and fragrant !  

Meats are commonly used as a rolling medium in savory roulades, but it is also possible to use pastry , cakes, bread or sushi nori and the fillings are varied according to one's taste. I had been flipping through my stack of cookbooks for some ideas and finally I combined all ideas together and came up with this scrumptious dinner for  Wild Boar and his best pal Mr. C whom he invited to dinner.  Christmas dinner came early for the piggy clan LOL!

Trottered to the butcher and bought this one foot long pork loin which costs me Ringgit Malaysia 20 . Came back , slowly, slowly spiral cut it open as shown in the pictures below....hard work but worth every effort put into making this delicious meat roulade :)   In classic roulade, meat is tenderized with a meat mallet before being rolled around a filling made from vegetables, breadcrumbs and sometimes seafood and you can pick the fillings of your choice and I chose fresh cranberries and croutons, bacon and walnuts as fillings for my meat roulade :)   

Cook the fresh cranberries ( 300 grammes ) with 1 orange zest , 1/2 cup caster sugar and 1/2 cup of orange juice till the cranberries pop and turned soft , dish out and keep aside till needed.  Combine together in another bowl,  croutons with  fried bacon bits , crushed toasted walnut, 3 tablespoon of olive oil and some chopped fresh parsley and a pinch of sea salt to taste . Leave the croutons mixture to harmonize for a while . Dijon mustard as a spread before putting in the fillings by layers. First layer will be the cranberries and topped with the croutons mixture before rolling up the roulade like we make sushi .  I have taken some pictures as to let you have a feel how to make the roulade. I am not good with words so I let the pictures tell the story ...... :p

ingredients for the fillings........

meat roulade in the making....

croutons mixture...consists of  pan fried croutons,bacon bits, 

toasted walnuts , italian parsley and olive oil

once the ingredients have been rolled together, 

tie  the roulade with meatbind/twines safe for food

( I bought mine from 100yen shop ) to keep the shape 

while the roulade is roasting in the oven

red wine , bay leaf and  garlic marinade is 

the best basting sauce for this roulade...best to marinate it 

for a day, turning over every 1 hour and keep in the fridge

until it is time to bake the roulade...

I prepared this a day before 

roast in the oven @250 deg C for 1 hour or until cooked through and

basting the roulade with the remnant marinade sauce every 20 mins

and the last 10 minutes, brush honey over the roulade for a shiny

and dark look....

remove the meatbind/twines while it is still hot

and brush on a layer of  Dijon mustard sauce on the surface 

and coat the surface with chopped italian parsley...

this will make the meat roulade more flavorful and fragrant

look how juicy and tender  ...mmmmmm the red wine marinade

was a great choice for this meat roulade........yummy

..the  slight tang and bitterish aftertaste was a great choice for the meat

when it has cooled down, cut with a sushi knife 

so that the fillings doesnt drop off when you are cutting it

I learned this from Wild Boar......:p he is a good partner

in life...my mentor and my friend :) doing a bit of

polishing here becos Christmas is here * oink

ipad2 ??????? LOL!

the most tasty meat roulade I have ever made this far

I made some stuffed portobello mushrooms as side dish...

first I baked the portobello in papillote with garlic and olive oil

for 20 mins till cooked.  Made some japanese mashed potatoes as

stuffing for the mushrooms....it was the most delicious mashed

potatoes.....with bacon bits and chillies and parsley combined together

and a dollop of japanese mayo and olive oil in it.....simple and yet 

delicious....does this look mouth-watering ??? LOL!

alright I am a teaser and a wicked one too ! :p my Piggies are hungry

looking at these..........but I assured them , I will feed them well

this coming Christmas !

drool as much as you like....christmas is coming soon :p

and I made some delicious fruit salad to go with the meat roulade....

red and green so refreshing for the eyes and the palate !

green apples, strawberries ( leftovers from making Claire's cake) 

red USA Anjou pears......yummmy !

I made an orange balsamic sauce for the meat roulade......

YUMMY!

I would love to make this again......what about you do you like this 

and want to try making this...I assure you , you will not regreat making

this meat roulade....now as I write it out and looking at the pictures...

I am salivating just thinking how tasty it tasted !  I know Wild Boar

and Mr.C enjoyed the meal as much as I do.............

orange balsamic sauce for the meat roulade...delish

consists of garlic, orange pulps, orange juice,

balsamic vinegar and pinch of sugar......

Meat Roulade With Cranberry ,Croutons, Walnuts Fillings

Ingredients:-

1 lb of  pork tenderloin  ( about a foot long ) remove fat and the silver tendon on surface

spiral cut it and rub salt and black pepper over surface of the spiral cut tenderloin

Cranberry filling:-

300 gm fresh cranberries - cook with with 

1 orange zest ,

1/2 cup caster sugar 

1/2 cup of orange juice till the cranberries pop and turned soft and thicken

Croutons filling:-

4 slices of 3 days old bread - cut into bite sized - fry in non stick pan with 1.5  tablespoon of olive oil till crispy and golden brown

1 cup of toasted walnut- crushed

a dash of mixed herbs,

a pinch of salt

chopped fresh italian parsley

2 tablespoon of olive oil

pan fried bacon bits

mixed the croutons ingredients together till well harmonized

Dijon mustard 

salt and black pepper

Red wine marinade

1 cup of red wine

2 cloves of garlic- crushed

1 bay leaf

Boil under slow fire for 20 mins till aromatic...cooled before use

Method:-

Open up the spiral cut tenderloin on a baking sheet, rub salt and black pepper all over the pork loin, brush a layer of dijon mustard on the surface and spoon the all cranberries filling on to the surface like you do making a sushi. When it is evenly spread out, add the croutons fillings on top of the cranberries. Start rolling tightly all the ingredients and when it is done, tie with meatbind /twines so that the meat roulade will remain in shape after roasting.  Marinade with the red wine marinade for a day, flipping over often to make sure the meat is well marinated all over.

Bake the meat roulade for an hour @250 deg C, basting often with the remnant of red wine marinade to get a nice brown. Brush on honey 15 mins before taking it out of the oven.  When it is done, take out, cut off all the twines on the meat., brush a layer of mustard over the body of the roulade and cover the roulade with chopped fresh italian parsley.  Cut into slices and serve with the orange balsamic sauce !

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms With Japanese Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients :-

6 pieces of large portobello mushrooms - washed clean and drained dry

wrapped them in papillote with olive oil and garlic and baked for 20 mins

till cooked. Take out from the papillote and drain off the excess liquid exuded 

while cooking in the papillotte.

Japanese mashed sweet potatoes

2 big japanese sweet potatoes - boil till soft, and drain off water, let it dry off in the pot

mashed it with a fork 

1/2 cup of bacon bits - pan fried in a non stick and cut into smaller bits

2 tablespoons of fresh italian parsley

a pinch of salt

1/2 tablesoon of  red chilli - chopped 

1tablespoon of olive oil

1.5 tablespoon of japanese mayonaise

Method:-

Mixed all the mashed potaotes ingredients together till well harmonized. Stuffed them into the cooked portobello mushrooms and serve as a side dish.

Fruit Salad

6  strawbrerries - hulked and cut into quarters

2 red anjou pear - diced

2green apple- diced

italian parsley

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

mixed them together and serve as a side dish for the meat roulade.

Christmas came early for Wild Boar and myself LOL!

   

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