Winemaker's Rouladen with Celery

This is yet another recipe that made me wish I had extra stomachs to eat more of it when served.  Sooo very yummy!  And not difficult to make, either--just takes a while to cook.  The original recipe comes from a book titled Cooking With Wine by Anne Willan.  

The smaller rolls in the pictures are the end pieces that weren't quite the right size after cutting.  Next time I plan to ask the butcher to slice the meat for me.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb. flank steak, sliced thin, cut into 8 long pieces, just wide enough to roll to a small tube shape

1/2 lb. ground sausage meat (I used mild Italian sausage)

16 thin slices of bacon

1 T. vegetable oil (I used canola)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

4 or 5 celery stalks, sliced

1/2 bottle (375 mL) medium-dry white wine (I used Château Ste. Michelle Gewurztraminer)

Instructions:

1. Lay the slices of steak on a work surface.  Divide the sausage meat into 8 pieces and spread each one onto a slice of steak in a line down the center.

2. Roll the slices lengthwise to form a long tube shape (mine weren't quite wide enough to close all the way, but were still fine, so don't worry if yours aren't :)).

3. Wrap each roll with bacon (2 slices each roll) tight enough to keep it closed and cover the seam (or any open spots).  Do not overlap the bacon pieces.

4. In a deep frying pan, heat the oil over medium to medium-high heat.  Add rolls and brown on all sides (mine only got slightly browned; this caused me to finish the browning in a later step).

5. Transfer the rolls to a plate.  Add the onion and carrot to the pan and sauté until softened, around 3 to 5 minutes.

6. Stir in the celery and increase heat to high; stir and cook until starting to brown, around 3 to 5 minutes.

7. Transfer the rolls back to the pan, placing them atop the vegetables.  Pour the wine over the top of rolls and vegetables.  If needed, add enough water so that the liquid level is around halfway up the rolls (I had to add around 1/3 c., I think).

8. Cover the pan and reduce heat to low (or whichever level is needed to keep at simmer).  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the rolls are very tender when pierced--around 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours (mine were fairly tender at 1 1/2 hours, so I went a few more minutes to be sure).

9. When the meat has finished, if the bacon was not fully browned/crisped in step 3, transfer to a separate pan and cook just long enough to achieve desired doneness/crispness (this only took a couple of minutes for me).

10. Meanwhile, leave the lid off of the pan with the vegetables and increase the heat to medium-high.  Boil sauce until reduced by about half (think this took around 5-8 minutes).

11. Serve rolls with the vegetable sauce and enjoy (a lot)!  I accompanied this with very too hastily prepared mashed potatoes (I'll do better next time...)