Flank Steak with Dressing (p. 482)

This is a double post this week so make sure to read both of them! Especially since the marshmallow's are some of my favorite TJOC successes!

First things first--I found out how awesome homemade marshmallows were in cocoa but how would they be in s'mores? I LOVE s'mores. I LOVE them. I, someone who doesn't really like sweets (and am far more likely to give them all to friends then eat them--something Jennifer, Emily, or Rachel could tell you) but s'mores are one of those things that I would wrestle people over. Obviously, they are best when made over an open flame but I tend to make them in the microwave. I don't tend to make them because I don't like the tough outside of the marshmallows.

So how did the homemade marshmallows stack up?



They were AWESOME. Fluffy and wonderful. Wow were they delicious. I bet I ate fifty of them in a few days. I honestly ate half of the marshmallows this way. You know, maybe you are better off not making these...just go ahead and send them to me....

I picked up some round steak on closeout at the grocery store and then searched TJOC for a recipe to make. Flank Steak with Dressing (p. 482) seemed perfect. By "dressing" TJOC apparently means "stuffing" rather than the dressing that goes on salads. The first step is to sprinkle salt, paprika, mustard, ginger, and Worcestershire sauce on the steak and then pound the heck out of it. The confusing part--by mustard does the recipe mean yellow mustard? Dijon mustard? Mustard powder? I pondered it and decided that I don't like yellow mustard so it was going to be Dijon.

Recipes that required lots of pounding with the meat mallet were some of my mom's favorites when I was growing up (hell, they are probably still her favorites!). She's always said that they are great for getting rid of stress. So I took out all my stress on the round steak.

Before:





After:



I must say, it was rewarding, even though meat juices were spraying everywhere.

The next step was to make the dressing. It was a simple stuffing--onion, breadcrumbs, salt, more paprika, parsley, celery, and some egg--all fried up in butter.






The stuffing was then spread all over the round steak. It seemed like an awful lot of stuffing for the amount of meat...





The round steak is then rolled up. This is not as easy as it sounds...especially with a round steak that's been cut up the middle to remove the bone. Obviously, that slit was leaking stuffing. So I would roll part of it up, tie some butcher's twine tight, roll up another part, tie it tight, and so on. Josh and I couldn't find any twine at the grocery store but the King Sooper's meat counter workers were nice enough to give us some (we heart King Sooper's--they double coupons!).

The rolled steak is then briefly browned. Starting at this:




And ending at this:




The next step was to make the sauce (or dressing? I suppose this could be steak, filled with dressing, covered in dressing). The dressing was chicken stock, tomato juice, and salt. It said to boil until thickened. The sucker refused to thicken! I cooked it and cooked it and cooked it--and it barely thickened. I eventually gave up.





The steak and sauce were supposed to be combined in a roasting pan, dutch oven, or casserole. My roasting pan was enormous and the sauce would have barely coated the bottom. I don't have a overproof dutch oven. And my casserole...could this possibly fit in it?




Yep! Apparently it can. Barely, but it fits.

And into the oven it went. An hour and a half later:



Looks pretty tasty! I cut into the inside...




Pretty!

So what did it taste like?

It was really good. The sauce was rather boring but the steak was flavorful and the stuffing was really good--perfectly seasoned. I would make this again but make a different sauce--or maybe use wine instead of tomato juice. And it was really attractive--I think it would be a great dish for company. I am more confident with future roulades!