Get some slabs of thinly cut beef steak. One decent sized piece per stinking snivelling, food hogging guest-type person. You can use whatever cut you like depending on budget. If you want to skimp use something like thinly sliced and heavily bashed blade or round steak. If you want something more fancy go for sirloin tip. The key is thin - you can always cook lower quality steak longer if you need to for this dish.

After appropriate amounts of bashing (not pashing) smear each steak liberally with dijon mustard. Place a few strips of bacon on the mustard smeared steak. Again if you don't have the bacon you can leave it out. You are going to roll the steak up so add these other ingredients near to one of the ends - strips of pickled gherkins, onion and capsicum. Capsicum is optional but I like it. You can also try a leaf or two of basil. Grind some pepper over and then roll each steaks up.

Pin the steaks closed or truss them with some string. Sprinkle with sweet paprika and more pepper. Saute and brown rouladen in a casserole dish or heavy high-sided skillet. Add a few cups of beef stock and equal amount of red wine until the rouladen are covered (or nearly covered). You can throw in some whole garlic cloves, a few whole olives and some bay leaves - these add a great flavour.

Cook for 90 minutes or until you think the rouladen are becoming tender. The stock and wine mixture should now take on a rich brown colour and smell fantastic. Remove the rouladen and remove the sticks, string or whatever device you used to keep the rouladen together. Reduce the sauce or add some corn flour to thicken the sauce slightly.

Serve with Spaetzle (or some other pasta) and ample amounts of sauce. I mean lots of sauce so that the pasta is swamped in it - I really prefer that you use spaetzle. The gherkin and bacon create a nice combination as you eat the rouladen. Mmm ...

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