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We called this show “A Taste of Vienna” because Mozart
lived his final years in Vienna where he composed many
of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and
because the recipe we choose is an old German favorite.
We hope you enjoy both the music and the recipe.
Beef Roulades
 
“This Recipe came from my mother and was always
considered a very special meal and a family favorite.”
~Chef Elizabeth Podsiadlo
Serving Size: 4 Prep time 1 hour, cook
time 1 hour
3 pounds beef flank – cut thin
2 dill pickles – quartered
lengthwise 2 medium onion – quartered
4 slices bacon 3 foot string
(butcher’s twine or cotton thread)
2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons
flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup pickle juice
(You may end up with more than 4
rolls. Meat for roll should be cut into approximately 4x5"
rectangles and will probably make more than 6 rolls.)
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Tenderize meat fillets with a
mallet.
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Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
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Place 1/4 piece of bacon, the onion
and a quarter pickle on beef fillet and roll up. Tie with string
to secure.
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Melt butter in a deep stainless or
non-stick skillet on medium high heat. Add beef rolls and brown
for 20 minutes, turning to insure even browning.
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Once nice and brown, fill pan half
full with filtered water.
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Add salt and pepper and the 1/4 cup
pickle juice. Cook for 1 hour.
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Remove meat rolls from broth and let
cool. Keep broth at a low simmer with a lid on.
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While meat is cooling, whisk flour
with milk in a medium sized bowl until mixture is smooth. Set
aside.
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Remove strings from the meat but DO
NOT place back into the broth just yet.
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Bring the broth up from a low simmer
to a rolling boil. Whisk the milk and flour mixture and add to
the boiling broth.
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Take a flat-bottomed spatula and
stir the broth and milk mixture, scraping the bottom to insure
the flour doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
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Continue cooking and stirring until
it resumes to a boil.
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Turn down the heat and allow to cook
for 5 minutes stirring to insure a smooth gravy. NOTE: If you
were not successful in keeping lumps out of your gravy, pour the
gravy through a sieve into another bowl. Take the strained gravy
and place it back in the pan.
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Place the meat rolls back into the
pan with the hot gravy and allow to cook for five minutes more.
Serving Ideas: Serve
with seasoned green beans, mashed potatoes and if you have
German guests, offer some delicious dill pickles with your meal.
Traditional German side dishes also include spaetzle and red
cabbage.
NOTE: You can ask
the butcher to run the meat through a tenderizer one time to
save you from having to pound the meat.
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In this show we featured arias from Mozart’s “Le Nozze
Di Figaro” which translates as “The Marriage of
Figaro”. Both arias Voi Che Sapete and Non So Piu
are sung by the pubescent Cherbino, a young page who loves
all women, but most especially the countess. This role
is typically sung by a woman and is known as a “pant
role” where the female plays the part of a male. In
early opera women were not allowed to be in the cast so
the roles were either sung by young men or castrati. For more information on this opera go on line; you can
find many full explanations as well as good synopses.
The translation of Non so Piu is as follows:
I
don't know any more what I am,
What
I'm doing, Now I'm fire, now I'm ice,
Any
woman makes me change color,
Any
woman makes me quiver.
At
just the names of love, of pleasure,
My
breast is stirred up and changed,
And a
desire I can't explain
Forces
me to speak of love.
I
speak of love while awake,
I
speak of love while dreaming,
To the
water, the shade, the hills,
The
flowers, the grass, the fountains,
The
echo, the air, and the winds
Which
carry away with them
The
sound of my vain words.
And if
there's nobody to hear me,
I
speak of love to myself!
Voi Che Sapete
(Translation)
Cherubino's aria from "Le Nozze di Figaro"
You who know what love is,
Ladies, see if I have it in my heart.
I'll tell you what I'm feeling,
It's new for me, and I understand nothing.
I have a feeling, full of desire,
Which is by turns delightful and miserable.
I freeze and then feel my soul go up in flames,
Then in a moment I turn to ice.
I'm searching for affection outside of myself,
I don't know how to hold it, nor even what it is!
I sigh and lament without wanting to,
I twitter and tremble without knowing why,
I find peace neither night nor day,
But still I rather enjoy languishing this way.
You who know what love is,
Ladies, see if I have it in my heart.
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