Back in January, I introduced my new obsession, to which I very appropriately ascribed a hashtag, namely, #bakingmyheritage. In case you’ve forgotten the details, my mom is of Finnish descent; and when I was visiting her over Christmas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I happened upon The Finnish Cookbook in a consignment store there. I’ve been having tons of fun baking and cooking all sorts of recipes from this awesome treasure of a cookbook. (Oh, and PLUS! It’s a vintage cookbook! You know me and vintage cookbooks...)
My first post about my Finnish baking adventures was this deliciously awesome (and very easy!) Spice Cake, which I actually plan to bake this weekend for our church’s annual International Banquet. Today’s post goes in a decidedly different direction with a savory recipe (which I suppose would then be #cookingmyheritage. Nah. Doesn’t have the same ring to it.), known in Finnish as “lihamurekekaaryleet”.
Yeah, we’ll just call ’em “Stuffed Meat Rolls”. (Although my DH calls them “the bomb”… or maybe it was me that was “the bomb” because I made them. Huh! Anyway, they have his stamp of approval!)
If you want to keep up with my Finnish baking adventures, follow me on Instagram!
Recipe: Stuffed Meat Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1.5 lbs ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1 t. salt
- 1/4 t. pepper
- 1 small apple, sliced thinly
- 4 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced or cubed
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/2 t. salt
- 2 t. Worcestershire sauce
- Parsley, fresh or dried
Instructions
- Soak the bread crumbs in the milk until they are soft. Stir in the beef, egg, salt and pepper until thoroughly mixed.
- Pat the meat mixture out onto a sheet of waxed paper into a 16″ square. Use a pizza cutter to cut the square into 16 smaller squares.
- Place a slice of apple and a slice of cheese into each square, and then carefully roll up the meat, making sure to seal the cheese and apple inside.
- Heat a large cast iron (or other oven-safe) pan over medium heat with bacon grease or some other fat, and brown the meat rolls on all sides. You may have to do this in batches.
- Remove the meat rolls from the pan, and pour in the boiling water. Scrape up all the browned bits into the water, and add the salt and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for just a minute or so, then return meat rolls to the pan.
- Place pan in 400F oven for about 15 minutes.
- Serve over rice, sprinkled with parsley.
Cooking time: 20 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 8
Notes:
I used 1 pound of ground beef because I didn’t feel like defrosting another package (ha!), and it turned out OK. I only got 12 rolls instead of 16, and the mixture was not quite as sturdy, but they were still very good.
I also used cheese sticks, which were very easy to use.
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