Guest Post: Cris's Meat Strudel

Way back when, in the days I was still boiling vegetables, I met Cris.  She cooked foods with unpronounceable names which were on a level I didn't even know to dream of.  We were closer than family for many years and then life and moves got in the way and we lost touch.  A few years ago we refound each other on facebook.  Now we're back in touch and even met up again a year and a half ago in New York.  The other day she sent me this recipe which she agreed to my blogging.  I broke up the paragraph into these instructions.  Thanks, Cris! 

 

Cristina wrote: "So, for two strudels that will feed 6-8 people

 

Ingredients:

• 2 sheets of puff pastry dough (defrost in fridge and keep cold);
• 1 large onion diced fine or sliced;
• 600-700 grams good ground beef;
• 3-4 hard boiled eggs;
• sliced Spanish olives (olives stuffed with pimento);
• salt & pepper and whatever else you like to taste. Smoked paprika is very nice in this dish.

Directions:

• Saute the onion until turning brown (saute over medium heat so as to not burn the onion).
• Increase heat and add beef.
• Add salt and pepper.
• Let the beef brown a little bit, without cooking it all the way through. Make sure to move it so that the beef does not clump together.
• Take off the heat and allow to cool.
• Slice the olives with pimento (or it could be sauteed mushrooms), chop the eggs into large pieces, and sprinkle both over the meat evenly.
• When meat mixture is completely cooled, make a row using half the meat mixture at the bottom of a rolled out sheet of pastry. I like to roll my pastry very thin to get as many layers as possible.
• Tuck the dough around the bottom row of of meat and then roll it all up as you would a strudel. Repeat with second sheet of pastry and remaining meat mixture.
• In the over at about 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Towards the end, you can brush some of the meat juices from the strudel on top. Best eaten at room temperature, or at least not very hot. This is one of my favorite dishes. Would be good at the bar*, don't you think?"

 

*My son owns the best kosher sports bar in Jerusalem, its facebook page