Daniel Pfyl, hospitality management lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, demonstrates some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. In this series he shares recipes for some of the dishes he ate on a trip to Europe last year.
Chef Pfyl ate beef olives like these in Cul de Sac, a restaurant just off Piazza Navona in Rome recommended to him by a chef friend. They were simply served with bread, he said.
Italian beef olives
(serves 8-10)
For the filling:
30g butter
2 onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
100g smoky bacon, rind removed and finely chopped
200g mushrooms, brushed or wiped and chopped
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
500g sausage meat
For the olives and sauce:
10 large beef schnitzel
a few gherkins
about ½ cup flour
pepper and salt to taste
30ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp tomato paste
100ml red wine
about 200ml beef stock
1 can (about 450g) chopped tomatoes
1 bay leaf1 clove
fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano
• To make the filling:
1) Heat a frying pan and melt the butter. Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and cook slowly until it is translucent and the sweetness has developed. Add the bacon, then add the mushrooms.
3) Mix the cooled filling with the sausage meat. Divide mix in two so you can gauge how much you are using as you fill the olives.
• To make the olives:
1) Slice gherkins lengthwise into four.
2) Lay a schnitzel on a board, removing any pieces of fat from the outside, and pushing the pieces together if there are any gaps.
It's easiest if the schnitzel is shaped into an oval with the length facing away from you.
Place a good tablespoon of the filling crosswise in the centre of the meat, and lay a strip of gherkin on top.
3) Fold over the sides first, then the lower edge closest to you.
4) Then roll up the beef olive, fastening the loose end with a couple of toothpicks.
5) When all the beef olives are rolled, heat some oil in a frying pan.
Dust the beef olives in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, tossing them between your hands to remove excess flour.
Brown them in batches, removing any darkened bits remaining in the pan between batches.
• To make the sauce:
1) Heat a little more oil in the frying pan, then add the chopped onion. Allow to cook and colour slightly. Add the tomato paste, then the wine and allow it to bubble up and reduce.
2) Add stock and crushed or chopped tomatoes, chopped herbs and bayleaf and clove. Stir and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
3) Pour the sauce over the beef olives in the casserole, rinsing the pan with a little more stock to make sure you use all the sauce.
4) Bring the contents of the casserole to the boil on top of the stove, then cover and place in an oven preheated to 180degC for 45 minutes.
You could also cook this in a slow cooker on low for 5-6 hours.
5) About halfway through cooking, take the casserole out of the oven, turn the upper layer of beef olives over and move them to the bottom so they are covered with the sauce. Return to the oven to finish cooking.
To check if they are done, poke with a fork.
They should be soft inside.
Remember a casserole taken from the oven will be hot. In commercial kitchens a little flour sprinkled on the lid handle will warn others that it is too hot to touch.
6) Remove the beef olives from the sauce and keep warm. Remove the toothpicks before serving.
7) To finish the sauce, remove the clove and bay leaf. If the sauce seems too thick, add a little more beef stock or water, and if it is too thin, reduce it, but it should be a runny, not a thick sauce.
Serve the beef olives and sauce garnished with fresh herbs and bread on the side. A salad is a good accompaniment.
• If you would like to request to a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know. Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.
More information on cooking from Otago Polytechnic can be found on www.otagocookeryl4.blogspot.com
