Slow Cooking Thursday - Beef Olives

When I was growing up, we always got to choose what Mum cooked for dinner on our birthday. I always choose Beef Olives, with the special deep fried mashed potatoes Mum made. She'd use a piping bag to make little spirals, then dunk them in the deep fryer - not healthy, but terribly tasty!

It's not my birthday today, but it is Slow Cooking Thursday over at Diary of a SAHM, and I thought since Steak and Onions cooked so well in the slow cooker, perhaps I should give beef olives a go. I made the rolls up last night, and put them in the fridge, so all I had to do this morning was brown them, and place in the slow cooker.

Last night

Beef Olives
Thin steak (I used round steak)
onion
bacon pieces
sweet/sour cucumber
salt & pepper
toothpicks

Cut onion, bacon pieces and cucumber very very fine. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the beef, then put the onions, bacon and cucumber onto the beef slices. Roll them up and secure them with toothpicks. Lightly brown them in a frypan with a little oil or butter. Fry any left over stuffing bits you have too, it'll be nice in the gravy. Place in the slow cooker, along with the fried stuffing bits, and add a little water.

Ready for a loooong simmer

Cook until well cooked, about 6-8 hours on LOW. This might be different for you. Everything I cook in my slow cooker cooks from about 11am till 6pm on LOW, it seems to work for me. You can thicken the juices with a bit of gravy powder. You could try that in the slow cooker, by taking out the meat rolls, and turning up to HIGH, stirring constantly, or you could just tip the juices and bits into a saucepan. That's what I do, as I can never get any sauces to thicken in my slow cooker, but then, perhaps I just don't give it enough time.

Beef Olives

All my best recipes come from my mother. Here's another one from the collection.

Beef Olives
Thinly sliced topside beef
onion
bacon pieces
sweet/sour cucumber
salt & pepper
toothpicks

Cut onion, bacon pieces and cucumber very very fine. Sprinkle salt and pepper onto the beef, then put the onions, bacon and cucumber onto the beef slices. Roll them up and secure them with toothpicks. Fry them in a frypan with oil or butter until golden brown. Add water and simmer for about 1 hour or until well cooked.

An attempt at a close up of the spiral inside - sorry about my retarded flash mucking that up.

I served with steamed veg, mashed potatoes and a seriously great gravy made from the leftover pan juices. Master Three was dubious, but once I called it spiral steak instead of Beef Olives, he ate the lot. It was a little fussy, but totally worth it just for that delicious gravy.