What to make when you have leftover bacon and German influences

There was a whole package of uncooked bacon left over from the other night when we made bacon-cheeseburgers for dinner. I really wanted to get it cooked up since we have a habit of forgetting about stuff like that and finding it 4 months later as an unidentifiable blob of viscous goo, so we thought “what better to go with bacon than even more red meat!” and whipped up some Rouladen. We found a recipe from Foodtv.com which sounded good, and modified it to our liking.

I wish I had taken the time to take a picture of our handiwork, because it was damn good.

4 slices bacon
2 large sandwich steaks (or nice thinly cut 1/4″ sirloin steaks) cut in 1/2 (about 1/4lb. each)
Salt and pepper
4 rounded teaspoons prepared Dijon style mustard (Grey Poupon)
4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
4 dill pickle spears
Toothpicks or kitchen twine
2 tablespoons, extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cups good quality chicken stock, available on the soup aisle
2 Tbsp sour cream

Place bacon in a skillet over medium heat and render fat by cooking bacon about 3 minutes. As edges just begin to crisp, remove bacon from the skillet and transfer to paper towels to drain.

Season slices of sirloin with salt and pepper. Spread each slice of meat with a rounded spoonful of mustard. Top mustard with a generous scatter of chopped parsley. Top seasoned and mustard-coated meat with a slice of bacon and a dill pickle spear each. Place the bacon and pickle off center closer to 1 edge of the meat than the other. Roll the steaks around the filling and secure with toothpicks or kitchen twine.
Heat a deep skillet over medium high heat. Add oil, 2 turns of the pan, then meat rolls. Cook meat 2 to 3 minutes, then give it a quarter turn. Cook meat a total of 10 to 12 minutes, then transfer to a plate.

Add butter to the meat pot and melt. Add flour to the butter and whisk together, cooking 2 minutes. Add chicken stock to the flour and butter and scrape up pan drippings. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in sour cream and remove from heat.

Remove toothpicks or twine from meat. Set meat roll on a dinner plate and cover with sour cream gravy.