Beef Potatoes Roulade

I was so happy about the quality of my pictures from my Pavlova post that I couldn’t wait to restart. I had this simple but amazing potatoes roulade in mind that I planned on baking over the weekend. Unfortunately, Saturday was one of the worst day of winter in Melbourne. It rained, it hailed, it was windy and when finally the weather turned and we had some sun, it lasted for a total of nine minutes before all hell broke loose again.
I had to wait until Sunday to see if I could bring my plan to fruition. The weather didn’t seem to have improved a lot on Sunday morning. Since we had to eat dinner anyhow I thought I will go ahead. If I can get some nice pictures I’ll post the recipe otherwise I’ll do it again another time. As the day progress, the weather appeared to have improved. Since it’s a dish best eaten straight from the oven I thought I would wait until early evening to start cooking.  
In the meantime, I attended to some other things I had in mind, like redecorating the master bedroom. I bought a couple of canvass at a relatively cheap price, only to find out on social media that someone made a similar canvass from scratch using a tea towel!! I wished I had the idea. But in comparison I still reckon mine looks much better.
With all these things happening I didn’t realise that it was getting quite late in the afternoon and that I was running out of time to benefit from the last rays of the sun. I started preparing for the dish and it was relatively quick and easy to get everything up and going. While cleaning the cupboard I came across a really sharp grater and it was just perfect to slice the potatoes to the right size.  
But by the time I was finished it was already dark outside and there was no chance of getting some nice pictures. This is when I thought of all the blog I’ve read about black photography. I’ve never tried it before. It was a good opportunity to give it a go. I had this whole idea in my head. Unfortunately I didn’t have all the props at hand. I had to make do with what I had. Even the candle holder was too tall for what I wanted to achieve. But in the end I did what I could and I am fairly satisfied with how the pictures turned out.

INGREDIENTS 

• 500g potatoes 
• 150g grated cheese 
• 250g minced beef 
• 250g crushed tomatoes 
• 250g ricotta cheese 
• 1 onion 
• 1 mozzarella ball 
• 200g spinach leaves 
• Parsley 
• Paprika 
• Salt & Pepper

METHOD 

1. Peel the potatoes and sliced them thinly. In a baking tray, sprinkle the grated cheese so as to cover the whole surface of the tray. Gently lay down the slice of potatoes.
    
2. Add another layer of grated cheese on the potatoes and bake for 30mins at 180 C. 
     
3. In a pan, cook the onions with some olive oil. Add in the minced beef followed by the crushed tomatoes, parsley, paprika, salt, pepper. Allow to cook and set aside.
      
4. In a pan, cook the spinach leaves with some garlic. Once cooked, mixed spinach with the ricotta.
   
5. Apply a layer of the mixture of ricotta/spinach on the potatoes followed by the beef. Finish with another layer of the ricotta/spinach mixture. 
   
6. Roll the potatoes and bake for another 10min at 180 C. 
   
7. Before serving sprinkle some parsley over the roulade. 
     

I hope you enjoy it! 

Bon appétit!