Picnic Roll

Finally!! My first attempt making picnic roll. I've been wanting to make this for a very long time but I've never got the chance. This is one of my favorite pastry dish. I used to eat this in Indonesia. Well.. not often enough because it was considered not cheap and it usually because someone gave it to us as a gift or something like that. But sometime I miss it. Actually I can find a similar dish in here. Its name is saucijzenbroodje. Like picnic roll, it is a spiced ground beef wrapped in puff pastry. But the difference is it is a one person snack meanwhile, picnic roll is much bigger than saucijzenbroodje so it has to be sliced and served on slices.

Now, since I'm living in Netherlands, I can find ready to use puff pastry easily. I think I would like to try to make it by myself. I don't think it is a complicated dish. I only need ground beef and puff pastry. Lucky me there's a big sale of ground beef on nearby store. Why don't give it a try? I've been planning to make this dish for a very long time.

The size of my puff pastry is small. It's about 20 x 20 cm and it's not big enough to make big picnic roll. So, I pile up 3 layers of it and roll it together until i get one big and wide layer of puff pastry. I will use it for the bottom layer and for the top layer or for the cover i will use 2 layer of puff pastries and roll them together. To be honest I was not even sure it will work. But I was wrong. It turn out great. the taste is good as well. I'm so happy with the result.

Ingredients (for 2 picnic rolls):

• 10 layers (20x20 cm) ready to use puff pastry 
• 500 grams ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 2 medium onions, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups (about 60-80 grams) Japanese bread crumbs (panko bread crumbs)
• 1 tsp salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 4 hard boiled egg, cut into half.
• 4-5 slices cheddar cheese, cut it into about 4 cm wide.
• 1 beaten egg for egg wash

Preparation :

1. In a big bowl, put together ground beef, eggs, ground nutmeg, minced onion, minced shallot, milk, breadcrumbs, salt and generous amount of ground black pepper.
2. Using your hand, mix them together until all the spices is mixed well with the ground beef. Do not hesitate to squeeze it a little bit. If the mixture is too wet, feel free to add a few more breadcrumbs into the meat mixture just until the excess liquid is well absorb by the breadcrumbs.
3. After the meat mixture is done, set aside.
4. Preheat the oven into 200 C (392 F)
5. Prepare a baking sheet and like it with a baking paper. Set aside. 
6. For making the bottom layer, dust the work top with a flour. 
7. Stack 3 layers of puff pastry and dust the top with flour. 
8. Roll it using a roller until the pastry become thin and wide (approximately 35x17 cm).
9. Make another bottom layer by stacking another 3 layers puff pastry and roll it again.
10. Place the rolled puff pastries on the prepared baking sheet.
11. Divide the meat mixture into two.
12. Take one half of the meat, press it tightly, and put it lengthwise in the middle of the rolled puff pastry.
13. Place cheddar cheese slices on the top of the meat.
14. Put four half cut hard boiled egg on the top of the cheese.
    
15. Repeat the same process for the second puff pastry.
16. For making the cover, dust again the worktop with some flour.
17. Stack 2 layers of puff pastry, dust it with flour, and roll it again until it become thin and wide (approximately 30x15 cm).
18. Repeat this process to make the second cover. 
19. Brush the edge of the bottom layer with egg wash.
20. Place the pastry cover on the top of the eggs and meat.
21. Press the edge of the cover into the bottom pastry to seam it.
22. You can cut the edge of the bottom layer or roll the edge up. 
    
23. Make some small holes on the cover using a fork
24. Brush the surfaces of the cover with egg wash.
25. Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake it for about 25-30 minutes.
26. Once it's done, remove it from the oven and let the pastry cool for little bit before cut and serve it.

Tip : You can make 3 picnic roll using the same amount of meat. But of course the amount of the meat for each roll will be less than if you are making two picnic rolls.

Tip :  You can keep this on the refrigerator for days. Just pop it into the microwave and done. If you want to make warm the whole roll, put it into preheated 180 C oven and bake it for about 15 minutes. Picnic roll goes well with tomato or chili sauce as well.