Greek-style minced meat roll with French fries and tzatziki

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 kg minced meat, mixed
• 100 g leaf spinach (frozen)
• 100 g raw ham (e.g. Black Forest)
• 1 bell pepper(s), red
• 200 g sheep’s cheese
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 onions
• 1 roll or 100 g breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp, heaped oregano
• 1 tsp, heaped thyme
• 10 g salt
• n. B. Pfeffer
• 1 tsp mustard, hot
• 1 tbsp sauce (shashlik sauce)
• 1 tsp olive oil, cold pressed, for the spinach
• some olive oil to grease the aluminum foil
• 1 pinch of nutmeg for the spinach
• 1 pinch of salt for the spinach
• 500 g yogurt, Turkish or alternatively quark (no low-fat quark)
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 cucumber(s)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch(s) of pepper
• 1 tsp, levelled sugar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 kg potatoes, waxy
• 1 ½ liters of oil for frying
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour

It’s best to prepare the tzatziki the day before so it has more time to marinate. To do this, peel the cucumber, slice it lengthwise, and remove the seeds using a teaspoon. Grate the cucumber as finely as possible and place it in a bowl. Now add the yogurt or quark. Peel the garlic cloves and press them through a garlic press. Finally, add the olive oil, pepper, salt, and sugar and stir until the ingredients are combined and no greasy film of olive oil is visible. Then cover and let it sit in the refrigerator. For the meat roll, peel and finely dice the onions. Dice the bread roll and place it in a bowl along with the minced meat and onions. Now add the eggs, pepper, salt, oregano, thyme, mustard, and shish kebab sauce. Mix the mixture with a hand mixer using the dough hook until it forms a smooth dough. A food processor is best for this, as it does this on its own. Now cover the mixture and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. During this resting time, preheat the oven to 180°C. Wash the bell pepper and cut it into fine pieces. Squeeze the thawed spinach leaves well and mix it with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and 2 crushed garlic cloves using a fork. Now grease a piece of aluminum foil with olive oil (this prevents the mixture from sticking when rolled up). Place the minced meat on the foil and spread it out as thinly as possible in a rectangle, taking care not to create any holes through which the foil can be seen. Next, add the ham, spread the spinach on top. Then add the bell pepper pieces and finally the feta cheese, which should have been crumbled with a fork beforehand. When adding the topping, make sure to leave a border of about 2 cm free on each side; you will need this later to seal it. Now comes the hardest part. Now take the aluminum foil at one end and begin to roll up the mixture very slowly, applying light pressure. Once you’ve done that, knead the seam with your hands until it’s no longer visible and seal the ends in the same way. Then lift the roll into a baking dish, preferably in a casserole dish, where the aluminum foil can be very useful again. Then put it in the hot oven and roast for about 60 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and cut them into French fries. Heat the oil in the deep fryer to 150°C and cook the potato strips for 15 minutes. Then remove them from the fryer and set the fryer to 190°C. Once the temperature has been reached, add the potatoes back in and fry for about 8-10 minutes until they are browned to your desired consistency. The roast can now be removed from the oven and sliced. Season the fries to taste and serve with the tzatziki. Tip: To give the whole thing an even more Mediterranean touch, you can also add a few sliced ​​olives to the roast. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for us because I’m the only one who likes them—the rest of my family rejects them.