Several times each year the Apprentice makes the trip to San Diego to hang out, eat fish tacos, and escape from the New England weather. On this trip back to San Diego, he brought with him stories of his trip to Uganda and a new street food he ate while he was there, the rolex.

The rolex, as you can see, is a rolled up snack much like a burrito that is filled with a mixture of eggs and assorted vegetables. The wrapper is made of a thinly rolled, skillet cooked wheat bread called a chapati. The eggs are mixed with tomatoes, shredded cabbage, salt, and cooked much like an omelette. The whole thing is then flipped over, the bread is put on top to steam a little bit, and then flipped again. At this point, the cooking is completed and the concoction is rolled up, burrito-style, and served immediately. If you want the true street-food experience, the rolex is rolled tightly in newspaper for easy transport.

Rolex
Per Rolex:

1 chapati (I used this recipe. If you don’t want to make your own, flour tortillas are a pretty good substitute.)
2 eggs
3-4 thin slices of tomato
small handful of shredded cabbage
pinch of salt

Preheat large frying pan or skillet over high heat. (I found a 12 inch cast iron pan worked well for making these.)

Break eggs into small bowl. Add cabbage, tomatoes, and salt, and mix with a fork until combined.

Add a small amount of oil to the pan and make sure the pan is coated all over. Pour eggs into pan trying to keep the mixture in a circular shape. In a 12 inch pan, the eggs will not run all the way to the edges of the pan.

Using a large spatula, check the under the edges of the egg to check for doneness. When the eggs are set, flip the entire mixture over. This can be a little difficult with a small spatula so use the biggest one you have. If you’re using a light pan, feel free to try and fling it in the air and attempt to flip them like a pancake. (extra difficult!)

Place chapati over the top of the eggs while they continue to cook for one to two more minutes. Using the spatula on one side and your hand on the other, flip the whole thing onto a plate.

Roll the egg and chapati up, burrito-style, to complete your rolex.

Last week, the apprentice and I tackled the pork roulade. A roulade can be pretty much anything that is rolled up and filled with something yummy. I haven’t really made one of these since I was back in culinary school a looooong time ago (read: over five years). I thought it would be fun to try to teach something that I wasn’t already a pro making.

In this instance, we used a pork roast loin and filled it with pea greens, goat cheese, and walnuts. The pork was pan seared on all sides and then roasted in a hot oven until just cooked through. We topped off the pork with a pomegranate reduction; the sweet, tart pomegranate matched very well with the savory pork. We finished the dish with roasted fingerling potatoes.

This dish was a bit more intricate than the last one but it still wasn’t all that difficult to make. The hardest part of the dish is preparing the pork for stuffing; if my directions don’t work for you, there are plenty of tutorials out there to help you.

Pork Roulade

Another week, another lesson for the apprentice. What was on the menu? Roasting!

Roasting has got to be one of the best kept secrets of chefs. Complex flavors, beautiful colors, a myriad of textures, all taken care of by the oven and some patience. Sure there is a little matter of prep work, but in real cooking that cannot be omitted.

It all started with me discussing what we would be cooking, lists of ingredients, and the lack of techniques. Initially my apprentice was a bit underwhelmed by the complexity of the techniques and even, at one point, asked if we could do something else. I tried to assure him that, while the techniques are basic, they are well worth learning.

The main technique in a good roast, in my opinion, is time. If you give the roast time to cook (and rest) it will almost always come out properly…unless you overcook it. Some side ingredients of our dinner were potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, and onions; yes, I got the apprentice to eat onions!

I know there isn’t much excitement to preparing this meal, the excitement comes during the eating.

I did not cook this.(ok, I helped a little)

I’ve finally acquired an apprentice. My new roommate and friend wanted to learn how to cook, so off we go! What about the eater you say? Sure, the eater helps out now and then, but I can tell she isn’t all that thrilled about cooking most of the time. I can now push off all those terrible cooking jobs I don’t want to perform on my new found assistant under the guise of training.

I really had no plans or recipes and just intended to teach as I cooked; then apprentice came home from the supermarket with a small package of lamb chops. Lamb is usually something I don’t buy or even consider making. The apprentice was interested in learning how to cook them so I made an exception and wasn’t disappointed.

The lamb was paired with a Moroccan couscous and some wilted chard that I grew in my tiny garden. The apprentice slaved away with the prep work as I continued to refine the recipe in my head as we went along. Nothing was formally written and I just barked out directions as we went. None of the components of the dish were terribly difficult but each of them had a few things to learn.

The couscous had finely diced carrots and shallots and was topped off with raisins. The greens were washed and quickly wilted in olive oil and garlic. The lamb chops were Frenched, seasoned lightly, and pan seared. At the very end, the pan was deglazed with red wine and a touch of butter was added for a quick pan sauce.

I think it was a good first lesson. A solid B+. I don’t think I pushed him too hard, maybe he’ll continue his studies.