Saturday, May 11, 2013

Cinco de Mayo Meatloaf and Roast Parsnips


Sunday 5 May
After the previous night's indulgences, we wanted to go with something a little blander than the canonical Mexican holiday meal.  On a cold, rainy spring night, you can't beat meatloaf.
We whizzed up 4 oz. saltines in the robo-coupe to make crumbs, whizzed again with a quarter cup milk and 2 eggs to make a panade, and added 3 Tbsp. wheat bran for good measure.
Into a big bowl with that went:
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
a big grind of black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon of whole-grain mustard
a scant quarter cup ketchup, though that was a little uncertain, as we used the end of a bottle by shaking it up with a bit of milk
1 Tablespoon tomato paste;
ditto of sweet pickle relish (maybe two)
a minced onion
a stalk of minced celery.
To this we added the usual pound of ground beef and pound of ground pork, mooshed it together gently until just combined, molded into a loaf on a flat tray, and baked at 400º for a half hour, then basted with ketchup and turned the oven down to 350º until just done at 160º, which took about an hour total.
Oh, and three parsnips sliced into coins and tossed in oil went onto the tray after 10 minutes, and stayed the whole time until tender.  We even pushed them under the tent of aluminum foil while the meatloaf rested for the compulsory 5-10 minutes. 
This came out pretty damn close to the best meatloaf ever, so maybe it was the bran that held the secret.  The flavor was perfect, but texture was a bit crumbly, perhaps due to too much liquid from the pickle relish or milk in the ketchup bottle.  It would also be nice to get it a bit brown and crusty, but we are so not complaining.

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