Saturday 21 June
Barbara's meatloaf guidelines have
become a lot looser here; we have no robot-coupe, and tend to throw in the
things we have, rather than measuring and calculating amounts. And you know, it still comes out tasting
pretty good, though we miss our allspice.
We whipped up a panade with 2
eggs, a glugg of milk, as many breadcrumbs as we had or could grate from a soft farmhouse loaf, a
squirt of tomato paste, a spoonful of dijon mustard, 2 chopped gherkins plus a
pour of their brine, and a big squirt of ketchup. We seasoned with pepper, salt, and thyme,
then mixed in a pack of six Co-op "quarter pounders," a chopped red
onion, and a chopped stalk of celery.
Moulded into a nice loaf shape, and baked at 400º F/200º C for a half
hour, then reduced to 350º/180º. Around
the sides went two sliced carrots and 6 little halved potatoes.
The meatloaf came to the perfect
160º F by our instant-read after only 45 minutes, and we let it rest
for 5 minutes before tucking in.
This probably had a bigger
proportion of eggs and crumbs than usual, which may be why it stuck together better. Perhaps when we get home we'll decrease the
amount of meat we use to 1.5 rather than 2 pounds, and keep the 2 eggs and
amount of milk, crumbs, etc. the same.
