Meatloaf To Get Excited About

It's been a busy couple of weeks which is why I've been so lax on posting lately. We finally got our stuff from Fort Polk and into storage here in town. I've still got to go through everything to make sure nothing's broken and I've got to find my ice cream maker. Big plans for that this summer. I also get to plant a huge garden this summer. No containers this time. My FIL plowed a big plot and told me to go to it. I had a huge scare with my mom last week. She was hospitalized because her doctor thought she might be having a heart attack but luckily she wasn't and all her tests turned out A-OK. WooHoo!

I haven't really had a lot of time for cooking lately, I've mostly been taking the easy way out and making a lot of frozen stuff but I was in the mood to cook today so I went searching through my mountain of collected recipes today and found a Meatloaf recipe from Alton Brown. I know, who gets excited about Meatloaf but this one sounded really good and I love Alton Brown's recipes. His show Good Eats on the Food Network has done so much to improve my cooking skills. This meatloaf is really good, it's big time spicy but not hot. The glaze is amazing, it really makes the meal pop. It doesn't take long to put together either. What really drew me in to the recipe was the garlic croutons. I love garlic croutons, I eat them like potato chips. Like right now as I type. Somebody please stop me!



 

For this meatloaf you want to start off by pulseing croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and dried thyme until they're a fine powder. 







 
Transfer the powdered spices to a large bowl.

Next pulse onion, carrot, garlic and red bell pepper until they're finely chopped but don't puree them. Transfer the veggies to the bowl with the spices. 

Add the meat, salt and 2 eggs. The original recipe only calls for ground chuck and sirloin but I added ground buffalo too. Time to get dirty. Start mixing the mixture with your hands until it's nice and combined. Don't overwork the meat (yeah, i'm not really sure when that point comes either) and don't squeeze the meat. Once it's combined pack the meat down into a 10-inch loaf pan that you sprayed with cooking spray. I didn't do this and had to get creative to get the meat out of the loaf pan. 

You're going to turn the loaf out onto a baking sheet that you've lined with parchment paper. Put into a 350°F oven and start the glaze. You've got 10 minutes...GO!

 

In a small bowl, mix catsup, ground cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and honey. Whisk until thoroughly mixed. 

After the meat has been in the oven for 10 minutes, you're going to take it out and coat with the glaze. A silicon brush it perfect for this. Save the leftover glaze for later. 






Put the loaf back in the oven. You're going to cook the meat until it reaches a temperature of 155°F. I can't give you an exact cook time but mine was ready about 45 minutes after I put it back in the oven from glazing it. Easy Peasy! Nuke the leftover glaze for about 30 seconds. The meatloaf goes great with mashed potatoes. Plus it's a sneaky way to hide veggies.

Alton Brown's original recipe can be found here.


Good Eats Meatloaf
6 ounces garlic-flavored croutons
½ teaspoon ground  black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder  
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and broken
3 whole cloves garlic
½ red bell pepper
1 lb. ground chuck
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 lb. ground buffalo
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs 
 
For the glaze:
½ cup catsup
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon honey 
 
Heat oven to 350°F.
In a food processor bowl, combine croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, ground sirloin, ground chuck and ground buffalo with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the eggs and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.
Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155°F.
Combine the catsup, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes. 
 
Hope you like it as much as I did. I'm off to find out what you can do with kumquats.

Shepherd's Pie

Cooking is a little depressing for me right now. For the past year and a half I've been living with most of my stuff scattered across the country. When my husband deployed in 2008 we were living in Kansas. I packed up our house and put everything in storage and moved in with my parents in Louisiana for the year. When he got back in 2009 he only had 2 months left in the army, so instead of getting an apartment we moved into a hotel, stuffless. Now we're back in Louisiana living with my father in law. Some of my stuff is here, some of it is at my mom's and the majority of it is at Fort Polk waiting to be delivered to us. We're going today to rent a storage building close by and get ALL of our stuff in one place. I can't wait! I miss my dishes and my blender so much. Once we figure out where in the world we want to live (Tennessee) and find jobs (stupid bad economy!) we can get our own place again and I'll finally be reunited with ALL my stuff.

So, what does this have to do with Shepherd's Pie? Not a damn thing, I'm just venting. It's just a little depressing when you want to make cupcakes but your FIL doesn't own a cupcake tin. Sure I could go buy one, but I have a perfectly good one waiting for me at Fort Polk. I don't have kids so owning more than one (ok, I actually own 5, but that's not the point) isn't necessary. Ok, I'm done now...back on to the Shepherd's Pie.

Shepherd's Pie is the ultimate comfort food. It's like beef stew with mashed potatoes. It doesn't get better than that. I use a Rachel Ray recipe that I've tweaked a little bit. You can find the original recipe here. This is a super easy dish to make, the only thing I'm not crazy about is that it takes a lot of pots and pans so hopefully you have a dishwasher.

I like to add butternut squash to my potatoes. So first thing you want to do is get your veggies peeled and cut up. Cut up the potatoes and squash into small chunks and boil in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes.

Start browning your ground beef and drain off fat. Add the onions, garlic & carrots and cook for about 5 minutes. Normally, I use canned carrots, but if you use fresh like I did this time, cut them thin and you'll need to cook this a little longer than 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and Tony's. Add in the sweet peas toward the end of the cook time.

In Louisiana we use Tony Chachere's on EVERYTHING. It's pronounced Satch - uh - reez, but we just call it Tony's. I've never had any problem finding it outside of Louisiana. Walmart carries it in the spice aisle.






In saucepan #3 over medium heat you're going to melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Whisk for at least 2 minutes, just long enough to get rid of the raw flour taste. You don't need to brown this like you would for gravy. Add 1 cup of beef stock and 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce. Let this cook about a minute longer to thicken and then pour over the ground beef mixture.

Your potatoes and squash should be ready to mash now. Drain off the water in a colander and add the potatoes and squash back to the pot. Mix 1 stick of butter (I'm Southern, it's in my genes... it's in the other jeans too, unfortunately), the cream, a dollop of sour cream and the egg yolk. Mash together til smooth and creamy. The egg yolk will help the potatoes brown under the broiler.

Preheat your broiler on high. Empty the meat mixture into a casserole dish. Spoon the potatoes over the meat mixture and spread out evenly to completely cover. Sprinkle more Tony's over the top and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until the potatoes are evenly browned. Enjoy!

Shepherd's Pie

This is my adapted recipe of Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Shepherd's Pie.

Shepherd's Pie

2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed

1 half butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 stick butter

2 tablespoons sour cream or softened cream cheese

1 large egg yolk

¼ cup cream, for a lighter version substitute vegetable or chicken broth

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan

1 3/4 pounds ground sirloin 

1 can carrots

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup beef stock or broth

2 teaspoons Worcestershire, eyeball it

1small can sweet peas

1 teaspoon Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Boil potatoes  and squash in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain and pour them back into the pot. Combine butter, sour cream, egg yolk and cream. Add the cream mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth. (The butter, sour cream, cream and egg yolk are optional and the amounts can be adjusted to your liking.)

While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to hot pan with beef. Season meat with salt, pepper and Tony's. Brown and crumble meat for 3 or 4 minutes. Add carrot, onion and garlic to the meat. Cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.

Preheat broiler to high. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with Tony's and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned. Top casserole dish with chopped parsley and serve.