Recipes : meatloaf

Chorizo Meatloaf with Tomato Balsamic Chutney

christy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:30:00 GMT

I know you probably tuned in here to see a beautiful picture of a slice or two of meatloaf artfully arranged on a plate. In all honesty I realllly wanted to take one and give it too you. However, fading daylight (read NONE) and the inability to make a lump of cooked meat look appetizing meant I wasn't getting a favorable picture tonight. I promise to make this again real soon and work at getting a suitable photography. I promise.

Until then. Here is the recipe.

Chorizo Meatloaf with Tomato Balsamic Chutney

3 slices of bread
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 lb ground beef
2 links chorizo (I use Johnsonville), casing removed
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup pepper, diced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbls worcestershire sauce
3 Tbls fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp Lawson seasoning salt
2 tsp Emeril original seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Chutney
6 roma tomatoes, chopped
3 Tbls onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbls Balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line a loaf pan with non-stick foil. Set aside.

In a small bowl, crumble slices of bread.. Pour the cream and milk over the bread crumbs and mix to make them all moist. Set aside.

Mix the beef and chorizo gently in a large bowl. Add onion, pepper, egg, ketchup, worcestershire, parlsey and seasonings. Mix to combine, try not to overmix as this will make the meatloaf tough. Scoop loaf mixture into the lined pan and smooth down the top. Bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours or until an internal temperature reaches 185 degrees.

When the meatloaf is done, take out and allow to start to cool. While cooling, make the chutney.

In a saute pan in 2 teaspoons olive oil, add tomatoes, onions, garlic and vinegar. Cook on medium heat until the tomatoes start to break down and the onions and garlic are soft. Approximately 5-7 minutes.

When the chutney is down, remove the meatloaf from the pan using the foil to help pull it out. Cut into slices, lay on plate and top with chutney. Serve with mashed potatoes, corn, steamed carrots, or any other vegetable you like.

Mama Mia! Meatloaf!

christy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:31:00 GMT

I am not now, nor have I ever been a meatloaf lover. I have eaten it and I have made it before. But I have never ordered it when dining out. And I rarely, and I do mean rarely, make it at home. Mostly because it isn't very creative and it takes, I think, skill to make it have good flavor, not crumble when baked, and be moist at the same time. My father used to make a pretty good meatloaf. And we had it often in our house growing up. But since getting married and beginning my self education in the culinary world, meatloaf wasn't high on my priority list of "need to conquer" recipes. However, the other day a friend of mine mentioned she was making meatloaf for dinner and, for some odd reason, it actually sounded like a good idea. So I searched my recipe archives to see if I could find a doable recipe for tonights dinner. And not only did I find one, but I found a realllllly good one. Believe me, no one else is as surprised as I am that I liked the meatloaf. Mama Mia was it good! And even though I probably won't be making it on a weekly basis, it is definately on my list of monthly recipes. Which is saying a lot. I wasn't able to document the whole process like I wanted to, but I do have some pics to show you. The recipe is adapted from Tyler Florence's.

Here is the finished sauce. Remember to remove the bay leaf before serving.

This is after coming out of the oven with the crispy bacon on top. Dripping with goodness.

Yum! And chunks of tomato and pepper. Double yum!

Meatloaf with Tomato Relish Recipe

Tomato Relish:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
2 tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
1/8 cup dried parsley
1 (12-ounce) bottle ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Meatloaf:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
1/4 tsp dried thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 to 5 bacon slices cut in half

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat a skillet with a 2-count of oil and place over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and bay leaves for a few minutes to create a base flavor. Throw in the red
peppers and cook them for a couple of minutes to soften. Now add the tomatoes; adding them at this point lets them hold their shape and prevents them from
disintegrating. Stir in the parsley, ketchup, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper. Simmer the relish for 5 minutes to pull all the flavors together. Remove it
from the heat; you should have about 4 cups of relish. I made this relish a couple hours before I was ready to make the meat loaf, so it was plenty cool enough to handle by the time I was ready for that.
Place the torn white bread in a bowl and add the milk to just barely cover, swish the bread around in the milk and let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients for the meat loaf together. This is where you get your hands dirty! In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef and pork with 1 1/2 cups of the tomato relish, the eggs, and
thyme;season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the meat mixture. Taste the patty for seasoning.
Lightly oil a cookie sheet. Transfer the meat mixture to the center of the cookie sheet and form into a log about 9 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Coat the top of
the meatloaf with another 1/2 cup of the tomato relish. Lay the bacon across the top lengthwise. Bake the meatloaf for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the bacon is crisp and the
meatloaf is firm. Rotate the meat loaf while it's baking every now and then to insure that the bacon browns evenly. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it cool a few minutes before slicing. Serve with the remaining tomato relish on the side. Unbelievably moist!

My first blog!

christy — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:11:00 GMT

My husband set up this blog so that I could share my experience's with other home chefs out there. I like to find, create and try recipes in my home kitchen for my family. Sometimes they work out great and taste good. Other times.....not so much. But trial and error is the only way to experience new tastes and find good meals we might not ever have had before. There are times when I get to have dinner out and find that I like the meal enough to come home and try to recreate it again. So I will be blogging about a special dinner night or a really good cake recipe, a good meatloaf or maybe a tasty sauce for chicken. Either way, I envite you to come and read my blog, try the recipes on your own and let me know your results. Enjoy!