Meatloaf

During my time long distance commuting my lovely boyfreind was very good to me, preparing dinner most nights. Now I have more time at home, I am doing a pretty good impression of a housewife. For this dish I decided to channel a 1950s American Housewife. Perhaps I have been watching too much Mad Men, I confess Christina Hendricks has inspired me to dye my hair is red, for the first time since the 90s when I did a pretty passable Dana Scully impression.

Meatloaf is a quintisentially American dish ( Oooh don’t you love the word quintessentially). I don’t think we have an equivalent to meatloaf in England maybe terrine buts that’s quite post Every Amerucan sitcom I ever watched told me meatloaf was a regular American dinner.

To be honest I wasn’t even sure what was in it until I began to look up recipes .Generally meatloaf if a mix of minced meat and breadcrumbs that is baked. It’s one of those dishes designed to make a cheap mince go further but still give a good presentation dish for the table.

Many recipes had boiled eggs inside which I liked the though of some were wrapped in bacon, but appealing to my slumming side ,lots had ketchup. I like ketchup with chips and burgers ,eating chips without ketchup is like watching a 3D movie without those glasses.

I recently started making my own chunky ketchup for burgers. I have my fingers crossed for making something with home-made tomatoes this year. However lots of my tomato plants were brought because I felt the store was neglecting them and wanted to save them. Basically battery tomatoes that might not deliver but I still feel good at giving them some good compost and a chance at lift.

So agreed it should have ketchup, the meat was tricky I think in the US it has to be beef but many said that adding some pork mince gave a juicier meatloaf. I like food spicy and to add that British touch Worcestershire Sauce and English Mustard

The meatloaf was juicy , you do need to let it rest, otherwise it would fall apart on slicing .The ketchup self sauces the meatloaf and also means it is great in sandwiches self saucing.

Meatloaf

450g minced beef
450g minced pork
1 large onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
3 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 large egg
100g of white bread
3 tablespoons milk
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp of english mustard powder
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 150degC
Soak the bread in the milk and egg
Mix with the mince, onions, garlic , parsley , thyme and season with worcestershire sauce , salt and pepper.
Cut a piece of greaseproof paper to fit the bottom of a 1kg loaf tin
Place a layer of the homemade ketchup ( recipe below) approx 1/2 cm thick in the bottom of the tin
Spoon the mince mixture on top of the ketchup layer.
Cover the loaf tin with foil , place the loaf in a deep roasting tin . Pout boiling water into the roasting tin it should come halfway up the loaf tin.
Put the roasting tin in the oven , bake for one hour for the last 30minutes remove the foil.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing

Ketchup Topping

400g of tinned plum tomatoes finely chopped
6 large gerkins finely chopped
1 large red onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 tbsp of capers
4 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp of sugar