Nigellas excellent meatloaf

We watched this meal being cooked on Nigella Lawson's cooking program last night. It looked amazing and I will be attempting to cook it tonight. Photos to follow if it goes well. I love recipes with eggs as we have plenty of freshies every day.

She writes.......

"As far as gravy goes, I am happy just to have the juices that drip from the meatloaf as it cooks, and not least because the whole point of this meatloaf for me is that I can count on a good half of it to eat cold in sandwiches for the rest of the week. (And you must be aware - it is my duty to make you aware - that a high-sided roasting tin makes for more juices than a shallow one.)"

Ed's mother's meatloaf

SERVES 8-10

BUT FEED FEWER AND HAVE LEFTOVERS

4 large organic eggs

4 onions, 500g total

5 x 15ml tablespoons duck fat or butter

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1/2 teaspoon pouring salt

1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

900g beef mince, preferably organic

100g fresh breadcrumbs

225g thin-cut rindless streaky bacon, or

275g American-style bacon

KITCHEN KIT

1 x large roasting tin

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Bring a pan of water to a boil and then boil 3 of the eggs for 7 minutes. Refresh them in cold water.

Peel and chop the onions, and heat the duck fat or oil in a thick-bottomed frying pan. Cook the onions gently, sprinkled with the salt, for about 20-25 minutes or until the onions are golden and catching in the fat. Remove to a bowl to cool.

Put the worcestershire sauce and beef mince into a bowl, and when the onion mixture is not hot to the touch, add it to the bowl and work everything together with your hands.

Add the remaining raw egg and mix again before finally adding the breadcrumbs.

Divide the mixture into 2, and in the tin make the bottom half of the meatloaf by patting half the mince mixture into a flattish ovoid shape approximately 23cm long. Peel and place the 3 hard-boiled eggs in a row down the middle of the meatloaf.

Shape the remaining mound over the top of the eggs and pat into a solid bloomer-loaf shape. Compress the meatloaf to get rid of any holes, but don't overwork it.

Cover the meatloaf with rashers of bacon, as if it were a terrine, tucking the bacon ends underneath the meatloaf as best you can to avoid its curling up as it cooks.

Bake for 1 hour, till the juices run clear, and once it's out of the oven let the meatloaf rest for 15 minutes. This should make it easier to slice. When slicing, do it generously, so everyone gets some egg. Pour meat juices over as you serve, or do what you will, gravywise.

MAKE AHEAD NOTE

The meatloaf can be assembled, covered and kept in fridge for 1 day. Then bake as in recipe.

QUICK BBQ GRAVY

If you wanted to make enough gravy to cover the whole shebang hot, then either make an onion gravy (see last week and at you.co.uk) and pour the meat juices in at the end, or fashion a quick, stove-top BBQ gravy. By that, I mean get out a saucepan, put in it 50g dark muscovado sugar, 125ml beef stock, 4 tablespoons each of dijon mustard, soy sauce, tomato paste or puree, and redcurrant jelly and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, to taste. Warm and whisk and pour into a jug to serve.

Well that was a work up but so worth it...the meatloaf was really juicy and tasty wiht the baked spud in jacket and that gravy in the recipe which was rich but a really great accompaniment!