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!

Birthday brownies

Calum requested brownies instead of cake to celebrate his first decade on earth so I ve just made these little beauties. I've made more complicated ones but this recipe is straight forward and quick/ simple (Cal made these ) and so delicious just had to add them to our blog. Courtesy Bill Grangers 'Bills basics' 2011


Here's how you make em:



Ingredients:

350 g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
80 g cocoa powder
60 g plain flour
1teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, lightly beaten
200g unsalted butter melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200g dark choc roughly chopped



What to do:


Preheat oven to 160 C
Line 22 cm square tin with baking paper
Stir together dry ingredients
Add eggs vanilla and butter
Mix well
Add chopped choc
Pour into tin and bake for 40- 45 mins
Leave to cool slightly in tin. Turn out onto wire rack. Cut into squares n serve.
We just had warm with cream......mmmmmmmmmmmmmm



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Roast Pumpkin, Chorizo and olive salad

I found this salad in the Masterchef magazine dec 2011 and made it for big BBQ.  A fantastic salad... love love loved it! So did everyone else too.

You will need:
2kg small jap pumpkin, seeded and washed halved and sliced into thinnish wedges (24 if you are using whole thing).
2 chorizo sausage sliced
1/2 cup kaamata olives
1/4 cup green olives
1 bulb garlic in separated but left in skins
1 long red chilli seeded and chopped finely
80g piece day old sourdough or rustic loaf torn roughly into pieces (croutons)
6 sprigs thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon sumaac
100 mls extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon zested and juiced

what to do:

Preheat oven fan forced to 220 C
Use very large roasting pan or two pans so as not to overcrowd ingredients ;)
Place pumpkin, chorizo, garlic, olives, chilli bread and thyme into a bowl. Sprinkle with sumac, dazzle with 1/4 cup of oil, and bless with salt and pepper to season.

Fondle ingredients to combine.
Transfer mixture to pans and roast for 25 mins until golden brown
Transfer to platter. Whisk remaining olive oil and lemon juice, and anoint dish and scatter with lemon zest.

Tuck in...
Amazing.

pomegranate salsa

I rejoice at xmas time because I can easily get my hands on Pomegranates and they aren't too expensive. This salsa is a great accompaniment and I usually make it when having BBQ with steak/ sausages. The acidity of the salsa is a great counterpoint for rich meat.


Ingredients

2 tomatoes quartered deseeded and finely chopped
1/3 cup parsley or coriander chopped
seeds/ juices (yum) from one 1 pomegranate
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon pomegranate molases
season with salt and pepper

Combine ingredients in bowl.....delish!

Rocky Road kid style

Super easy, super delicious.

2 blocks white cooking chocolate (or you could go mix it up and go 1 x white and 1 x milk choc)
1 bag jelly snakes
1 bag marshmallows (or the mini ones in the cooking aisle)
1 bag jelly lollies
desiccated or shredded coconut

Line baking tin with greaseproof paper.
Chop up lollies and marshmallows and spread all over paper.
Sprinkle coconut over them.
Melt chocolate in microwave, about 1 min at a time, stirring in between.  Doesn't take long.
Pour melted chocolate over lolly mix.
Sprinkle more coconut over top.
Put in fridge until solid.
Chop up.
Eat.

Margaret Fulton's ChristmasCake

I make this cake every year and it is a rich fabulous cake that we can never leave alone long enough for it to mature. It's a lot of work cutting up ingredients but if you have help with it's not too bad and definitely worth the effort..


Ingredients:
Dried fruit/nut


375 g raisins chopped
375 g sultanas chopped
250 g currants chopped
125 g mixed peel chopped
125 g glace cherries halved
6 dried apricots, nectarines, peaches, (i sometimes substitute dried mango as well if i cant find peaches chopped.
125g blanched chopped almonds
4 tablespoons rum and brandy


cake mix


250g butter
250g brown sugar
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons marmelade/ golden syrup
1.5 cups plain flour
.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
5 eggs
blanched almonds and glace cherries to decorate


Day before making cake:


chop all nut/ dried fruit  put into large bowl and add alcohol. Mix well.  Cover and leave overnight to soak.


Next day:
Using electric mixer beat butter until soft/ creamed.  Add lemon brown sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add golden syrup. Mix well.
Sift flour, baking powder and mixed spice together in separate bowl.
Add 2 tablespoons flour mixture to dried fruit and mix well so that it doesn't sink to the bottom of the cake.
Add eggs one at a time beating well into mixture, add tablespoon of flour mix to wet mixture if it curdles in between eggs. Add the remaining flour into the cake mix and then fold through the fruit mix. You might want to transfer cake mix into huge mixing bowl to incorporate the fruit otherwise the batter wont fit. (there is a lot of it)


To prepare the tin you need a 24 cm square or round cake tin greased and lined with 2 layers of baking paper. Put the mixture into the tinand drop the tin a couple of times onto the counter to  settle the mixture int the tin.


Decorate with cherries and almonds.


BAKE


In a preheated oven at 150 degrees for 2 and 3/4 hours or until a fine skewer inserted into cake comes away clean.


HINT:


Keep checking on the cake after half way thru and cover the top with foil so it doesn't burn.


When its cooked and removed from oven turn cake upside down lift the paper and sprinkle the hot cake with extra rum/ brandy. Wrap in a clean tea-towel and leave to cool on a cake rack. Wrap in grease proof paper and then foil.


Try keeping your hands off it.... its sensational!!!

Mixed fruit ready!!! Soaking in booze.

All done ......out of oven. Now, how long before we crack it open???

beautiful lemons

My Mum has just returned from visiting friends at their farm near Rylestone.  They grow everything, make their own cheese, sauces, jams and marmalade.  I scored some freshly made goats cheese and several very large lemons.  Hence, a lemon cake tonight.

Thanks to Monica and bestrecipes.com.au - Monica's Lemon Cake

Now to find a recipe for the goats cheese. Or maybe I'll just eat it on crackers...