Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Meatloaf to the Stars


One of the best leftovers for making sandwiches is meatloaf. The flavors only get better the next day! My favorite meatloaf recipe is from 72 Market Street. It is not your average meatloaf. Sausage and beef, tender fresh vegetables, and loads of seasonings make it a moist and flavorful dish. Once a celebrity owned restaurant in Venice, CA, 72 Market Street closed its doors in 2000. The meatloaf lives on!


Ingredients:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup red bell pepper, minced
1/4 cup green bell pepper, minced
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
1-2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup half-and-half
2 pounds lean ground beef chuck
12 ounces sausage meat (not Italian sausage)
3/4 cup fine fresh bread crumbs, toasted


Procedure:
Melt the butter in a heavy skillet, and add the onion, scallions, carrots, celery, bell peppers, and garlic. Cook until the moisture from the vegetables has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool; then refrigerate, covered, until chilled, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine the salt, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne, cumin, nutmeg, and eggs in a mixing bowl, and beat well. Add the ketchup and half-and-half. Blend thoroughly. Add the ground beef, sausage, and bread crumbs to the egg mixture. Then add the chilled vegetables and mix thoroughly with your hands, kneading for 5 minutes. With damp hands to keep the mixture from sticking, gently press into one large or two small loaf pans. Put loaf pans in one large baking pan. Pour boiling water into the larger pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the loaf pans. Place the loaf pans in their water bath into the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the loaf pans from the water bath, and let the meat loaf rest for 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

2 comments:

SinoSoul said...

I kinda secretly really like meatloaves (and beef stroganoff). Not sure why tho.

Culinary Vixen said...

I never liked meatloaf growing up. My mom's was like a giant hamburger with tomatoey chile sauce on top, very boring. This is the only fancy one I've tried and it is so good I haven't bothered trying another because we only have meatloaf a few times a year, at most.
Stroganoff is interesting because it was food for the Czar and originally made with beef steak cut thinly and cooked down carefully with incredible Russian sour cream added at the end. But Stroganoff, left in the hands of a midwestern housewife armed with a pound of ground beef and a can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom becomes something almost inedible!