Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tap-Dancing Meatloaf

Today's post features a recipe created by Marc at norecipes.com. His blog is awesome...he shares awesome recipes...in short, you should follow him. Not around physically, but digitally...please don't stalk.

Here's the original recipe: Killer Meatloaf. I, however, like to call this dish Tap-Dancing Meatloaf. Because that's what happens when you eat this. If you've never had meatloaf tap dance in your mouth, you're missing out. Seriously. If that hasn't yet convinced you to take on this dish...I shall move on to describing the ingredients. Meat (obviously). Bread crumbs, egg, milk (still normal). Soy and Worcestershire sauce (OK...). Shredded cheddar. Garlic. Onions. Powdered mustard (Getting better!). Roasted red peppers. Hard-boiled eggs. Bacon. (Aha! You're drooling.)

How awesome I think certain recipes are usually corresponds to how impressed people will be when they eat it. Not entirely, of course...but I find myself taking note of that sort of thing. This dish stands out--you roast your own red peppers, then roll them, the bacon, and the eggs up in the meat mixture...when you slice it, it looks friggin cool.Unfortunately, I don't have a good pic of this because I was too impatient...let this be a lesson to you...LET THE MEATLOAF STAND a good 10-15 minutes or so if you want the slices to be photogenic...

I rounded out the meal with my baked oven fries. I used paprika, mustard, Italian herbs, garlic, and onion for these to compliment the flavors in the meatloaf.

Two techniques that I learned in making this recipe:
1. Roasting peppers. Marc puts this pretty clearly in his post, but here's the gist. Quarter a red pepper. Put the pieces skin-up on a broiling pan. Broil them until the skins are charred (took me about 10 minutes). Pop in a sandwich bag and let come to room temp. The pepper will sweat, making it super easy to peel off the un-tasty skin. Done!
2. Boiling eggs. This may be old hat to many of you, but I have always felt a little uneasy about boiling eggs. How long do they need to be in there? Cuz you know there's no return after you crack the suckas and they're not cooked. So here's a new method I tried that worked just peachy: Put the eggs in a pot and fill with water until they're covered by 1 inch. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for ten minutes. Dump them into an ice water bath for 5 or so minutes. Peel! Miraculous. And remember that older eggs peel nicer...it's because the egg shell is porous, so the longer the egg sits in your fridge, the more air gets sucked in. More air inside the shell = more space between the albumen (10-cent word of the day for EGG WHITE) and the shell = easier peeling. Ta da!

My main recommendation for tweaking this recipe is to either put the bacon on top of the meatloaf, or fry it up before inserting. If you bake the meatloaf with the raw bacon in it, the bacon obviously does not crisp up...it is somehow very unsettling and floppy. Also, I'd recommend making 3 or 4 times the amount of glaze...it is great to serve with the meatloaf. Don't forget to let the loaf stand 10 minutes or so for clean slices...and also, don't be surprised if it takes a bit longer than 1 hour to get to 160 degrees.

Enjoy...and post your own pics when you take this fun recipe on.