Wednesday, April 28, 2004
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Culinary Exploits
Inspired by the success of last night's Tom Yam soup I decided that I would try to make meatloaf. I've always been intrigued by meatloaf, but it's such a whitebread recipie that I've never had the guts to try it. I thought about it and really, it's like a meatball, only bigger and baked in a loaf pan. I bought a pair of loaf pans not too long ago and I decided last night to use them to make meatloaf.
1lb ground pork
1lb extra lean ground beef
1 tbsp (heaped) tomato paste
3 squirts mayonnaise
1 tbsp (level) cardamom
1 tbsp (heaped) sage
1 head roasted garlic*
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/2 cup grated Edam
1 cubed portabello mushroom
2 large eggs
1. Put everything except the meat and the eggs into a big bowl and stir until everything is well mixed
2. Add the meat and knead until it doesn't appear that there are two different kinds of meat
3. Add the eggs one at a time, add more eggs if it looks like the mixutre needs more binding
4. Hopefully before step one you preheated your oven to 350ºF (180ºC) *hee hee*
5. Divide the mixture between the two loaf pans and bake for about 45 mins
*Take a head of garlic and chop off half a centimetre from the whole head. Leave the skins on and the cloves attached. Put the whole head into tin foil, pour oil over the head. Close tin foil, bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for one hour. Excellent if you mash it in with mayonnaise and add pepper and chipotle/mexican chilli powder. It's also really good when mashed into potatoes with liberal amounts of butter, but that's not Atkins friendly.
I noticed that the meat shrinks like guys in cold water after it's fully cooked. Tasty meal, and the prep time was so short. Plus Atkins bonus, the entire thing could not possibly be more than 30g of carbs. I could have made it without the garlic, onions or tomato paste, but then it would just be baked, seasoned meat, with mushrooms. I have to say something about portabello mushrooms. Man are they good. I think tonight for dinner I will have some more of that leftover Tom Yam soup and some grilled portabello mushroom. They don't go together, but what the hell, They both taste good. Oh and the meatloaf goes awesome with avocado
So I've been doing Jim's birthday present shopping and so far I've got an impressive list of presents. I bought the one that I'm the most proud of today: a
triops kit. Basically all he needs to do is to add water and these pre-historic things come to life. In less than 30 days they can get 2-3 inches long. The idea is that he's 21, so he needs adult things like a leather wallet to replace his canvas one and an electric shaver for times that he needs to dry-shave, but he still needs to play and that's where the triops kit comes in. I'm just thrilled, can't wait to give him the stuff. I just bought wrapping paper today though, ridiculously overpriced for something that will be torn and thrown away, but I believe in presentation.
Oh yeah, and I'm trying to develop a recipie for low carb chocolate cheesecake. I spoil him sometimes. The important thing is that he spoils me all the time.
posted by Joie! at
4:49 p.m.
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