Food is nostalgic.


 

I know there are people who eat to live, rather than live to eat. I admire that healthy approach to food, really. Because I like to taste the way I used to feel, which usually keeps me in the kitchen day and night.

One answer to this is my meatloaf – in all different variations. Sometimes I make it Salisbury Steak-ish (“roasted” corn next to garlic mashed potatoes give it a modern day feel), Southwestern (with a Santa Fe Caesar Salad – yum!), or Greek (cubed Feta on the side, with a cracked wheat salad). My basic meatloaf is a mish-mosh of different meatloaves I’ve tried, variations on cultural themes, and it has a magnificent glaze with a sweet-spicy thing going on.

Incorporating herbs, spices, starches, fats and flavor into ground meat is not a new idea, in fact, people have been doing it for centuries. During the Great Depression this idea enabled cooks to get a protein-rich dish to more people. If you couldn’t afford a steak, you could take ground meat, stretch it with some crushed cereal or oatmeal, cook it for many and eat it cold the next day. How resourceful is that? We do this every time we cook meatloaf from our 21st century kitchens. Hunger has a long memory.

But I admit meatloaf gets boring. “Meatloaf again?” the kids say come 6:00pm, shoulders slouched at the dinner table. Yes, meatloaf can be just as exciting as boneless, skinless chicken breasts for the fifth time in eight days, or re-runs of Saturday morning cartoons. To use the same staple every week and get the family excited about it takes imagination. Yet, once you understand the proteins, starches, dairy, lipids and flavor enhancers, a new world opens up.

I remember when soy sauce made something “Asian”, salsa made something “Mexican” or Parmesan made something “Italian”. That is so 20th century. Have you noticed how many different “Grilling Spices” or levels of cumin can be found at your corner grocery? How about the popularity of chipotles? Get a load of these hip accoutrements. I like to get tangy with fish sauce, nutty with browned butter, and I go crazy with plum infused barbeque sauce. All can be used to build a better meatloaf, to empower an often disregarded classic.

How sweet it is to make a traditional dish with cutting edge additions. It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s dinner time, and if your house is anything like mine, anything goes.

Basic Meatloaf
1-2 lbs. ground meat (turkey or beef – ground sirloin works great)
½ cup breadcrumbs (soak in milk if you like)
2 eggs
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp. ketchup or tomato paste
1 tbsp. Worcestshire Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Glaze:
1 cup ketchup
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp. Worcestshire Sauce
1 tsp. brown sugar
Dash Tabasco

Mix all ingredients for meatloaf together in a bowl.

Place in loaf pan.

Mix ingredients for glaze together in a separate bowl.

With a spatula, smear glaze over raw meatloaf in pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.