Meat Loaf by Any Other Name

After a few lovely cakes it's time to do a savoury dish. My friend Fran (Miss Alison Regrets) and I were going out to see The Eels so I cooked dinner before we went up to the Enmore Theatre. I flicked through the Meat Section (page 55). Having decided against Savory Sheep's Tounges,Cow's Foot Jelly Brawn or Kidney Omelet, I chose to do Canelon of Beef. While it sounds fancy it really is just Meatloaf.

I have my grandma Quinn's mincer so I decided to be at one with my sister housewives and use it rather than buy pre-minced blade steak. The mincer is very old - patent information on the handle refers to 1897. Mum got it after grandma died in 1981 and she would use it for making breadcrumbs.  The clamp doesn't fit on my bench so I put it onto a chopping board and tried to weigh the chopping board down. It was a bit of a struggle as the chopping board would move around. However, I got a lovely mince out of it - it took about 20 minutes to do 1kg while the potatoes were boiling.

Making mince meat

I seem to always miss an ingredient - this time it was the bacon - the other day it was salt. I found this out just after I had shaped it into its long roll. So I chopped it up and massaged it into the roll and popped it in the oven.

Canelon of Beef - ready to go in the oven

Making Gravy
My idea of brown gravy:
Chop half an onion and one clove of garlic finely, sweat with 1tbs of butter in a fry pan. Add a large teaspoon of Vegemite and a cup of stock. Simmer for a few minutes and then add a 1tbs of flour (blended with water) to thicken. Simmer. Add water to reach desired consistency. Add black pepper to taste.

The cooked product

Served on one of Uncle Arch's embroideries

Verdict

This recipe was simple although a bit of prep as I didn't have mash potato lying around and I insisted on mincing the meat. I also needed to make breadcrumbs. To make easier you could purchased minced meat. I probably could have asked for that to be done at the butcher. It makes rather a lot - feed a family of four easily with leftovers. It would be easy to halve the recipe. I am going to pop my leftovers in the freezer.

As my friend Simon pointed out I didn't say what it tasted like. It was surprisingly tasty given the lack of flavourings - only salt and pepper. The gravy was just lovely on top and did add a lot to the taste of the overall dish. The meatloaf had a dense texture and so two small slices were more than enough. It has also lived on in toasted sandwiches at work and has not lost any of its flavour.