In the Kitchen With Mattie

Archive for January, 2010

Hubby loves meatloaf, me not so much. I mean I will eat it but it isn’t one of my favorite things, I would much rather have a plain burger. However, as he likes the dish so much I have made these little meatloaves so he can have them whenever he wants, I keep some in the freezer for him to heat in the microwave whenever the mood hits him. When I used to make just one large meatloaf we would eat it for dinner one night and then often the rest would end up in the garbage after sitting in the fridge for a week. By making them single portion size and then freezing them it has become economical for us, and he gets to have his meatloaf whenever he wants, a win, win situation for sure.

I usually cook these on a small George Foreman type grill (mine is a small VillaWare grill that I love) while I put together a gravy for them, when they are cooked I then add them to the gravy and let them simmer a few minutes.

                                                       Individual Meatloaves

2 pounds lean ground beef or meatloaf mix

2 large eggs scrambled together

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 large onion diced fine

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

1/2 cup milk

1 small green, red or yellow pepper diced small

1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped finely

Mix all ingredients together well and form into 8 mini meatloaves. Cook either on a grill or in a frying pan until done. You can also bake them on a sheet pan in a 325 degree oven for about 45 minutes.  When finished add them to the gravy and let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Serve with rice or potatoes. Portion extra loaves into appropriate size containers and freeze.

                                                         Meatloaf Gravy

1 onion sliced into thin wedges

1 pepper, red, green or yellow sliced into thin wedges

1/4 cup all purpose flour

3 cups home made beef stock, heated to a simmer

1 teaspoon Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet

1 tablespoon sherry

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons oil

Add oil to saute pan and heat over medium flame. When hot add the onions and pepper and cook until they begin to soften, stirring frequently.  Add flour and mix well, add broth gradually while constantly stirring. When all broth is added add sherry and Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet and let simmer for 10 minutes, taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Add the cooked meatloaves and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.

                                                    Meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef

1 egg

1/2 small onion diced small

2 cloves fresh garlic smashed

1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped fine

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon oregano fresh chopped

2 slices white bread soaked in 1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

In a saute pan place 2 tablespoons of the oil, saute the onion and garlic until limp but not brown, place aside to cool a little. Into a mixing bowl add the meat, egg, and the seasonings and the bread/milk mixture, add the onion garlic mixture and mix it all together well. From into meatballs about 2 inches in diameter and fry in the saute pan in the rest of the oil until nice and brown all over. Add to your favoite tomato sauce and simmer for 30 minutes, serve over pasta or ravioli as we had here.

If you are looking for fancy or gourmet meals this may not be the web blog for you. As you can see we eat very simply, we are in other words just basic meat and potato people. I am capable of going high end in my cooking skills, but truthfully my kids and hubby never preferred to eat that way so simple it has always been. Tonight we had a nice small roast beef with some spaetzles that my grandmother taught me to make more than 50 years ago, they were my favorite thing that she made, my older sons also love them but hubby and the youngest don’t like them at all. I made hubby some buttered noodles and we also had broccoli and gravy for the meat.  There are special tools that people use to make the spaetzles but my grandmother would always form them on the edge of a tablespoon so I do it that way too, you can do them the actual tradional way but in honor of my Nana I will always do mine her way.

                                                         Roast Beef

3 pound eye of round roast

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon Maggi seasoning

1/4 cup all purpose flour mixed into 1 cup water

2 cups strong home made beef stock

Remove the roast from the refridgerator one hour before cooking, mix all seasoning together and rub all over roast. When ready to cook heat the oven to 400 degrees and place roast on rack in shallow roasting pan. Insert temperature probe into center of the roast and place roast in oven. Roast until 135 to 140 for medium. Remove from oven and tent with foil on platter while you make the gravy, let rest at least 15 minutes.

For gravy, place roasting pan on stovetop and turn burner to medium low, add 1/2 cup red wine and stir to incorporate the browned bits from the pan, add 2 cups home made beef stock and one teaspoon Maggi seasoning and cook until boiling. Add flour and water mixture and stir and boil for 5 minutes, adjust seasonings if needed,serve on the side with roast.

                                                            Nanas  Spaetzles

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons softened butter (not melted)

2 large eggs beaten

1/2 cup whole milk

In a medium bowl place the flour and salt and mix together, add the butter and stir into the flour and salt. Add the eggs and milk and stir together into a dough, it will be a little lumpy, it shouldn’t be smooth like a pancake batter.

Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil and when it boils add one tablespoon salt to it. Take a tablespoon and dip it into the water then pick up some dough with the side of the spoon (do not fill the whole spoon with the dough, just the long edge) Dip the filled sppon into the boiling water and give it a little shake to dislodge the dough, repeat until all the dough is used. When the spaetzle rise to the top lower the heat to a low boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and serve or you can saute them in some butter in a pan until they brown a little, there are many ways to prepare them but we have always just had them the basic way Nana made them.

 This is one of our favorite dishes, simple to make, tastes great and makes a good chicken salad if there is any left the next day.

                                                           Brick Chicken

1 Whole chicken, brined for 2 hours in solution of 1 cup kosher salt, 1 smashed garlic clove, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary in one gallon cold water.

1 lemon cut in half

salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, 2 tablespoons softened butter all mixed together

2 bricks covered with aluminum foil or 1 large paving stone covered in foil

To do this indoors use a heavy large (cast iron if you have it) frying pan. Remove the chicken from the brine and drain it well, turn the chicken back side up and with a pair of poultry shears cut the back bone out on either side of the ribs, remove and either save it for making stock or discard it. Open the chicken out with the breast and legs facing up toward you and proceed to press down on the breast bone to flatten it. Twist and turn the wing tips up and flatten out the whole chicken as flat as you can get it. Slide your hand under the skin along each side of the breast and rub the butter along the breast meat, lay the skin down and work the butter as far down into the leg area as you can, be careful not to tear the skin.

Place the skillet over medium heat and let it get hot for about 5 minutes, when it is hot brush it with a thin coating of oil and carefully place the chicken skin side down into the pan. Cover the chicken with the bricks, pressing down so the skin makes contact with the pan. Lower the heat to medium low and allow the chicken to cook for 8-10 minutes without disturbing it. At the end of 8 minutes remove the bricks and carefully check the underside to see that the skin is well browned and crisp, if it is then with tongs carefully turn the chicken over. Replace the bricks and let this side cook for another 10 minutes. Check the temp with a digital thermometer and when it registers 160 degrees remove the chicken to a platter and let it rest for 10 minutes, the temp should rise to a little over 165 degrees during the resting period. Cut chicken into serving pieces and enjoy. Squeeze the lemon halves over the chicken if you like. We had this with simple home fried potatoes and onions.

 

We had an old standby tonight, breaded pork chops with Mac and Cheese. The kids used to like this meal when they were small, the older two boys still do but the youngest doesn’t eat too much of a variety of foods anymore so I think he’d only eat the Mac and Cheese at this point in time. You may be saying that I cook awful big portions for our dinner as there are only 2 of us home anymore, but I cook planning on hubby taking a nice lunch the next day instead of eating at Mickey D’s or other fast food place, he does prefer to eat the things I make at home and I am glad of that.

                                                      Breaded Pork Chops

4-6 bone in center cut pork chops, soaked in brine for 1 hour, 1/2 cup salt in one gallon water

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, about 1/2 teaspoon of each

oil for sheet pan, about 1/4 cup

Take pork from brine and coat with bread crumbs, place on sheet pan coated with the oil, and place into an oven that has been pre heated to 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes depending on how thick your chops are. Check with a thermometer and bring up to 155 degrees, remove from oven and let sit loosely covered with foil for 10 minutes.

                                         Macaroni and Cheese

6 ounces of elbow or other small size pasta

4 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded

1 cup fontina, shredded

1 cup mozzarella, shredded

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Boil pasta and when al dente, drain and rinse in cool water drain again, set aside. Mix all the cheese together and set aside 1 cup of the  cheese mixture for later. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan heat the butter and when it is bubbling add the flour and the salt, peppers and mustard, cook for 3 minutes,  keep stirring, add the milk and cream little by little and continue cooking until the mixture comes to a low boil and is thickened up. Take the mixture off the heat and add the sherry, add the cheeses to the sauce (keeping the 1 cup aside), mix well until the cheese is melted. Add the drained macaroni to the sauce and mix again, divide into two small casseroles and top with the cheese that was set aside, sprinkle with a little paparika and heat in the oven until the tops browns. You can also top these with a little buttered crumbs for a crunchy top.