Nigella’s Meatloaf

Hellooooo hope you are all well.  It’s good to be back

I’ve been dying to share this meaty recipe with you all.  Before I made this, I had only associated Meatloaf with The Simpsons cartoon, where the kids and Homer moan about how boring it is!  But, reading the ingredients, it didn’t sound boring to me!

I was given Nigella Lawson’s ”Kitchen” cookbook as a Xmas gift (thanks Colin ) and this is the first thing I’ve made from it (although I’ve got my eye on the chicken, chorizo & potato bake llarrr!).  When I’m looking through recipes, I usually look for one that will use up the things I already have at home (waste not, want not and all that jazz).  So this one was perfect.

The recipe calls for beef mince, but I used half beef, half pork (I got the pork for £1 out of Asda, in the “reduced” aisle as it was nearing its sell-by date.  I froze it on day of purchase and let it defrost overnight.  Bargain!).  Here’s what else I used:

Ingredients (Serves 8, apparently. I’d say 6…):

4 eggs

4 onions, diced as finely as you can

500g beef mince

500g pork mince

1 pack of smoked bacon (the recipe calls for 225g thin cut streaky bacon, but I had the thick cut bacon…)

100g breadcrumbs

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

First, I boiled 3 of the eggs (leaving one remaining) and fried the onions till translucent, then allowed to cool.  I also preheated the oven to 200 degrees.

I put the beef, pork, onions and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl, then squished it all together with my hands.  I added the remaining raw egg and breadcrumbs then mixed again.

I took half the mixture and moulded it into a long oval shape, and placed my wee boiled eggs on top.

I moulded the rest of the mixture over the top, pressing down gently to get in all the nooks of the eggs.  I wrapped the lot with my bacon, tucking in at the bottom. 

I put in the oven for 1 hour, then let rest for 15 minutes.

I clearly didn’t tuck it in enough, as it started curling up during cooking.  It’s probably because I used the wrong type of bacon, but I wasn’t bothering.  It’s all getting cut up anyway!

I was so impressed when I cut it open!

I served this in big, hearty chunks with creamy mash, roasted parsnips, marrowfat peas (I HATE garden peas), and smothered it in a gravy I made up using: a glass of red wine and an Oxo cube dissolved in about 200ml water, boiled till reduced slightly, then added a tsp of beef gravy granules, giving it the consistency I wanted (it doesn’t sound like much, but mmmmm it was flavoursome!).

Definitely a lovely, comforting dinner for a miserable day! 

Nigella says she likes to put her leftovers in a sandwich the next day.  I wrapped mines up in foil, put in the fridge and completely forgot about them!  Oops!  What was that I was saying about waste not, want not?

In other news…

I follow a wonderful blog called A Glug of Oil, and one day she posted about a Fairy Hobmother doing the rounds.  He was granting wishes to food bloggers and he gave her an Ice Cream Maker!  I commented on her blog (chanced my arm), and look what came my way…

I’m so unbelievably chuffed with my teeny food processor; it’s so cute!  The Fairy Hobmother is actually Ian from Appliances Online, and he said that anyone who comments with a ”wish” has the chance of being visited by him aswell!  Go for it… you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Anyway, it was lovely posting again.  Now time to go and visit all the food blogs and drool over food (I’ve missed it so!).

Enjoy x

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Nigella’s Chocolate Cheesecake

Well hello Stranger!  I’ve missed you all muchly!

It feels like an age since I last posted, or leisurely perused my favourite food blogs.  When I opened my Google Reader, there was the inevitable “1000+” declaration of unread blog posts waiting for me.

I contemplated clearing out my RSS feed list, saving only my favourite food blogs (like this, this and this…), but as I leafed through each of them, I couldn’t bear it.  They are all too wonderful and I feel I would be depriving myself of wonderful recipes and enjoyment.  Nope.  No blog cull for Moi. 

As I said in my previous post, I have started evening classes.  One for Philosophy and the other for English Literature.  I am thrilled to say that both are going really well and it feels great to use parts of my brain again, that I’d left behind at college some years ago.

Last weeks English Lit class was focused on English Sonnets.  We analysed and discussed 6 sonnets, but one in particular stuck out for me, and I would like to share it with you. 

Shakespeare, Sonnets 130

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, ye well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

At first, I felt outraged on behalf of this poor “mistress” who was paling beyond all comparison.  But then I realised, all these “ideals” (such as having eyes like the sun and snow white skin), were actually being mocked.  That being less than perfect was more endearing and special than any of these stereotypes. 

How utterly refreshing.  As someone who has recently cancelled her gym subscription due to lack of time to go (and feeling a tad out of shape now, huff), reading this was very comforting.  I hope anyone reading it now can also take some comfort, since I’m taking a leaf out of Shakespeare’s book and declaring perfection a falsity! 

Anyways… onto the grub!  I did this cheesecake at my Come Dine With Me night a while back.  I used ginger snaps for the base last time, which was gorgeously stunning, however, I decided to follow the recipe (almost) properly this time, and the results were excellent.  If you make this cake, prepare to be heftily praised!

This is a cake from Nigella’s website.  Find it here.

Ingredients

For the base:

150g x chocolate digestives

50g butter, melted

Filling:

175g x chocolate, roughly chopped (I used Cadbury’s Dairy Milk mmmm)

600g x soft cream cheese

150g x caster sugar

1 tbsp x custard powder

3 x eggs

3 x egg yolks

142ml x pot of sour cream

½ tsp x cocoa (I used Cadbury hot chocolate powder to keep in line with the dairy milk)

Glaze:

75 g x chocolate (Dairy Milk, naturally)

125ml x double cream

1 x tsp golden syrup

Instructions:

Crush the biscuits to within an inch of their life (I used a rolling pin and plenty of aggression) and mix with the melted butter.  Press into the bottom of a springform tin, then shove in the freezer whilst you make the filling.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Melt the 175g chocolate (I melted it in a glass bowl, placed over a pot of boiling water, but you can microwave if you prefer).  Put aside to cool.

Beat the cream cheese (I used my hand mixer).  Add your sugar and custard powder and beat again.  Beat in your eggs, egg yolks and sour cream. 

Dissolve your cocoa powder in a few tbsps hot water.  Add that to the mix, along with your melted chocolate.  Mix it all into a smooth, even consistency.

Take the springform tin out of the freezer and line the outside of the tin with a good layer of clingfilm, and then another layer of strong foil over that. This will protect it from the water bath.

 

Sit the springform tin in a roasting pan and pour in the cheesecake filling. Fill the pan with just-boiled water, to come about halfway up the cake tin, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. The top of the cheesecake should be set, but the underneath should still have a wobble to it.

 

Peel away the foil and clingfilm wrapping and sit the cheesecake in its tin on a rack to cool. Put in the fridge once it’s no longer hot, and leave to set, covered with clingfilm, overnight. Let it lose its chill before unspringing the cheesecake to serve.

To make the glaze, melt your 75g chocolate, then add the cream and syrup.  Take off the heat and whisk thoroughly, until it starts to look like a smooth sauce.  Resist eating it all with a spoon at this point.

Nigella likes to “Jackson Pollock” the sauce over the cheesecake.  To be fair, this was my original intention.  I completely ballsed it up, however, hence my decision to just cover the entire surface of it with chocolate.

I sprinkled a bit too much cocoa powder over the top.  It’s not much to look at, admittedly.  But you and I both know that anything containing THAT much dairy milk in it is bound to be a success.

 

Enjoy! :) And have a good weekend! x

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