Recipe: Home-Style Meatloaf with Roasted Red Potatoes

Meatloaf seems to be one of those love/hate foods for most people: either it's something your mom or grandma made for you when you were a kid and it brings back fond memories of tater tots and macaroni art, or it was a dry, gray, tasteless loaf of awful that the lunch lady slapped onto your plate on "Meatloaf Mondays." It's not a food you'll see on most restaurant menus, likely being deemed too "humble" for out-for-dinner diners, and it's probably not even in your family's regular rotation of meals, but when it's actually prepared and cooked well, it's really quite tasty. The recipe I used for last night's dinner came from my On Cooking textbook from the intro. culinary arts classes I took in the fall of 2011. A bit of tomato juice keeps the meatloaf moist and a few splashes of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce give it a little kick. Cooked in the oven for an hour, this meatloaf comes out perfectly tender, and the light brushing of ketchup over the top and sides give it great flavor without excess (one of the things I used to think of when I thought about meatloaf was the obs-and-gobs of ketchup that often get mixed in—so gross!). Roasted red potatoes are a little classier than creamy mashed potatoes, and pair perfectly with the flavorful meatloaf.

It's kind of hard to make meatloaf look attractive, but I swear it's delicious

Servings: 2, 9x5 loaves; Approx. 4 servings of potatoes
Prep. time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 large onion or 2-3 shallots, finely chopped
• 2-3 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb. ground beef (I usually go for 93% lean)
• 1 lb. ground meat of your choice (I used ground venison that my dad brought back from a hunting trip—very very tasty. Ground pork or ground veal would work too. Mixing meats means more flavor.)
• 3 oz. bread crumbs, fresh or dry
• 1/2 cup tomato juice (I blended up diced tomatoes because we didn't have juice on hand)
• 1 egg, beaten
• Approx. 2-3 tbsp. dried parsley
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• Approx. 10-12 red potatoes, washed and cut into halves or quarters
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Ketchup, as needed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Heat a splash of olive oil and a pat of butter in a medium pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion/shallot, celery, and garlic and cook until tender (approx. 5 minutes). In a large bowl, add the two meats, bread crumbs, tomato juice, egg, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce and mix together until fairly evenly mixed. Add the celery, onion/shallot, and garlic to the meat mixture and mix together. Add salt and pepper, as desired (about 1 tsp. each, or more as needed), and mix. Divide the mixture up into two even batches and either form into loaves and place in ungreased loaf pans, or form into loaves and place in a large shallow pan (there needs to be a bit of an edge to it, because the loaves will release fat as they cook and that'll drip right off a flat cookie sheet). When forming the loaves, be sure not to pack them too tightly or too loosely, and make sure there are no cracks in the loaves (cracks will inevitably cause the loaves to fall apart while baking). Brush the tops (and sides, if you're baking in a large pan) of the loaves with ketchup. Place the potato pieces on a greased sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss to evenly coat (I added Penzey's Shallot Pepper to mine because I used shallots in the meatloaf—feel free to add some dried shallots or chives, or even a few slices of fresh onion or shallot to the potatoes to add flavor). Fold the foil over to create a sealed packet for the potatoes to cook in and place the packet in the oven. Place the meatloaf in the oven. Bake for approx. 1 hour, until the meatloaf has reached an internal temperature of 165*F and the potatoes are cooked through and tender. Remove them all from the oven and let everything rest for a few minutes. Slice the meatloaf and serve alongside potatoes and any desired condiments (my dad loves mustard with his meatloaf and I like to dip mine in just a little bit of ketchup).

This dish is an easy-to-make comfort meal that kids and adults alike will enjoy. The veggies and seasoning in the meatloaf give it great flavor, while the tomato juice and ketchup "glaze" help keep it moist (and colorful!—no yucky gray meatloaf here!). Tender red potatoes are the perfect accompaniment to the meatloaf and a big ol' glass of Coca-Cola probably wouldn't hurt the overall meal either. As for getting two loaves with this meal, just serve one for dinner later in the week or freeze it for a month or two and enjoy it later. 

Recipe: Pecan-Panko Chicken with Maple Mashed Potatoes and Maple Honey Mustard Sauce

Each time my parents head up to State College, they stop by Wegman's and come home with bags and bags of groceries, and one of those bags always has some interesting new fruit or veggie for me to cook with. They spent part of this past weekend up there and, as usual, brought me a unique food to try: name (pronounced "nah-may"), a root vegetable very much like a potato. I struggled to find any information about this tuber online, but eventually stumbled upon a recipe that involved baking and mashing it. I carefully followed the directions (400*F for 1 hour), but the result was a still-fairly-hard root that ended up getting popped in the microwave until it eventually softened up. I mashed it, I added the maple cream mixture, and we prepared ourselves for our first taste of this new-to-us tuber...and, it tasted a lot like a bland potato. So, for this recipe, I'm just going to substitute in potatoes for the name, because really, the name isn't worth it and making mashed potatoes is super easy.
This dish as a whole is absolutely delicious: nutty, crunchy pecan chicken pairs beautifully with the slight maple flavor in the buttery cream mixture that's blended into the potatoes and a sweet-and-savory maple honey mustard sauce pulls the whole dish together.

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25-35 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 2-4 chicken breasts, pounded out to 1/2 inch thickness 
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped (a food processor is best for this)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 to 1 cup flour

For the potatoes

• 4-8 Idaho or russet potatoes, peeled and cut into similarly sized chunks (you can use red/new potatoes or Yukon gold if desired)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 stick (4 tbsp.) unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp. pure/real maple syrup
• Salt and pepper

Sauce

• 2 tbsp. pure/real maple syrup
• 2 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. spicy brown mustard
• 2 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400*F. Place the potato chunks in a large pot and add just enough water to cover them, then set aside. Pour the panko and finely chopped pecans into a large bowl, season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Put the egg and flour into separate bowls. Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour, then the egg, and then the pecan-panko mixture—be sure to completely coat the chicken in each thing (there should be no raw chicken visible through the coating). Set the chicken breasts on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through, but tender. Once the chicken is in the oven, bring the pot of water and potatoes to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through and tender. While the chicken and potatoes are cooking, add all of the ingredients for the sauce, except the heavy cream, together in a small saucepan and bring briefly to a boil. Reduce the heat, gradually whisk in the heavy cream, and reduce the heat all the way to low. In a different sauce pan, melt the butter for the potatoes and set aside. When the potatoes are done, drain them in a colander, return them to the pot, and mash them. Add the melted butter, heavy cream, maple syrup, and salt and pepper (add more cream or butter, as needed—some people like really buttery potatoes, others like them less wet) and mash to combine the ingredients—don't over-mash them, because they will get gluey. When the chicken is done, plate each piece along side a big dollop of mashed potatoes and serve with the maple honey mustard sauce. For some added health, add roasted vegetables (I roasted broccoli with olive oil, salt, and pepper for 10 minutes in the oven, alongside the chicken).

This dish is the perfect meeting of savory and sweet. The pecans, heavy cream, and copious amounts of butter make this dish decadent and comforting all at once, while the flavors of the maple syrup and honey add sweetness to the dish. The sauce could easily work as a dip for chicken tenders, but for this dish, it's perfect as a sort of gravy for the potatoes and chicken breast.

Recipe: Sloppy Joes and Rough Cut, Beer-Battered French Fries

My dad mentioned the other night that he'd been craving sloppy joes, something we used to eat a lot when I was a kid but haven't had recently. I offered to find a recipe for them, and decided to pair them with some homemade, battered fries (I've been chomping at the bit to try making french fries with my Breville deep fryer). Now, despite my dislike of Rachael Ray, her husky voice, and her silly catchphrases (EVOO. Ugh.), it was her recipe for Super Sloppy Joes that I decided to work off of, and I found my beer-battered french fried recipe on Man vs. Kitchen. I didn't change much with either recipe, except to mess about with seasonings a little bit, and the food turned out great. Meaty, falling-out-of-the-bun sloppy joes + crispy-fluffy French fries = good ol' fashioned American food that's perfect on a warm day. It was a great meal last night, and evidently (according to my dad, who was on his own for dinner tonight), the meal as leftovers was just as good.

Serves: 4-6
Prep. time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: About 20 minutes for the meat, and up to an hour for the fries (they must be fried in small batches)
Difficulty: Easy (frying without a deep fryer can be tricky though—look for instructions on how to do this online)
Special Equipment: Deep fryer

Ingredients
For the french fries

• 5-7 small to medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into french fry sticks (it's okay if the fries are all slightly different sizes, as long as they're still fairly similar in width; keep peeled potatoes submerged in water to keep them from turning brown)
• Milk (enough to fill a pot until just above the cut potatoes)
• 2&1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. black pepper
• 1-3 tsp. ground red cayenne pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1 cold bottle of beer (I used Yuengling Lager; you can use your favorite beer, but I suggest not using any light beers or really cheap beers, like Natural Light and Budweiser)
• Vegetable oil for frying (canola oil or peanut oil would also be good)

For the sloppy joes

• 1&1/2 lb. ground beef sirloin (93% lean, or something very close to that, is best)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 medium onion, finely diced (I basically minced mine—bigger chunks of onion just don't taste good in sloppy joes and burgers, and they mess up the texture)
• 1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• A small pinch of ground red cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• Olive oil (enough to lightly coat the bottom of a pan)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Sandwich rolls
• Condiments of your choice, if desire (cheddar cheese slices, lettuce, sliced green bell peppers, sliced tomatoes, and sliced red onions are all good choices)

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a slightly deep, large pan over medium heat. Crumble the ground beef a little bit and toss it into the pan. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, break up the meat and let it cook until it starts to lose its pink color. Add in the brown sugar, red wine vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce and stir into the meat to combine, then cook until the meat is lightly browned. Add in the onion and cook for another 5 minutes. Add in the tomato sauce and paste, cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to low and let the mixture simmer while you prepare the french fries (as long as the heat is low, the mixture can cook for quite some time—longer cooking lets the flavors really blend). 

Preheat the oil for frying (if using a deep fryer, the temperature should be at 375*F). Preheat the oven to its lowest temperature. Peel and cut the potatoes, rinse them thoroughly in cold water, submerge them in milk in a large pot, and put them in the fridge. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients for the french fry batter. Whisk the two eggs together in a small bowl, then stir into the dry mixture. Slowly pour the cold beer into the mixture, stirring the batter as you go. The finished batter will be very thick and slightly lumpy. Place a cooling rack over a cookie sheet (the battered fries will rest on this and drain a bit before getting thrown in the fryer) and layer paper towels on another cookie sheet. Drain the potatoes, then return them to the pot. Dunk each fry into the batter, then place on the cooling rack (you probably won't be able to fit every fry on there, so just batter them in batches). Drop a large handful of fries into the frying oil (make sure the oil is 375*F), then quickly poke around at them to keep them from sticking. Fry for about 5-7 minutes (they may need a little longer) until golden brown and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside (I used tongs to lightly squeeze the fries to check for internal softness). Put the finished fries on the paper towel-covered cookie sheet to drain them/soak up some of the oil. After a minute or two, place the finished fries in an oven-safe dish and transfer to the oven to keep them warm. Repeat the frying and draining process and add finished fries to the dish in the oven. 

Serve the sloppy joe mixture on sandwich buns or rolls (great plain or with condiments) and serve the french fries alongside. Best eaten with a cold bottle of beer to drink on the side. :D

This is such a perfect casual dish for a warm, sunny day. The meaty, salty, tomato-y flavors of the sloppy joes pair perfectly with the slightly spicy, slightly salty, slightly beer-y fries, and the textures, soft and crunchy, are perfect together.