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 :D) 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!

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

14 Comments

  1. rick bissell

    I wish that the fairy hobmother would grant me my ultimate wish of a food mixer so that i can give my aching arm a well deserved rest from all the cakes I bake.
    I love to make breads as well and those handy gadgets that make our lives a lot more easier in the 21st century would be loved and cared for in my humble little kitchen of creation.

  2. hopeeternal

    Catherine: We love meat loaf but I do agree that some recipes are really boring. I have a great one with lumps of cheese through it that I must make and post sometime. I like the surprise eggs in this one.
    Lucky you to get a mini chopper from the fairy hobmother. I would not be without mine which I was lucky enough to buy at a church fayre for £2 – a bargain. It’s one kitchen item I would definitely replace. I have a fair number of gadgets but no stand food mixer – just an ageing food processor and a great hand mixer still going strong but not sure for how much longer (inherited from my gran who died nearly 20 years ago).
    What I really covet is a bean to cup espresso machine or something that would give me low fat chips and other ‘fried’ foods – if only it existed.
    hopeeternal
    ‘Meanderings through my Cookbook’

    1. noblenourishment

      Hope, the addition of lumps of cheese sounds tremendous! I would also love a contraption that took the fat (but not the taste) out of deep fried foods! 🙂

  4. MaryMoh

    Mmmm…that looks delicious. I don’t think I have made a meatloaf before. This looks delicious I hope to try one day. Thanks very much for showing the step by step instructions in pictures.

  5. Janice

    Lovely looking meatloaf, streaky bacon would probably work better for wrapping. The egg in the centre looks sooo good.

    I’ve had a visit from the Fairy Hobmother, so my wish has already been granted 🙂

    1. noblenourishment

      Indeed; next time I try meatloaf I’m using streaky bacon and trying out Hope’s tip of cheese chunks through it, yum!

      Awww a happy ending from the Fairy Hobmother yay 🙂

  6. greedy rosie

    Hey there, thanks for visiting my blog.

    That looks great!
    I’ve only had one attempt at meatloaf, and it didn’t work out that well. I like the look of yours though.

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