This unaccountably hideous meatloaf was really deeply fabulous. Beauty is only skin deep. The meal itself was amazing and then the leftover sandwiches were right straight out of my dreams.
First off, Sam Sifton’s column in the NYT had a recipe for beef strogonoff meatloaf. You can see it here. And I thought Oh!! I would so love to make that. (I mean, my mom’s meatloaf is still the gold standard but I’m open to other things) In the planning stages of the meatloaf, as I seem to do with some regularity, things went awry.
I should say that when I read the comments after published recipes I am maddened by people who write . . . Oh! this was soooo good. I substituted tuna for the cheese, added a loaf of fruitcake and a can of tomato soup, as well as a pinch of asafoetida . . .”This” was not soooo good. “This” was something altogether different than the recipe.
And here I was, substituting chicken for beef and then skipping the Worcestershire sauce and I was using Swedish meatball spices instead of whatever in the hell else Sam Sifton was suggesting. I didn’t care, I don’t like him all that much anyway, he’s too precious. He called for foie gras…I am so fucking sure.
Sam Sifton’s recipe was soooo good. No, wait, it wasn’t. I made something else altogether and I loved it. I’ll be checking comments for recipe variations.
My “recipe” follows
And here’s the recipe.
Preheat the oven to 350
1 small box of mushrooms rinsed and processed to bits
and then cooked on the stovetop to
remove excess water
1 medium onion also processed and softened with the mushrooms on the stove.
2 bnls skinls chicken breast, very chilled and then ground up in the same processor.
Let all that cool, add salt pepper, cardamom, a tiny bit of allspice, nutmeg
Put it all back into the processor and dump in a cup or so of panko and an egg
and process briefly, not too much.
Form into a loaf and refrigerate for an hour.
Bake for an hour or so.
In the meantime I’d made a gravy with sour cream, beef stock and dill.
Dill must somehow be involved with this.
I could have just smooshed sour cream on it
and sprinkled it with chopped dill.
this stuff was A. Dietetic, B. Delicious, C. Awesome as leftovers.
What else can you ask for?