Comfort Food: Meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes

Ms. F has been injured and is stuck at home for a week, recovering. The weather has just in the past 24 hours turned pretty cool here in the D of C. The World Series is on. These three events conspire to demand comfort food. Tonight: Meat Loaf, mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts with leeks.

Just getting started. Those are onions cooking in the pan.

To start: go to the butcher and get a good Meat Loaf mix. I use about a pound or pound-and-a-quarter of meat in the loaf, an even mix of beef, veal, and pork. A former relative of mine used country breakfast sausage instead of straight, ground pork. It worked beautifully. Either way, they will come in separate piles, mix them evenly in a good sized bowl with the following:

--a cup of breadcrumbs
--two or three large eggs
--half a good sized onion diced and sautéed (let it cool before mixing it in)
--2/3 cup of catsup
--1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley
--a good pinch of dried thyme
--salt
--pepper

All together now. Just dig your fingers into it and give a good mixing. 

Pile all of this on a baking pan or in a baking dish, as you prefer and put it in the oven, preheated to 350F. Cook until the temp is 160 degrees (60-ish minutes); let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

Going in. 

Coming out. 

This goes perfectly with mashed potatoes. There are many ways to do these, this is one that I use regularly. Start with fingerling potatoes and slice them into 1/4 inch disks--don't bother peeling them-- seriously why so picky? Put them in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat a bit and simmer until they are just cooked through. Drain these and place them back into the pot.

Now you get to be creative. You can add milk, butter, sour cream, horseradish and/or some combination of the above. I use pretty much everything I've got in the fridge. You don't have to whip these into submission, either. If you mash them with a fork, they will be terrifically chunky. If you use a masher, they'll be about a medium mash. Mostly mash them first, then start adding extras.

We also serve brussels sprouts and leeks. Slice off the nub end and then slice the sprouts in half. Now the leek: slice off the dark green end and sprouted end of the leek. Clean it well to get the sand out, then slice the leek in half lengthwise, then into disks and then again into 1/4 inch slices. Drop all of the sprouts and leek into a heated pan with a couple spots of olive oil and maybe a tab of butter. Stir regularly until the sprouts are cooked through.

The loaf goes well with a medium red. We had a very nice California Pinot Noir.