The Mighty Meatloaf
I can remember something that happened to me very early on in my culinary career. I was about 18 years old and working in my first real upscale kitchen. One afternoon the maitre ‘d comes in to ask chef what the specials for the evening are going to be and he exclaims very excitedly, “oh, are you doing that meatloaf again?”
I had been busy prepping away in my salad station and hadn’t been paying attention to what chef was doing. Upon hearing what the maitre ‘d said, I’ll confess that I was mortified. Here I was working in this fancy restaurant and the chef is going to serve a meatloaf? Needless to say, I was naive and more than a little too proud of myself at the time.
As it turned out, it was a meatloaf, but one that was being made with fresh ground bison and wild mushrooms and going to be finished with a cabernet demi glace. The guests that had it that evening raved and after service, when the sous-chef plated us up some for our staff meals, I’ll admit that my knees went weak upon tasting it. From that day on, I refused to look down my nose at a meatloaf ever again.
Pat from Frugal Living at About.com did a great article on the mighty meatloaf a couple of weeks ago. As she says, a meatloaf is always a great opportunity to use up some leftovers or get a pound of meat to behave like it’s a couple of pounds.
A meatloaf is essentially a mixture of meat, binder and filler; and the number of different permutations possible are truly endless. Whether it’s bison and mushrooms, ground chunk and bread crumbs, or tuna and vegetables; all it takes is a little imagination to spice things up and you’ll never be at a loss for a quick frugal dinner.
Check out Pat’s article - Meatloaf: The Ultimate Frugal Recipe - here for more ideas.
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POSTED IN: Doing it Yourself, Frugal Gourmet
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