Nigella's Meatloaf with Roasted Potatoes and Capers

In the years that I’ve been cooking, I noticed a phenomenon: Give me a recipe where the ingredient list runs for a page, requires hours of prepping, and close attention to detail, and I can usually have it come out fine. However, present me with a short, simple recipe that comes together in no time flat, and there’s a very good chance I’ll muck it up. Have no idea why, but it seems to be the way it is.

Take, for example, meatloaf. How hard is it to make? There aren’t tons of ingredients. You basically toss everything into a bowl, squish it around until blended, pop onto a pan, and throw it into the oven. Easy-peasy. But I could never get one to come out right. Somehow I would mess up the ratio of binder to egg or something -- even though I would be following a recipe --  and it would either be too dry or so moist it would fall apart. After more than a few attempts of trying my hand at making a successful meatloaf, I almost gave up.

But then…then I watched Nigella Lawson make this recipe on TV. If you’ve never seen Nigella, trust in the fact that she could make the task of boiling water a sensual experience. She loves and adores food. Add to the fact that she has a wicked sense of humor and makes few excuses about using decadent ingredients, she is uniquely qualified to be deemed a Domestic Goddess. Okay, so maybe I have a little bit of a girl crush on her. But really and true, after seeing her make this meatloaf, it was enough to make me want to give it a go.

I’ve ended up making this recipe a few times and, not to spoil the surprise, have had excellent results every single instance. You’ll note that her recipe starts with hard boiling some eggs. I’ve tried it with and without the eggs and still love it. As you’ll see as we get this party started, I opted to forego the eggs this time around. And because I'm not feeding an army, I halved the recipe.

Instead of starting with the eggs, I jumped in at the next step, which happens to use one of my favorite ingredients:

Uh-huh…bacon fat that I just happened to have reserved in the fridge from a previous pork fat outing. Sigh…isn’t it just lovely to look at? Better yet, to smell?

Anyway, after I melted the bacon fat in my pan, I tossed in the chopped onions.

 They coated themselves in the bacony goodness until they turned a lovely brown.

I set the pan aside for the onions to cool and started working on the other ingredients for the meatloaf. Into a bowl, I put 1/2 pound each of ground beef and ground pork, along with some Worcestershire sauce. I used both the beef and pork because ground beef on its own here in Belize is lean, lean, lean. The ground pork helps give it some needed moisture. I learned this after making burgers a few times.

The now-cooled onions were also added into the bowl:

I gave the mixture a quick smush to start incorporating everything, then added one egg and breadcrumbs:

When we first moved here, breadcrumbs were one of hit-or-miss purchases. Sometimes stores would carry them, sometimes not. But now they are readily available, including Panko style.

After smushing the egg and breadcrumb into the mixture -- but being careful not to overwork the meat -- it was time to mold the loaf.

But wait...we're not done. There's one last step to take the meatloaf from amazing to over-the-top goodness:

Oh. Yes. It. Is! Take five to six slices of BACON and drape it over the top, tucking the ends under the meatloaf. Doesn't it just make your heart go pitter-pat?

The now completed loaf was then popped into a pre-heated 400 degree oven to bake away for about an hour.

While the meatloaf started on its baking journey, I started prepping my potatoes. I cubed three medium sized potatoes, put them in a single layer on a baking sheet, and gave them a light toss with some olive oil.

After the meatloaf had been baking for about 15 minutes, I popped in the potatoes. This way, the potatoes would finish up about the same time as the meatloaf, after it was out of the oven and allowed to rest. Which brings us to what the meatloaf looks like straight out of the oven:

Hello gorgeous!

I left it to rest for about 15 minutes under a loose tent of foil. In the meantime, the potatoes were ready to come out of the oven and get dressed up.

I put the roasted potatoes in a bowl, then drizzled them with a bit more olive oil and put in about a tablespoon of pesto and capers. In a separate, smaller bowl I whisked together a tablespoon or so of red wine vinegar, about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and caper juice. When the sugar was dissolved, the mixture was poured over the potatoes and everything was tossed together.

After slicing the now rested meatloaf, it was time to plate:

 My, my, my, my, my. The meatloaf turns out tender and juicy, with kudos going to the lovely onions. With each bite, the meatloaf almost melts in your mouth, but you have that crispy bit from the bacon blanket. And the potatoes? Lovely. The outsides are nice and crunchy, but the insides are still soft. The dressing adds just enough kick to make your tastebuds say, "Thanks!"

So while I may not be the Domestic Goddess of Nigella's fame, her meatloaf recipe definitely has me in training as one of her acolytes.

Comfort Food: Creamy Tomato Soup with Balsamic, Onions, & Garlic, plus Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

I thought it might be good to have some comfort food one night for dinner. What better way to unwind than to curl up on the couch with something warm and familiar…I mean other than with my husband?

While I normally would first think of some dish that contained BACON to provide comfort, I decided to save that treat for another dish. Instead, I decided to go somewhat old school with tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. But this isn’t your mama’s tomato soup. This is tomato soup with some attitude, because it’s made with wonderful things like balsamic vinegar, caramelized tomatoes, onions, and garlic, not to mention some creaminess added at the end. In a word: lovely.

But before going into all the steps involved with making the soup, I think it’s important to mention that instead of using fresh tomatoes (like I did), it’s perfectly okay to used canned, whole tomatoes. 

Ahem…so let’s get started. Here are the tomatoes I picked up at the market. It’s sometimes hard to find Roma tomatoes, so when I spied these, I took it as a sign of goodness.

Having made this soup before, I found that the taste and texture of the tomatoes really comes out if you remove the skins. So, I needed to blanch ‘em. I put a pan of water on a slow simmer and cut an “X” in the bottom of each tomato.

When the water came to a steady simmer, I dropped the tomatoes in for about 15 seconds. You can tell when they’re ready when the skin around the “X” mark starts to shrink a bit. After fishing them out of the water, I placed them in a colander to drain and cool. (Hint: take the time to do this step, as I once almost gave my fingers first-degree burns trying to peel off screaming hot skins. Don’t be an idiot like me.) You can also drop the blanched tomatoes into an ice bath for a minute to speed the cooling process. Unfortunately, we were low on ice and realized if I used what we had for the tomatoes, there wouldn’t be enough ready for vodka and tonics later. The drinks won out. Go figure.

Anyhow, once I pulled off all the skins, the tomatoes were placed on an oiled baking sheet. I then added about a cup of roughly chopped onion. I whacked four large garlic cloves to remove their paper skins, and added them to the sheet.

Then it was time to add some real goodness. In a small mixing bowl, I combined:

• ½ cup of beef stock
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce

Quick tip: to get the sugar to fully dissolve, add it to the vinegar first. Once dissolved, then add the rest of the liquids.

The liquid was then poured over the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. I placed the sheet in a pre-heated 500 degree oven and let them cook away for about 40 minutes. You want everything to become brown and the liquid to be kinda’ syrup-like.

When the tomatoes were done, I let the pan cool just a bit, then scraped everything into a blender and let it puree for just a bit.

Now this is one of those steps that you can do to your liking. We happen to like our soup a bit on the chunky side. But if you prefer a smoother consistency, let it puree longer. And if you’re really a stickler for smooth soup, you could then strain it before putting it in the saucepan.

Once the pureed soup was placed in a saucepan (still being a dufus, I forgot to take a picture), I warmed it over low heat and added the creamy bit. If you can't find heavy cream, as is sometimes the case here, crema is a good substitute. 

With the soup warming up, I turned my attention to its dining partner – the grilled cheese sandwiches. All I did was schmear some pesto I had in the fridge on slices of bread, then sliced up some cheddar cheese to put on top. Simply slap on the top piece of bread, grill it up and you’re good to go. 

I added some chopped cilantro as a garnish for the soup, which added a nice little kick. The flavors of all those caramelized bits come together in a smooth way, with no one flavor overwhelming another. It was the perfect partner to the gooey grilled cheese.

Ahhh, comfort on a plate and in a bowl.

Pizza!

When Saturdays roll around, I know two things: it's my day off from cooking and David will make pizza. 

The fun thing about them is that no two are ever alike. After rummaging through the pantry and fridge, David uses his creativity to devise the toppings for that particular week's pie.

I make the dough using this recipe then divide and freeze it.

Once the dough has thawed out, David presses it out into a circle shape and very often grills the crust -- first time is to pre-bake the crust a bit and get some char on it; the second time is to finish the baking process and heat up the toppings.

Remember that braised onion sauce? Well I reserved a bit and David used it, along with some home made tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms, bacon, and mozzarella to create this beauty:

On a different Saturday, the toppings were home made sauce, bacon, cheese, and fresh basil. Lovely!

But our hands-down favorite is his pizza slathered in pesto, melted goat cheese, and sliced cherry tomatoes. 

David hasn't made this very often now that we're in Corozal. Part of the challenge is that fresh basil isn't something found at the markets. So it means being able to grow enough to make and freeze sufficient quantities of pesto. Also cherry/grape tomatoes are a hit or miss item at the markets.

But every once in a blue moon, the pizza gods smile down upon us and we can make or source all the ingredients.

Quite frankly, I've gotten spoiled by David's pizzas and haven't found any other that makes the grade.

Find out for yourself and make your own. Take-out or frozen varieties will be a thing of the past. 

Braised Onion Sauce

If you're looking for a rich, decadent pasta dish, the solution can be summed up in three words: Braised Onion Sauce.

What makes the sauce so decadent? How about 10 tablespoons of butter? Yep.

Just warm the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add your onion slices.

Now here's the important part -- let them cook down until they are caramelized and almost jammy. 

It will probably take a good hour (maybe a bit more), but it is time well spent.

When the onions reach this stage, the recipe calls for some Madeira to be stirred in. I wasn't able to score any in town, but I did have some Shiraz on hand and decided to go with that.

I had already made some pappardelle, added the cooked pasta and some grated Parmesan to the pan, and gave everything a good toss.

Oh sweet mother of mercy! This sauce was amazing! There's a definite sweetness from the onions, a velvety texture from all that butter, but it all balances out with that bit of tang from the cheese.

Clearly this isn't a meal one should eat on a regular basis, but every now and again, it's a treat.

Dutch Baby with Strawberry Orange Compote

Just how cute is the term dutch baby? When this recipe popped up on my Facebook feed, I was intrigued.

I never heard of it before, but after doing a bit of online research, I came to find out that Dutch babies are similar to German pancakes. As I wanted to try something new and different for a sweet snack, this recipe fit the bill. 

The first thing I did was to make the compote a day ahead of making the cake. This was due to a slew of other cooking/baking stuff I already had in the works. 

Now here in Corozal, you can find a variety of fruits, but fresh cranberries aren't among them. But I did find some lovely strawberries at the market and decided to give them a try.

I quartered them up, then put in a splash of orange juice, and the sugar.

I let it cook for about 15 minutes, giving it an occasional stir. In the meantime, the smell of strawberries perfumed the house. That's an aroma I could get used to.

Once the strawberry mixture reduced and thickened, I took the pot off the heat and let the mixture cool down. 

The next day, I made the Dutch baby. 

The butter went into the cast iron pan and set in a pre-heated 425 degree oven. In the meantime, I beat the eggs, then added the milk and flour.

By that time, the butter had melted...

...and I poured in the egg mixture.

While the cake was doing its thing in the oven, I warmed up the compote. After baking for about 20 minutes, the baby was ready to come out. 

And Voila!

Final verdict?

While the cake was slightly under baked in the middle, the overall taste and texture was very nice. The strawberry orange compote was a delight -- not too sweet, not too tart.

I will definitely be making this again.

Honey Mustard Chicken

We eat lots of chicken, which is something we also did in the States. As a result, I'm always looking for new ways to make it. 

This recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken caught my eye, so I decided to give it a go. 

The overall flavor combo of the honey, mustard, and rosemary was great. And the chicken thighs turned out nice and juicy. The problem we had was that the flavors didn't permeate the chicken. Rather the the sauce was mostly on the chicken skin, which we generally don't eat.

Next time, I want to take the sauce ingredients and use it as a marinade. I'm thinking if I let the thighs sit in the marinade for a couple of hours, it might make a difference in the absorption of the flavors. 

And if I reserve some of the marinade, it could then be basted on the thighs while they're cooking. 

Because this chicken recipe is on the sweet side, I wanted something a bit salty to balance it out. 

I boiled some potatoes in salted water, drained them, mushed them just a bit with a fork, drizzled some of the sauce over them, then sprinkled some capers. 

Along with some steamed carrots, our plating was complete and yummy.

Caponata

I readily admit that veggies very seldom pop into my mind as a main course. It's not that I don't like them (well, except for beets and cauliflower), but I find it far more satisfying to work with the protein and starch elements.

My husband, on the other hand, really loves vegetables (except for lima beans) and gently suggests we see more of them on our plates on a regular basis.

So when I saw this recipe for Caponata, I realized it might be a great way to keep peace at Casa Wright.

If you're not familiar with Caponata, it's a bit like the Italian version of ratatouille, in other words a lovely medley of veggies that get to have fun with herbs and a light sauce. 

After looking the recipe over, I knew I could get just about everything at our local fruit/veggie markets. As an aside, one of the great things about the markets here is that you are able to buy just the amount you need, should you so desire. Only want one carrot, two stalks of celery, or a quarter head of lettuce or cabbage? Not a problem. 

Back to the Caponata. I decided to make the dish a day ahead, so all the flavors could become best friends. 

The first thing I did was to cube the eggplant and pot them into a pot of salted water for 20 minutes.

While they were doing their thing, I sliced the onions and peppers. 

Note #1: The only item I couldn't find were the red or yellow peppers. There are a few vendors that sometimes carry very small red peppers, but I've never seen any yellow ones (unless you grow them yourself). As a result, I used the standard variety green peppers.

Note #2: In order to keep as much of the eggplant submerged as possible, I placed a bowl on top of the pot. After slicing up the onions and peppers, they had a convenient home.

After the eggplant was finished with its salt bath, the cubes were drained, patted dry with some paper towels, and placed in a large roasting pan. (I reserved the salted water for a step coming up.) 

The eggplant cubes were then joined by the onions and peppers.

After drizzling olive oil over the mixture and tossing it all about, it was time to pop the pan into a pre-heated 400 degree oven for about an hour.

While the veggies roasted away, my next task was to chop and blanch the celery. I used some of the reserved salt water the eggplant soaked in. Why dirty another pot? As soon as the celery was done (about 5 minutes), it got put into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. 

Next up was to heat up some olive oil and throw in a sliced garlic clove. Once the garlic was brown, it got taken out of the pan. The tomatoes, sugar, and salt  were added to the pan, and I smushed the tomatoes up with a wooden spoon. That mixture cooked for about 10 minutes, then the vinegar got added in and everything cooked for a few more minutes.

In the meantime, the eggplant mixture was done.

I put the eggplant mix into a large pot, along with the celery, and capers. Gave it all a stir, then added the tomato sauce.

It smelled divine. 

For dinner the following night, I served the Caponata over a small bed of rice and garnished with chopped basil.

We loved the sweetness of the roasted veggies and the tomato sauce, along with the slightly salty/sour elements from the capers and vinegar. 

Served warm or at room temperature, this mixture also works very well over some toasted bread bits for an appetizer or just on its own. 

If you're a not a veggie lover, this dish could certainly change your mind.

Chili

During the winter months, we often get some rainy days and cooler temperatures (anything below 80 degrees F is considered "cool"). That kind of weather makes me want to make chili.

In order to give into this craving, I turn to our most trusted recipe*…

…which comes from The Silver Palate cookbook. As you can tell from the various blotches, we’ve used this a lot and have never been disappointed.

I get the party started by heating about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot and roughly chopping up some onions.

The onions cook away over low heat until they are tender and translucent.

Next up is the meat. Because ground beef is so lean here in Belize, I use only ¾ pound of that and add ¾ pound of ground pork. To make things a bit sassier, I also add some Italian sausage.

All of that gets crumbled into the pot. I turn the heat up to medium-high and start the browning process. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be patient and allow the meat to become well browned. That caramelization will pay big dividends to the taste later on.

While the meat does its thing, I gather up the rest of the ingredients. The play list includes red wine, cumin, coriander, oregano, chili powder, Dijon mustard, whole peeled tomatoes, and tomato paste…

…and their very close friends, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, fresh chopped oregano, and fresh basil leaves.

The recipe doesn’t call for those last two fresh herbs, but if I have them growing in our garden, I usually throw them into the mix. I know, I’m such a rebel.

When the meat is all nice and brown, I add all the ingredients mentioned above. 

The whole tomatoes are drained and I smush them up by hand. You could use a wooden spoon for this, but I find hand smushing works better. But if you're like me, no matter what method you use, tomato juice will squirt someplace other than the pot.

After giving the mixture a good stir, I add some black beans or kidney beans. Now I can hear the cries of outrage now. Either there are those fanatics who don’t believe beans have a place in chili to begin with or those who only believe that kidney beans are the blessed legume to be used. But on this occasion, I had leftover black beans from a previous meal, and decided to buck the trend and use ‘em. If you don’t like it, sue me.

Anyway, with the black beans making their defiant statement in the pot, everything gets a another stir, taste for seasoning, then simmers away for a bit. Oh my. What goodness.

Now just like there is the debate about beans in chili, there is also a debate – at least in our house – about how to plate it. While I prefer just to have the chili au natural in a bowl, David loves to have his served over noodles.

But regardless of the way of making or plating the dish, this chili is a winner.

Focaccia

Ahhh, the goodness of bread. Next to cheese, bread, pretty much any kind, makes me swoon. And focaccia, well, one bite of that dense, olive oil drizzled, slightly salty slab just does me in. Back in the States, I relied on this focaccia recipe from Anne Burrell and thought I would give it a go here.

Finding the ingredients in our local grocery stores was easy. However, you need to get used to the textures of both flours and sugars.  A company called ADM produces flour for Belize. Their mill produces a baker's flour (Bebe Agua), an all-purpose flour (la Gitana), a premium low-ash cake flour (Purity) and a whole-wheat flour (Hi-Rise).  

Bebe Agua is my go-to choice for just about any recipe that calls for flour. The all-purpose flour feels, at least to me, a bit denser than a brand like Gold Medal that I would use in the States. The whole wheat flour also seems to be a coarser grind, but is very good.

The white sugar here is also a bit coarser, and the brown sugar doesn’t have whatever the ingredient is that allows you to pack it in a measuring cup. So you experiment and learn as you go.

Anyway, back to the focaccia. I started with the first cast of characters who came to the party: water, yeast, and sugar. 

I warmed the water in a saucepan until it reached about 110 degrees (we don’t have a microwave). I stirred in the sugar until it dissolved, then stirred in the yeast. While that mixture was proofing, I measured out the flour, olive oil, and salt and put all that in the bowl of my standing mixer.

 Once the yeast was ready (look at how nice and bubbly it is!)...

  ... I poured it into the mixing bowl and let the KitchenAid do its thing.

After about five minutes, the dough was smooth and silky. However, it was still on the sticky side, so I added some more flour while kneading the dough by hand a few times.

 Then it was off to take a lovely nap in a oiled bowl for about an hour.

While it dozed away, I poured the remaining oil into a baking pan and got that all lubed up. Can you tell that this pan gets used a lot?

Here’s the dough after about an hour; nice and puffy, just the way we like it.

I plopped the dough on the baking sheet and started pressing it out, putting as many dimples as possible on the surface. The sheet was then covered with a damp towel and it was off for another one hour snooze while the oven preheated to 425 degrees.

After sprinkling some Kosher salt over the top, it was ready for the oven!

Oh my. Will you look at that? I would say it’s too pretty to eat, but the crumbs all over my face give away the fact that I already dived in.

As we can't gorge ourselves on the entire thing in one go, I cut it into sections that get put in the freezer. One of my favorite ways to use focaccia is to cut the sections in half, schmear each half with basil pesto, top it with a crepe, tomato, bacon, and cheese. Yup, thought you might like that.