Tag: ground beef

Beef and Lentil/Mushroom Meatloaf

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I forgot to take a picture, but I’m sure you can imagine what a hearty slab of meatloaf looks like.

I’m also not entirely sure about the title of the dish.  It’s a very earthy, hearty dish.  I essentially wanted to figure out something to do with a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup that I had kicking around – without resorting to the ol’ standby of pork chops.

Enter…

Campbell’s Best Meatloaf Recipe

And of course, because I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to make a few changes.  First, I went with Cream of Mushroom soup rather than Tomato (for reasons listed above).  I also decided that rather than go with 2 lbs of ground beef, I’d do a swap and make it a 50/50 beef and lentil split.  So, I started the entire process by cooking some green lentils.  A little bit of googling gave me the info I needed.  1 cup of dry uncooked lentils is the equivalent of 1 lb of ground beef.  Once cooked of course.  That means you put cups of water in a large pot, get the water boiling while you rinse off your lentils and strain the water out.  Once the water is boiling, put them in, get the water boiling again, cover things up and reduce your heat down to a low boil and walk away for about 20 minutes or so.  You want to keep the steam and water in the pot and absorbing into the lentils.  I still wound up straining things after they were cooked to get rid of some excess water, but it all worked out.

For the rest of the recipe I following along surprisingly well.  Onion soup mix, check.  Half a can of soup (cream of mushroom), check.  I used panko crumbs for the bread crumbs.  Mixing the beef and lentils together was surprisingly easy.  Made a real nice loaf in the pan.  PRO TIP!  Let the lentils cool for a while before you mix them in with the beef!  Having recently been in a pot of boiling water, that was rather warm on the hands!  Whoops.

Aside from that, it was a nice easy bake.  The moisture from the cooked lentils cooked out for the most part during the bake.  I also learned a very valuable lesson.  My loaf took a bit longer to bake than I anticipated, mostly as somehow my meat thermometer had been swapped from F to C.  So as I was waiting things getting to 160 degrees…it was, no surprise, taking longer than expected.  Doublecheck that next time!  Lucky for me meatloaf is pretty forgiving.

On a side note, I’m heading back to work tomorrow morning for a temp term.  I’m hoping to keep up the blogging, but we’re still going to be sorting out how the cooking duties will be divvied up.  At the very least there may be some more ‘quick fix’ meals in the coming weeks.  Or slow cooker stuff!  That’s an idea there too.  Hmmm.  Time will tell!

-g

Blueberry & Lentil Meatloaf

~ Dad's Turn To Cook ~ 2 Comments

I might just be getting a little too ‘artsy’ with these photos.  Have no fear, my wife and kids all rightfully bust my chops every time I break out my phone to snap a picture of my plate.  I can take it.

You know what else I can take?  When I try out a new recipe that blows my mind.  Straight up, not many in the family were gung-ho about this one, but MAN, I loved it.

Blueberry & Lentil Meatloaf

I followed the linked recipe pretty close to the letter.  Putting fruit in a meat dish, I didn’t want to take many chances.  That said, I used regular mustard instead of dijon and white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar.  It’s what I had on hand.  I also subbed out the ‘chipotle pepper in abodo sauce’ (what is THAT?) for some pepper flakes I had kicking around.

Aside from that, this is your regular ordinary meatloaf in sauce.  Keep the blueberries frozen when you’re mixing up the loaf, it’ll save you from having them get all smushed up and blue handed.  The other thing of note.  This took WAAAAAAY longer in the oven then their recommended cook times.  Like, twice as long.  If you have a meat thermometer handy, this is definitely the time to use it now and again to get a core temperature.  Remember, you want to stick the probe into the middle of the loaf, don’t take a temperature too close to the pan or the edge as that won’t give you an accurate reading.

Again, I really liked this one.  It’s sweet with heat.  I really want to try this again sometime with saskatoon berries.  Combined with lentils and beef, this could be a fantastic ‘taste of the prairies’ trifecta.

-g

 

 

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

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Okay, so for today’s challenge I had a couple of criteria.

1) I had about half a can of pineapple left over from making pizza that I needed to use up
2) We have a couple picky eaters that had been opting out of some of the meals as of late.  I try not to take it personally.  (I wounds me to the core).

Enter…meatballs!  Everybody likes meatballs, don’t they?  A bit of googling found me this beauty of a recipe.

Baked Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Overall, the recipe itself was pretty easy to make.  Essentially all a meatball is, is a tiny round hamburger.  Now, the link there called for ground turkey, chicken or pork.  I went with beef as it is what I happened to have on hand (being a good prairie boy and all…).  Pork is cheaper at the store, I’ve never really enjoyed ground pork.  Don’t get me wrong, I find the best hamburger and meatball recipes around typically have some sort of ratio of beef to pork, I just didn’t have any handy.  I also just went with 1lb of protein (as opposed to the 1.5 called for) as that’s how I portion out meat for the freezer.  That worked out though – I’ll explain how in a bit….

If you want to get fancy, you can break out a kitchen scale and weigh your meatballs for the sake of consistency.  I didn’t bother.  What you can do is grab an ice cream scoop or a large spoon and use that to scoop out what will become your meatball.  There is something to be said about some standardization with these.  It helps with cooking time, it also helps avoid any “but his is bigger!” comparisons when you’re dishing everything out at the table.

For the sauce?  Follow the recipe.  It worked out great.  In fact, my wife and I almost came down to a coin flip for the leftovers on this one before I graciously let her have them (awww, such a nice guy, right?).  It’s a sweet sauce with a touch of kick.  Very flavourful.  And the best part?  As I made 1lb of meatballs, there was plenty of sauce left over to spoon over the rice.

Have I mentioned my trick to good brown rice?  2 cups water for every 1 cup of rice.  Put rice in water.  Put on high heat covered.  When the water starts to boil, lift the lid, stir things up.  Put the lid back on, turn the heat down to around…3.  Walk away for 45 minutes.  Come back, take off heat,  Lift lid, fluff with fork.  Bam.

The real trick of course is to use a pot that is about one size larger than you think you’ll need.  Stops the rice from boiling over.  That stuff is a PAIN to clean off your stove.

-g

Nana’s Meatloaf

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I had to google a picture.  The ONE time I forget to break out my camera and take a shot, is the most staple of staple meals around our place.  We call this one Nana’s Meatloaf.  The recipe, I believe, came from the Once A Month Cooking cookbook I have previously mentioned.  There’s a difference though.  In that cookbook, this recipe as actually made up of flaked ham I do believe.  We’ve made it with ham (which I typically don’t eat), we’ve made it with ground pork, but for best flavour/texture/results…I recommend good ol’ fashioned lean ground Saskatchewan or Alberta beef (call me a homer, that’s fine).

This recipe winds up with plenty of sauce to spoon over rice (which works great as a side with this one), we will also typically pair it with some corn or green peas (or both if we’re down to the dregs of the bags in the freezer!)

Nana’s Meatloaf

Loaf

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs or crunch up some crackers

Sauce

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tb mustard
  • 1 tb white vinegar
  • 2 tsp water

Mix up all the loaf ingredients – shape it into a loaf pan and the cover it with tinfoil.  Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes.  Take out of the over, take off the foil and drain off the liquids that have formed.  Once drained, pour the sauce over the loaf.  Put back in the oven for another 30 minutes, this time uncovered.  Enjoy!

It’s a pretty simple recipe.  Only problem I ran into making this myself was that we’re still trying to sort out the oven in our new place.  It seems to take a bit longer to bake things than did our previous stove.  I’ve been getting good use from my digital cooking thermometer.  As I discovered…when using one of those, make sure you’re measuring the temperature in the middle of the loaf (I pushed it in too far so it was on the outer edge of the loaf near the pan where it is hotter than in the middle.  Ooops – lesson learned).  I’m debating turning our oven a bit hotter, or just leaving things in for another 5 minutes or so beyond the suggested cooking time.  We’ll get it sussed.

This one is 5 stars across the board, everybody including our picky eater loves it.

As for budget?  If you get it on sale, your pound of beef is $3.  An egg and crackers and the brown sugar are the next most pricy elements.  I’d guess that between everything else in the loaf itself, combined with the rice and corn on the side you’re looking at…$7 all in for this one.  It usually gives us 6 decent sized slices (or 2 ‘Daddy sized slices and 4 medium sized ones for everybody else…) so it feeds all 5 of us, and there’s usually 1 slice for leftovers.  Boom!

-g

Shepherd’s Pie

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I know I promised meatloaf, but…something came up.  Namely, I decided to use that ground beef I had thawing and take a swing at Shepherd’s Pie!

I’ve made this dish I believe…once previously.  It essentially wound up being a veggie casserole with potato on top.  Not very good.  So, while doing a little hunting online for inspiration I stumbled across this video by Gordon Ramsay.

A bit MTV, isn’t it?  Yeah.  While the video doesn’t really give you much in the way of measurements and actual instruction…I watched it a couple times, picked up a few ideas and decided to wing it.  The verdict?  My wife called dibs on the leftovers, my one kid gave it a 6 stars out of 5, and our picky eater made toast.  I was tempted to throw a few Gordon Ramsay adjectives their way, but…everyone has their own preferences, right?

Here’s how it all shook down.

Gordon Ramsay Inspired Shepherd’s Pie – A DT2C mashup! (?)

The Mashed Potatoes.

  • 2 lbs potato.  Salt some water, peel and dice the potatoes and boil them until you can put a fork in them without that crunchy potato resistance.
  • Drain
  • Add a splash of milk.  Mash.
  • Add 2 egg yolks.  Stir it all up.
  • Add about 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese.

I started the potatoes boiling and cooking while I was doing the meat.  Once the potatoes were ready for mashing, the meat was simmering off some liquid.  It all timed out rather nice.

The Meat.

  • 1 lb lean ground beef.  (Ramsay used Lamb.  Who’s got THAT lying around?) Brown it, strain it, set it aside for a bit.  You’ll want to use a large deep pan you can load up and simmer things in.
  • 1/4 onion – shredded with a grater.  Could have done more, I had 1/4 onion on hand.  Go with 1/2.
  • 1 carrot – shredded with a grater.  I did about 8 mini-carrots.  A big one would have been much easier to shred.  It all tastes the same.
  • 2 teaspoons crushed/minced garlic.  I’m guessing on quantity here, I was really winging this one.

Saute the onions and carrots, cook them down a bit, then toss the ground beef back in.  Alright, now it’s time for some seasoning.  Here goes (to my recollection).

  • 2 teaspoons rosemary
  • 2 teaspoons thyme
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons Tomato paste (I used a couple squirts of bottled pizza sauce I had handy – saving the tomato paste in the pantry for another recipe this week…)
  • a few good cranks of black pepper from the pepper mill
  • 1 cup chicken stock/broth

Let everything relax and simmer together.  This would be a good time to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celsius).  You want to get the beef mixture cooked down so it’s still moist, but not runny.  Okay.  Time to toss it all together.

Grab a casserole dish.  The round ones with a lid (you won’t need the lid unless you have leftovers – and with this one you won’t have leftovers.  Yum.)  Put the meat mixture on the bottom, press it down a bit.  Next, put the mashed potato mix on top, kind of like you’re icing a cake.  Once that’s done and smoothed over a bit, take your parmesan cheese and sprinkle generously over the top of the potato.  I then gave a few cranks of black pepper from the pepper mill and sprinkled some paprika spice on top to give a bit of colour to everything.  Not much, just a light dusting.

Whack it in the pre-heated oven for…20-25 minutes.  Scoop.  Serve.  Enjoy.

With the ground beef running around $3.50, the potatoes about $1.50 and then various spices, odds and ends and parmesan…I’m guessing all tallied this one came out to about $8 to pull off?  I shredded up a head of romaine to have alongside this.  I mean, there’s already veggies, starch, protein and dairy included…and as a heavier dish, a light salad made a good companion.

YXE Le Burger Week – challenge accepted!

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I guess before I go on any further, I should mention and clarify a few things…

  1. If I mention a product or business, it’s because I use said product or business.
  2. If somebody ever (for whatever reason) decides to toss some cash or comp’d product my way, I’ll be quite transparent about said endorsement.

All good?  Let’s proceed.

It turns out this is Le Burger Week in Saskatoon, my new hometown.  From what I gather, something like 15 different restaurants are crafting their best/wildest/most delicious burger concepts and letting the public and their patrons decide the winner.  I’m not a chef, and the concept of a gourmet $20 burger gives the Scottish skinflint in me the chills, but through trial and error here’s my take on a scratch made burger that’s a winner around these parts.

Jo-Ella’s 2 hour buns

The buns.  I said “scratch-made” and I meant it.  If I have time, I’ll knock out a batch of these.  Takes around 2 hours to start getting your first batch out of the oven.  They’re light and fluffy and you get to knead and punch dough which can help you burn through some frustration.  This recipe can apparently be found on the big bags of Ellison’s All-Purpose Flour that at one point (maybe even still) could be purchased at CostCo.  I’ve never had a pantry big enough to house one of those bad boys, so I don’t use their flour, but the recipe is a very versatile one (and very forgiving).  Mrs Friesen (not my mother-in-law) back in my hometown of Calgary used to use this recipe all the time for buns, cabbage buns, cinnamon buns…it’s good.  I go 50/50 whole wheat and all-purpose white flour, I find the whole wheat dries things out more so you’ll probably need a bit less flour overall than if you went straight all-purpose as listed in the recipe.  After making a few monstrous buns, I have since learned that about 75grams of dough will give you a good ‘burger size’ bun following the final proof and bake.  My wife bought me a digital kitchen scale for Christmas this past year.  It comes in handy!

The fries.  Okay, I lied about it ALL being from scratch.  With the oven being claimed by the fresh baked buns, I really didn’t have time to knock out some roast potatoes (to do ’em right takes about an hour and change…) so good ol’ McCain SuperFries to the rescue.  They only take about 25 minutes which I was able to manage while my buns were on their final proof.

The burgers!

We don’t have a barbecue at the new place yet (have a natural gas hook-up though – I can’t wait until grilling season gets here!), but our trusty old George Foreman grill does a serviceable job on making the meat hot.  Again, while the Chef’s at all the restaurants will be breaking out crazy meat blends featuring chuck and steak and whatnot, I’m on a budget here.  This is my quick and dirty burger blend.

Dad’s Turn To Cook – burgers

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 0.5 lb ground pork (yup – keeps things very tender)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 handful of oats (can also use breadcrumbs or crush up some crackers)
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup diced onion – chopped REALLY fine so the kids don’t notice 😉
  • quick shake of cinnamon (shrug…I like it?)
  • 1 tablespoon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • and then a few cranks of salt and pepper from our grinder (I usually overdo it)

Form them into patties.  With that amount of meat, that should make 8 of them.  I usually vary the patties in size a bit.  A couple bigger ones for Dad and a couple smaller ones for our younger kids.  It’s a veritable Burger Family!  Toss them on the grill (or Foreman) and cook them until the internal temp is in excess of 160 degrees F.  The other Christmas gift I got was a digital cooking thermometer.  I LOVE that thing.

That’s it!  Burgers!  Add your toppings how you like and you’re good to go.

As for the budget, all in all, you’re looking at about $2 (and some time) for the buns.  I got 20 burger size buns out of that recipe and then a behemoth to use up the rest of the dough for the fun of it.  The ground beef worked out to about $3.50/lb, the ground pork was about $2 for a half-pound.  Add it all up, including the SuperFries, and I knocked out 8 scratch-made burgers for the family for about $10 (plus condiments).  I’ll take it!

-g