Cake and Commerce

Recession Meal #3 - tips for stretching your (turkey) meatloaf

How can you really stretch a pound of ground turkey? Easy...add a lot of bread to it or a lot of vegetables or both...and turn it into a hybrid of Shepherd's Pie & Meatloaf.

My mother loves meatloaf. I don't make it much - the idea of eating a baked loaf (or cupcake) of ground meat doesn't hold much appeal. But I'm a guest in my mother's house and I will oblige her...and eat what I make. And if I make meatloaf, meatloaf I will eat.

In the last month we've made two versions - one heavy with vegetables (mostly carrrots, onions and peppers, with some mushrooms and flageolets thrown in) and the other padded with toasted (gf) bread. They were both good, but I'd recommend against the heavy carrot/onion/pepper route. It made the meatloaf a little sweet. Here's a picture of the veg mix prior to its addition to the ground turkey:

There was about as much of the veg mix as meat.

The resulting meatloaf resembled a through-the-looking glass version of country pate with a potato crust:

I form a gully in the middle of the meatloaf to facilitate more even cooking - it helps a little, though I think the presentation is more dramatic than the improved speed in baking.

The second version replaced the vegetables with GF bread. I added a little extra chicken stock for moisture - the bread needs to be moistened or the meatloaf can get very dry with the bread acting as mouth moguls - something to eat around.

I think meatloaf is a personal matter. I'm not going to provide a recipe - I change mine every time though there is some consistency with eggs, ketchup, and certain spices.

This was the most recent version we made - notice the stripe of potato? it runs almost to the bottom of the pan:

That's paprika on top - that's unsmoked, plain ole Hungarian paprika. I used thyme and a lot of sage - mom requested a 'Thanksgiving' flavor. It was delicious.

To really stretch your meatloaf, add more eggs, bread, and vegetables to the mix than you ordinarily would. You could throw in some ricotta, too. Test the flavor before you bake it by testing out a pinch in a saute pan. I always test everything - I don't believe you can get a true feel by eating the raw mixture (and with approximately 1/3rd of all turkey rumored to have salmonella, I don't want to take the risk) - so that I can balance flavors properly before I make some difficult-to-reverse underseasoning mistake.

The final key to stretching your meatloaf is potatoes - make your favorite mashed potatoes and spread them all over your meatloaf. Dust them with paprika or your favorite spice (or just lots of cracked black pepper).

So here they are, in convenient list form, my tips for stretching your meatloaf:

• The vegetable alternative: Chop up and saute onions, a few carrots, peppers and mushrooms - or any vegetable combination of your choosing. The cooked product should be about 2/3rds the volume of your meat/turkey.
• If you like beans, add in a half cup to a full cup of the beans of your choosing. I like mine pureed, but if you like seeing the shape of the bean in your meatloaf, leave it whole.
• The bread alternative: Add about 2/3rds the meat/turkey volume in stale bread chunks, dried out bread, or stuffing mix. Wet it down with a bit of stock - toss the bread in the stock but do not make it too soggy.
• The bread and vegetable alternative: add equal amounts of BOTH vegetable mix and in bread mix so combined they are the same volume as the turkey.
• The even more filler alternative: add the bread and vegetable alternative AND two extra eggs, which you have whipped to ribbon stage. If you want to get really crazy, throw in a half cup of drained ricotta cheese. I cannot guarantee you'll like it...you are entering territory that few dare to tread.
• The potato route: carve a gulley into the middle of your meatloaf. Fill the gulley with potatoes, and then cover the top of the meatloaf with potatoes.

Got other tips? Share them in the comments section

Recession meal #2: Quick(ish) Cassoulet (sounds better than 'bean casserole', for sure)

Beans plus stock plus sausage plus confit plus breadcrumbs equals a tasty one pot winter meal. Take out the confit and it is an inexpensive one pot meal.

Cassoulet - or what we think when we think cassoulet - this is not. Most French restaurants in the US serve a traditional pork version. The poultry version is virtually unheard of. Cassoulet always has beans - I use flageolet - and carrots, onions, garlic and herbs. There's also sausage, usually some kind of poultry, a little bacon, maybe some other cuts of meat.

In the hands of the home cook without too many resources (ahem, me!), making cassoulet is a great way to use up the odds and ends in the freezer or refrigerator. To make the meal a little speedier, used cooked beans. But if you are trying to control costs, use dry beans and soak them overnight.

I happened to have leftover confit from my previous Recession Meal. I like to use confit as a garnish - using it as a main is expensive; since I can't imagine trading down, I'm just decreasing the quantity of the expensive proteins in my cooking. So it made a nice addition to the confit.

Here's what went into my "cheap bastard cassoulet" - I made it very bean-heavy and cut way back on the protein to say money. I recommend you follow a more traditional recipe - unless you are also in financial austerity mode:

Cheap Bastard Pork-free Cassoulet

2 C dry flageolet beans
1 carrot
5 garlic cloves
1 onion
Sprig of thyme
1/2 c dry white wine
3+ cups chicken stock
2 sausagesm your choice
1/2 cup confit, pulled
1/2 cup tomato puree
salt, pepper, other herbs to taste
Bread crumbs (gluten-free okay)

1. Soak beans overnight
2. Day 2 - cook beans until tender with thyme, a few cloves of garlic, bay leaf. Set aside.
3. Sweat onion, garlic, carrots in butter or the fat of your choice. Add white wine, tomato. Simmer.
4. Pour vegatable mixture over beans. Cover with chicken stock. Simmer for 1-2 hours, adding more water to make sure beans stay covered. Add thyme as necessary.
5. Season with salt, pepper, etc. Check seasoning
6. Sprinkle bread crumbs over top. Place in oven under broiler until bread crumbs are golden.
7. Cut up sausage into chunks. Add sausage and confit.
8. Enjoy

Cassoulet holds for days in the refrigerator. Feel free to add more meats or vegetables to this recipe.

Recession meal #1: braised vegetables with duck confit

It snowed all day long and I was getting anxious. I needed to leave the house. I had a mission. I had to find local farm-raised free-range chicken.

Earlier that day, my mother told me she saw someone preparing chicken cacciatore on TV and it looked great. I thought the recipe focused too much on costly protein, something I was only willing to eat if I could find that local bird.

Hence my mission.

I checked a few farm stands. Nothing. Eventually I found myself at the lovely Concord Prime & Fish, a local artisan butcher and fishmonger featuring some of the best meats and -what else - fish in the area. They had gorgeous animal protein - lamb, pork, and beef - but I was there for poultry. And, sadly, there was nothing other than a bit of duck and a game bird or two from D'artagnan. Adam Tiberio, who waited on me, explained that in the beginning (they only opened in the second half of 2008) they were selling fresh chicken from Misty Knoll Farms in Vermont, but that most of it went bad and it ended up in the trash. So no more chicken, for now.

I ended up with three duck legs ($5.49/lb) and duck fat ($9.99/lb) and a dozen local eggs, from Pete & Jen's backyard birds. I planned to use only a fraction of the duck confit in our meal - I knew I could extend other meals just by adding a small amount of the extremely flavorful meat.

On my way home I stopped at another farmstand, Verrill Farm, that burned down at the end of 2008. Now housed in several trailers, it is a shadow of its former self, though construction on the new building is set to begin in March.

The farmstand, as it looks today:

The plans for the new farmstand:

And a banner from local school children, sending their condolences after the fire:

I picked up a few fennel bulbs and some peppers.

Total expenditure for the duck and vegetables? $20. And closer to $15 if you don't count the duck fat - which, after all, can be reused once it is filtered. I usually have some in the freezer, but since my move east, I haven't built up the surplus.

I made a quick confit - only 4 hours on the stove until I used it. I ended up using one whole duck leg plus a fraction of another duck leg in this recipe.

The recipe I put together is quite simple. Saute onions and garlic in duck fat (just a tiny bit). Add julienne of fennel, pepper, parsnips and carrots and saute for about 5 minutes. Fold in shredded duck. Add salt, pepper,cayenne and fresh herbs (I used thyme) to taste. Place in a casserole dish. Add about 1/2 C white wine and 1 C chicken stock or water. Throw in a pat of butter or two if you like. Dust top with bread crumbs and freshly grated Parmigiano-reggiano. Cover with foil. Baked covered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove cover, bake an additional 12-30 minutes, depending on how done you like it.

Makes about 8 servings.

Cake and Commerce's Braised Vegetables with Duck Confit

Feel free to substitute another kind of flavorful meat for the confit (such as bacon or ham or smoked chicken) - or omit it all together. The duck confit does add a dimension of richness, though, that makes this dish very satisfying.

Preheat oven to 400 F

Ingredients:

1 large fennel bulb, julienned
1 large pepper, prefereably red, julienned
3 carrots, julienned
1 parsnip, julienned
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, julienned
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 to 2 cups of chicken stock
1/2 C white wine
Salt & Pepper to taste
Dash of Cayenne
Fresh thyme or any fresh herb of your choosing
3/4 C of loosely packed shredded duck confit, optional (you can add bacon, pork or nothing)
1/2 C breadcrumbs (regular or gluten-free)
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Procedure:
Using about 1 T duck fat, saute onions and garlic. When onions are translucent, add the fennel and pepper and sautee for about 2 minutes. Add the parsnip and the carrots. Fold in the duck. Season to taste with salt, pepper, herbs and cayenne.

Place in a baking dish or casserole. Add wine and stock (or water). Dust top with bread crumbs. Sprinkle Parmigiano-Reggiano on top. Cover with foil or a lid.

Bake for 30 minutes covered, or at least until bubbly. Remove cover, continue baking until bread crumbs are golden, approximately 10-20 minutes.

Makes approximately 8 servings. In our house, that's enough to last 3 meals.