The most memorable screw up as of late - and apparently everyone's current favorite - was the gravy incident. It was the Realtor's birthday and he had requested a German meal. I made Sauerbraten, red cabbage, and Spaetzle. If you've ever had Sauerbraten, you know that the gravy makes the meal.
A good Sauerbraten takes time (days, actually) and the gravy to me is the final piece of a long puzzle. The gravy is, in my opinion, the most important part of the Sauerbraten. It adds the sweetness and spice to the sour and savory meat and, well, it's delicious. Sauerbraten gravy calls for old fashioned, dark ginger snap cookies. For the occasion of the Realtor's birthday, I decided to make the cookies from scratch. I made the cookies the day before so they would be perfect for the gravy. That Sunday, I spent the day cooking and prepping and when the meat had been cooking for hours and was getting lovely and tender, I started on preparing for the gravy. I cooked tons of beautiful veggies in the broth with the meat to really flavor it and once we were almost ready to eat, I was going to finalize the last steps of the gravy - adding the cookies and thickening the gravy: After you remove the meat to a platter, you get rid of the veggies (put a colander in a bowl in the sink), reserve the precious liquid, then you add the cookies, etc...
So, I put a colander in the sink and at the very moment when I dumped the veggies and all that broth in, I realized I had forgotten the bowl as I watched all of that glorious liquid for the gravy go down the drain. NOOOO!!! I tried to reach in and scoop it up but it was still near boiling hot and, lets face it, how much was I going to save with my bare hands anyway? Yeah, that didn't work. All I could do was watch it all go away.
The meal that night was still good but it was certainly not the same as it should (or could) have been.
Since that night, every time I make anything that has any type of gravy, somebody - or everybody - says something along the lines of "do you need a supervisor to save the gravy?" or "uh oh, we're not going to have gravy tonight."
I have never again lost gravy like that (and I have since been vindicated by the Realtor doing a similar thing that involved the loss of pasta water that was meant for a sauce) but I definitely tend to shy away from meals that involve gravy.
This past Sunday, however, I made gravy. There was no mishap or incident, although that didn't stop The Boys from making their usual gravy-related comments. It wasn't even a necessary part of the meal but it made me remember the Sauerbraten story so there you have it.
This Sunday was a raincheck meal. If you recall, the Professor had a birthday recently and although he had originally requested meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans, we decided to go for Greek food instead because we had had the very meat-heavy Southern Fried Sunday the week before. So, the Professor suggested we go back to the meatloaf idea this weekend. And we did.
I decided to go for a traditional style meatloaf but I tweaked it a bit. I used 3 types of meat (beef, pork, and veal) and I used carrots, celery, and onion instead of just onion. I also decided to go with the free form loaf rather than a loaf pan. The meatloaf turned out well. It was moist and flavorful and the (s)mashed potatoes were creamy enough that they didn't even really need gravy.
Here's a before pic of my meatloaf (2 loaves, actually)
And, since I forgot to take a picture when they came out of the oven, here's a version of an after picture:
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| I know it looks like it is burned but it's not. That part is actually caramelized and freaking delicious! |
So, here are the recipes:
(I adapted this from a Martha Stewart recipe called "classic meatloaf")
Ingredients for one meatloaf:
1/2 a medium onion
2 cloves of garlic (crushed or minced)
1 carrot (peeled)
1 celery stalk
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 lb ground beef (I use 85% lean because that fat adds juice and flavor)
1 lb ground pork (I use spicy but you can just use plain)
1/2 lb ground veal
1 1/2 cups to 2 cups of dried breadcrumbs
1 egg
about 1/3 cup of ketchup (plus another 1/3 cup for later)
1 Tblsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tblsp. Worcestershire sauce
salt & pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Put the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and parsley in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
3. Put your meat in a large mixing bowl, add the veggies, breadcrumbs, egg, 1/3 cup of ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and a generous pinch of salt & pepper.
4. Get in there with your (clean) hands and mix it up but just mix it until it's all combined. You don't want to over-mix it - that tends to make it tougher than you want it to be.
5. Form the loaf on a cookie sheet or in a baking dish (baking dish is good if you want to capture the juices to make a gravy).
6. Brush the top with the remaining ketchup. (Lots of recipes call for a ketchup, brown sugar mixture here but I think ketchup is sweet enough as it is.)
7. Bake at 375 for about an hour. Check the internal temperature (you want to be get to about 160 - 165). If you don't have a thermometer, you can cut into the meatloaf and take a look. If it's too pink or too mushy, keep it in the oven a little longer.
8. Once you remove it from the oven, transfer it to a serving plate and tent it with foil while you finish up the rest of the meal.
Creamy mashed potatoes:
I use waxier potatoes than the traditional russets. I use baby gold potatoes or red potatoes, depending on the look I want. I also don't peel the potatoes.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. potatoes (unpeeled but washed)
2 to 3 Tblsp. butter
1/2 cup heavy cream (add more if they are too dry)
salt
Directions:
1. Cut the potatoes into quarters and put them in a large pot of cold water.
2. Salt the water and bring it to a boil.
3. Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes until they are very tender.
4. While the potatoes are boiling, combine the butter and the cream in a microwave safe dish (or a pan on the stove) and warm it a little, just enough to start the butter melting in the warm cream.
4. Strain the potatoes and put them in a large serving bowl and add the cream/butter mixture.
5. With a potato masher or a sturdy large fork, smash the potatoes until they are a fairly creamy consistency. I like mine to have some potato lumps but that's up to you.
6. Add a little salt at the end if it's needed but since you already salted the water earlier, you probably won't need much additional salt.
Lemony green beans:
Ingredients:
1 to 2 lbs of green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup of chicken broth
2 garlic cloves (crushed/minced)
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 small lemon
Directions:
1. In a large skillet, bring the chicken broth and the garlic to a boil.
2. Add the green beans and simmer, stirring occasionally, until they are bright green and tender (I like it when they're still a bit firm but that's up to you).
3. While the beans are cooking, slice up the lemon into thin slices.
4. Remove the green beans to a serving dish and drizzle with the olive oil.
5. Dump the lemons on top and give the whole thing a good stir. Enjoy!
- You can use the leftover chicken broth from the beans to flavor any gravy you might be making, just don't dump it out if you're intending to use it. :-)
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