28 September 2010

This is a recipe I created for a recipe contest. The challenge was to take any recipe from The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book and change it up in a new and interesting way. I took their basic meatloaf recipe and turned it into a Thai-style meatloaf. I replaced regular onion with green onion, and replaced the traditional Italian seasonings with ginger and garlic, and replaced the parsley with cilantro. Instead of the ketchup/brown sugar topping, mine has a peanut sauce topping. The results are amazing! I have never been a big fan of meatloaf, but this is so good! You really should try it.


Thai-Style Meatloaf

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup milk
2 cups soft bread crumbs (3-4 slices)
¼ cup green onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1½ tsp ginger, grated
1½ lbs. lean ground beef, ground lamb, or ground pork (I like 1 lb. beef & ½ lb. pork)
¼ cup jarred Thai peanut sauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium bowl, combine eggs and milk; stir in bread crumbs, green onion, cilantro, salt, garlic, and ginger. Add ground meat; mix well. Lightly pat mixture into an 8”x4”x2” loaf pan.

Bake for 1 to 1¼ hours or until internal temperature registers 160° on an instant-read thermometer. Drain off fat. Spread peanut sauce over meat. Bake for another 5 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting into 8 slices.

Makes 8 servings.


This is literally the best meatloaf I have ever had. It doesn't just taste like a big chunk of hamburger, like the ones I have made in the past. I think it's the soft bread crumbs that make the difference. Don't be tempted to use the kind you buy in a can in the grocery store. It's super easy to put a few pieces of fresh bread (I use whole grain wheat) in the food processor or mini chopper and pulse it a few times. Combining milk and bread into a paste is called a panade, and it makes meat (like meatloaf or hamburgers) so moist and delicious.

The flavors in this meatloaf work really well together. Green onion, cilantro, garlic, and ginger are classic Thai flavors and they are so tasty in a meatloaf. I tried several times to come up with my own recipe for a peanut sauce topping for this meatloaf that would be the ketchup and brown sugar counterpart. I tried three different times, eventually giving up and using a peanut sauce from a jar (I happened to use the Pampered Chef one, but you can use any that you like). I actually made this meatloaf three times in as many weeks just to try to get the topping right. The meatloaf part of it I got right the first time I made it! And even though I made it three times, we never got tired of it. I was planning on freezing the third one, but it made the house smell so good as it was baking, that I had to have it for lunch that day!



The first time I made it, I served it with Asian Noodles and Sesame Broccoli. It's also good with plain old mashed potatoes.

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