Saturday, 25 October 2008
American Cooking in France: Meatloaf
Nothing says "gourmet cooking" like a good meatloaf. Ok, maybe not! But it is darn good food, easy to make, and makes plenty of leftovers, so I'm happy to make it anyway. Even if my French wife thinks we're just eating hamburgers without the bun :-)
There's nothing too France-specific about meatloaf, since its most exotic ingredient, ketchup, is as prevalent here as it is in the US, and of course beef is universal (except in certain parts of India, I guess). The main substitution I did to the recipe I started from was to use emmental for the cheese, which would be like using Swiss cheese in the US. The result could have come straight from a Southern diner.
Ingredients
- 800g ground beef
- A half cup or so of bread crumbs ("chapelure" in French)
- Ketchup
- Grated emmental
- An onion, minced
Preparation
1. Mix together the beef, bread crumbs, and onion, and form into a flat rectangle. 2. In the rectangle, put the cheese, then roll up the beef around it and seal all around. 3. Flip it into the baking pan so that the seam is pointing down, then drizzle ketchup along the top. 4. Bake at 175° C for 40 minutes, then sprinkle more emmental on the top and bake for five more minutes. 5. Triumph!
