An Easy Recipe For Meat Loaf

Great as a main meal, or a light lunch - this meat loaf is also perfect for picnics or lunchboxes !

Meat loaf is not something which I make very often – I’m not sure why not, as each time I make it the family enjoy it and it is so easy to throw together !

It freezes well and can be served either hot (with mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables) or cold with a salad as a light meal. It ‘travels’ well & which makes it great for lunch boxes and picnics.

Here is a recipe which I came up with some years ago, & which works every time -:


Meat Loaf

1 kg lean Beef Mince
3 Onions, finely chopped
3 Eggs, beaten
½ cup Bread Crumbs
1-2 tbsp Garlic, finely chopped
1 x 240 gm tin of whole Tomatoes, drained & chopped
1 x 45 gm tin of Tomato Paste
1 tbsp dried Basil
1 tbsp dried Oreganum
Salt & Pepper

Extra breadcrumbs & Onion slices for decorating
Olive Oil

Mix all the ingredients together until well blended (hands are best for this !) then place the mixture into a lightly greased loaf tin (the one I use is 23 x 13 cm/9 x 5 inch)– pressing and patting in to shape & to ensure that all the corners of the tin are filled. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top of the loaf, scatter a few thinly sliced onion rings over the top and brush with a little olive oil. Bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas mark 5 for around an hour until done (prick loaf with a skewer in the centre to check that the juices run clear). Allow to cool slightly before cutting into slices. Serve hot with mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables or cold with salad for a light lunch. This dish also freezes well.

Easy Beef Curry

This tasty beef curry is quick and easy to prepare - which is always a bonus, especially on a busy day !

Nothing beats a good curry – especially on a cold, drizzly day (which we’ve been having plenty of here lately !) Sometimes though, curries can take ages to prepare (& I believe that they always taste better if left to ‘rest’ for a day rather than eating them on the day they are made) but if you’re looking for a quick & tasty curry that can be knocked up in an hour or so, then this is the perfect recipe for you to try -:


Easy Beef Curry (adapted from the book “The Personality of Meat” compiled by Gay Oliva, 1968)

Oil for frying
2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
2 Red Chillies, without seeds & finely chopped
2 Onions, chopped
1 tbsp Curry Powder (or, to taste)
500 gm (1 lb) Beef flank, cut into cubes
4 Tomatoes, peeled & sliced
1 cup Water (250 ml’s)
Salt to taste
Juice of one Lemon

Fry the garlic, chillies & onions in the oil for around 5 minutes. Add the curry powder & stir well, frying for another 5 minutes or so. Add the beef and stir well, cooking for a further 10 minutes & until the beef starts to brown. Next, add the tomatoes and the water. Cover the pan & bring the mixture to the boil, then simmer until the meat is tender. By this time the liquid should have thickened. Add the salt and lemon juice and simmer for a few more minutes before removing from the heat and serving hot on a bed of basmati (or other) rice. This curry is great served with sliced banana, chutney and sambals (finely chopped tomato, onion, green pepper & cucumber).

Step-By-Step Lasagne - So Easy !

Take an ovenproof dish measuring approximately 30 cm x 22 cm. Take a 500 gm box of uncooked lasagne sheets and measure out how many you'll need to make around 3 layers of lasagne - I just place the raw sheets at the bottom of the dish and multiply by 3, adding a few extra incase of breakages. Cook the lasagne sheets according to the instructions on the box, remove from the boiling water, drain briefly on a clean kitchen towel and then place your first layer of lasagne on the base of the dish (I use tongs for this part - especially if the sheets are still warm).

Next, have about 500 gm's of cooked Bolognese style sauce ready. (You can find my recipe for this over here.) I make mine with beef mince, and lots of tomatoes and freeze it in individual packets which come in handy for recipes like this one. Split this into 3, spreading one third of it over the lasagne sheets like this ......

Now make some Bechamel Sauce (you can make it before you even start assembling the lasagne, to save time). Here's a recipe which I always use for this -:

Bechamel Sauce (taken from the book “Cook and Enjoy It” by S.J.A. de Villiers)

400 ml Milk
1 Bay Leaf
2 sprigs Parsley
1 medium Carrot
2 slices Onion
2 pce’s Celery
8 black Peppercorns
60 ml (4 tbsp) Butter
60 ml (4 tbsp) Flour
2 ml (½ tsp) Salt
pinch Pepper
60 ml (4 tbsp) Cheddar Cheese, grated

Pour the milk into a pot & add the bay leaf, parsley, carrot, onion, celery and peppercorns. Heat gently and simmer for around 12 -15 minutes until all the flavours have infused. Drain the milk and set aside.

Slowly melt the butter in a separate saucepan & gradually stir in the flour, mixed with the salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Add the milk – a little at a time – stirring constantly until thick and smooth. Boil for 2 minutes before removing from the heat and stirring the grated cheese in, until melted.

Split the Bechamel Sauce into 3, and pour/spread one third of it over the Bolognese layer like this ......


Now repeat the entire process twice .... top the Bechamel Sauce with lasagne sheets, bolognese, more Bechamel .... lasagne sheets, bolognese, more Bechamel and finally sprinkle about 1 cup of grated Cheddar cheese over the top.


Place the lasagne - uncovered - in the oven at 190'C/375'F/Gas Mark 5 and bake for approximately 45 minutes. The cheese topping should be nicely melted, bubbly and browned ........


Serve with a large bowl of salad (try my 'Kilimanjaro Salad' over here), crusty garlic rolls (my recipe for those are over here) and a good bottle of red - from a favourite South African wine estate !

Seasoned Fillet Of Beef Wrapped In Puff Pastry

Not quite Beef Wellington (which usually contains a stuffing type mix of mushrooms), this is simply my own basic recipe for a whole beef fillet wrapped in puff pastry.

It’s a great Winter dish which I’ve been making for years now. It looks really nice at the table, yet is quite easy to throw together and also works well if you serve it at a dinner party – also because most of the preparation can be done beforehand, and then all you need to do is just cook it about 30 – 40 minutes before you plan to eat it.

I usually serve this with mashed potatoes, fresh veggies & a big jug of gravy -:


Fillet of Beef Wrapped In Puff Pastry

1 kg piece of whole Beef fillet (cleaned & trimmed)
Seasoning of your choice (eg. Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Chilli Flakes, Mustard)
Olive Oil
600 gm piece of Puff Pastry
Flour for dusting
1 Egg, beaten

Season the piece of beef with whatever you choose (I use a shop bought dry ground rub mix of sea salt, mustard seeds, dried chilli flakes, ground ginger, garlic flakes and dried onions). Heat a little olive oil in a pan until almost smoking and then quickly add the whole fillet, turning it to seal all sides and retain the juices. It will also go brown on the surface, and is only in the pan for around 5 minutes or so. Set aside to cool. (Pictured below - the fillet just after sealing it in the pan).

On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to form a square or rectangle to fit the piece of fillet. (You should roll the pastry out fairly thinly so that it cooks well & at the same time as the beef.) Once the fillet has cooled, place it on top of (& in the middle of) the pastry and fold the pastry around it to seal it in. Tuck the ends in & then place it on a lightly greased baking tray. Brush with beaten egg & decorate with pastry off cuts if you like (as pictured below).

Place it in the oven at Gas Mark 8/230’C/450’F for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to Gas Mark 5/190’C/375’F and cook for a further 20 minutes. The pastry should now be a golden brown colour & have puffed out/risen slightly as shown in the photo below -:

Allow to rest for around 10 minutes before cutting it into slices (the beef should be a pinkish colour) and serve immediately with a nice gravy, vegetables & mashed potatoes. The beef is shown below, garnished with sprigs of fresh thyme and sliced & served on a platter -:

Hoisin Beef On A Bed Of Noodles

A delicious & easy-to-throw-together main meal, this Hoisin Beef is delicious served on a bed of noodles

I don’t feature many recipes with beef on the blog, simply because the quality of the beef which we get here is very poor (tough, tasteless, fatty etc) and as a result, I don’t cook it often. This is because the cattle are often not fed a proper diet and usually have to be walked for miles and miles to find grazing (or to reach the market to be sold) which also makes for a tough cut of meat.

I suppose that growing up in Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) on a diet of local meat – which in those days was known for it’s outstanding, to-die-for, best quality in the world beef – I’ve been spoilt for life, and nothing now even comes to close to the melt-in-the-mouth, flavoursome beef which I grew up with as a child !

Over the years, my husband and I have therefore become used to eating a lot of pork and chicken ! I do buy imported beef though (mostly from Kenya and sometimes from Brazil) but then we usually just enjoy it as any good cut of beef should be enjoyed – as simply as possible, usually on the barbecue or quickly pan-fried on the stove top & accompanied with chips and a crisp, fresh salad.

Pak Choi (which is spelt in many different ways) is a Chinese vegetable which is also sometimes known as “Chinese Cabbage”. As we can’t get it here easily, I use white cabbage instead.

Hoisin Sauce is a soy based sauce used in Chinese cooking. It usually contains ingredients such as garlic, chilli & vinegar.


Hoisin Beef on A Bed of Noodles

500 gm Beef, cubed (I use fillet as the other beef cuts we get here are very tough)
2 tsp’s fresh grated Ginger
3 tsp’s fresh grated Garlic
bunch of Spring Onions, finely chopped (reserve green tops for garnishing)
2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
200 gm Pak Choy, finely sliced (I use green cabbage)
Sesame Oil for frying
Noodles for serving (Egg noodles work well) – cooked according to packet instructions

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the cubed beef, cooking until done. Remove the beef from the pan and set aside. Now add the ginger, garlic, spring onions (& a little more oil if necessary) to the pan and fry for a few minutes until golden. Add the beef back into the pan along with the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and Pak Choy (or cabbage). Stir-fry until the beef has heated through, the sauces are mixed and the Pak Choy has wilted. Serve immediately on a bed of freshly cooked noodles, and garnish with the spring onion tops.

South African Frikkadel (Mini Meat Balls)

I make huge batches of these Frikkadel for the freezer once a month - I usually have about 3 pans going at a time !

South African Frikkadel are really just mini meat balls. I usually make a huge batch once a month and freeze them in tubs of 10 to 12 at a time, to pull out when we need a quick meal, or a lunchbox filler, or even as a snack before dinner when we have guests. They freeze really well, and keep like this for up to 3 months.

My husband likes his served with gravy and mashed potato, and sometimes I also serve them in a tomato & onion sauce over pasta. They’re great to add to school lunchboxes and when served as a pre dinner snack, I spear them on to toothpicks and serve them with a dipping sauce on the side – something simple like a small bowl of chutney. They are definitely something that you will always find in my freezer !


South African Frikkadel (Mini Meat Balls) – taken from “The Complete South African Cookbook” by Magdaleen Van Wyk

750 gm minced Beef*
1 medium Onion, finely sliced
200 ml (4/5 cup) dry breadcrumbs**
2 Eggs
37,5 ml (3 tbsp) Butter, Margarine or Oil
125 ml Water
1 ml (1/4 tsp) ground All Spice
5 ml (1 tsp) Salt
1 ml (1/4 tsp) Pepper

Heat 12,5 ml (1 tbsp) of the butter in a frying pan & sauté the onion in it until lightly browned. Combine the mince, breadcrumbs, water, eggs, salt, pepper, All Spice & onion in a large bowl & form into medium-sized balls. Melt the remaining butter in the frying pan & brown the balls in batches, turning occasionally to brown evenly all over. Remove when cooked through.

*I sometimes use minced Pork in place of Beef for these

**In place of the breadcrumbs, you could use a grated Granny Smith apple or bran flakes (breakfast cereal) instead

Cottage Pie

I always think of Cottage Pie as being an "all-in-one" meal with it's meat, veggies & potatoe - all you need to add is a nice side salad and perhaps a little extra gravy !

This is an easy recipe for Cottage Pie. As I mentioned in my recent “Freezing Tips” post, I usually make a big batch of the ‘filling’ and then freeze it in re sealable plastic bags (I portion the filling out so that I know it fits into the round pyrex dish I use when making this). Then when I want to make a cottage pie, I simply defrost the filling, tip it into the pyrex dish and top it with mashed potato before heating/browning it, because a whole frozen Cottage Pie is quite bulky when stored in the freezer and takes up too much valuable space and also because I don’t like the texture of frozen/defrosted mashed potatoe ! (It seems to ‘split’ and go watery/grainy ?)

I use onions, garlic, celery, carrots and courgettes (zucchini) for my filling but you could add any vegetable that you happen to have on hand (throw all your leftovers in !). Peas also work nicely.

So, here is my super simple recipe for Cottage Pie -:


Cottage Pie

Olive Oil
3 Onions, chopped
5 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
4 stalks of Celery, finely sliced
2 large Carrots, roughly grated
1 large Courgette (Zucchini), roughly grated
1 kg Beef Mince
1 Beef Stock Cube
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tbsp Worcester Sauce
4 heaped tsp Gravy powder (or granules)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Water
Mashed Potato (enough to fill the top of the dish you’re using to cook it in)
Bread crumbs (enough to sprinkle over the top of the mashed potato)

Sautee the onions, garlic & celery in the oil until translucent. Then add the carrots & courgette (zucchini). Continue cooking for a few minutes and then add the beef mince. Crumble the stock cube in & cook until done/browned. Add some salt, pepper and the Worcester Sauce and stir. Then add the gravy powder/granules and water. Simmer on a low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish and top with the mashed potato. Using a fork, make lines/patterns across the top of the mashed potato (this helps it to brown nicely under the grill). Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top and grill in a hot oven until golden.

You might like to gently heat the cottage pie in the oven first, and then grill it before serving – it all depends on how quickly you plan to eat it after making it !

(This recipe makes 2 cottage pies in a 19 cm round dish.)

A Potjiekos Recipe .... From Kilimanjaro To California !

My 3 legged, cast iron Potjiekos Pot (which has cooked in North, East, South & West Africa & can tell many a tale !)

You can imagine my delight when I was recently contacted by fellow cooking enthusiast and blogger, Gary of “Cooking Outdoors” (you can see his blog here) and asked if I would like to do a guest post for him.

Gary is from California and aside from loving to cook outdoors, he is also an avid Dutch Oven cook and is the founder of C.C.D.O.A. ”Central California Dutch Oven Adventures” (You can see their website here).

I must admit that I was not very familiar with Dutch Ovens until reading Gary’s blog, which is very informative and contains product reviews, recipes and tips & techniques not only relating to Dutch Oven cooking, but to outdoor cooking in general.

Gary asked me to do a guest post on Potjiekos cooking, which is a traditional South African method of cooking which involves cooking food over an open fire in a cast iron 3 legged pot.

So, this past weekend I fired up the barbecue and dusted off the 3 legged pot and you can see what I got up to and see photo’s by reading my guest post on Gary’s website “Cooking Outdoors” here.

Traditional South African Bobotie

Served with yellow rice & chutney, this curried meat and fruit dish is a real treat

I love traditional South African food and cooking methods, the Afrikaans methods in particular. I hope that they do not all die out and I also hope that future generations continue to cook traditional Afrikaans/South African foods according to the old methods which have been passed down through the ages. (In this fast paced, junk food, pre-packaged microwave meal generation, I have my doubts. But I hope that I am wrong.)

South African has, in my opinion, some of the best food (and recipes) in the world. When the Dutch first settled in the country in the 1600’s, they brought their Dutch recipes and cooking techniques with them. When Malaysian slaves were brought to the Continent soon after, they introduced spices which jazzed up the traditionally quite bland Dutch and English foods, like stews. French and German settlers also had an influence on the food … and what evolved over time, and with all the different cultures and ingredients from all around the world thrown together, was the wonderful, traditional South Arican food which you still find today.

I had never eaten traditional South African food until I was at boarding school (“koshuis”) as a teenager in the then very Afrikaans town of Vryheid in Northern Natal, South Africa. Most of the food served there was traditional … Melkos (the recipe I posted for this is here), Bobotie, Pumpkin Fritters (recipe is here), Cape Brandy Pudding … to name but a few. It was completely different to the food I had grown up eating as a child in Rhodesia, this food was a lot more oily than the food my mother cooked and many of the dishes had lots of cream, salt and sugar added which I was not used to.

But it quickly grew on me, and one of my all time favourties was Bobotie (a real comfort food !), which is a curried mince dish which includes raisins and is topped with an egg custard. It sounds odd but please, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it …. is it possible for food to evoke an emotional feeling ? If so, this is it - it warms the depth of your soul … if I had to eat this on my last day on this earth, I would die a happy woman !

There are so many variations of this recipe, this recipe is one I have come up with by combining a couple of traditional Bobotie recipes over the years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do (and send any leftovers my way, please !)


Bobotie Recipe

2 tbsp Oil
2 Onions, sliced
1 kg Beef Mince (lamb mince can also be used)
2 tbsp Curry Powder (Mild/Medium)
1 tbsp Turmeric powder
2 tbsp brown Sugar
3 tbsp Vinegar
Salt & Pepper to taste
½ cup Raisins (seedless)
2 slices Bread
1 cup Milk
2 Eggs
6 Bay Leaves
Whole Almonds for garnishing (optional)

Fry the onions in the oil and add the beef mince. Keep breaking the mince up with a fork as you cook it, to prevent it from forming into clumps. (It should be crumbly and browned once cooked).

Add the curry powder, turmeric, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper to the mince. Cook for a few minutes and then add the raisins. Soak the bread in ½ cup of the milk and once it has absorbed all the milk, add 1 egg and beat well, then add it to the mince mixture and mix to blend.

Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and top with the other egg, beaten in to the remaining ½ cup of milk. Stick 6 Bay leaves upright in to the dish (and some Almonds, too if you are using them) and bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 30 minutes.

Serve with yellow rice and chutney.

Bolognese Inspired Sauce For Pasta

I portion the sauce into labelled, reusable plastic containers which stack easily in my freezer

This is another of my monthly “Big Batch Freezer Meals” recipes.

I call this Bolognese sauce but in fact, it is not really a Bolognese sauce in the true sense of the word. I made the recipe up just from memory (I regularly watched my Dad making it when I was a child) and since then have altered it as I’ve gone along. So it is nothing like the “traditional” Italian Bolognese sauce …for one, it does not contain carrots or celery and it also has far too much tomato paste and tomato to be considered the “genuine” thing. Nevertheless, it is a tasty sauce for pasta (and especially enjoyed by carnivorous husbands who refuse to eat anything that doesn’t contain meat !)

I usually serve it with a sprinkle of grated cheese (one with a strong flavour as Parmesan is difficult to come by here) and a nice Greek salad and some garlic bread.

Bolognese-ish Sauce for Pasta:

Oil
5 large Onions, chopped
1 head of Garlic, finely sliced (about 8 cloves)
2 kg lean Beef Mince
3 x 70 gm tins Tomato Paste
3 x 240 gm tins whole peeled Tomatoes
3 tbsp dried Basil
2 tbsp Brown Sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste
Oil

Fry the onions and garlic in the oil until golden. Add the beef mince and mix well, to ensure that the mince does not cook in “clumps”. Once the mince has started to brown, add the tomato paste and tinned tomatoes. Then add the dried basil, salt, pepper and sugar. (I find that the addition of the sugar helps to take the edge off the tartness of the tomatoes in this dish.)

This recipe makes 8 – 10 good sized portions and once again, as this is a bulk recipe, ingredient quantities can be halved or quartered to suit your needs.

Farm Style Meatballs

My favourite way to serve these is with a tomato and onion gravy, nestled on a bed of freshly cooked pasta

I have been doing “Once A Month Cooking” or “Big Batch Freezer Meals" for about a year or so now. I will elaborate on it in a future post but basically, I cook enough of one recipe to make 5 – 8 portions which I then label and put in the freezer. We usually have “freezer meals” a few times a week and I cook vegetables and starches (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) fresh every day.

This is one of my own standard monthly “Freezer Meal” recipes and it is so versatile as it can be served as a main course, light lunch or even as a snack with pre dinner drinks or cocktails (not that I host any cocktail parties on the farm !). I always make sure that I have a few portions in my freezer -:

Farm Style Meatballs

2 kg Minced Meat (Beef or Pork)
3 Onions, finely chopped
6 – 8 cloves Garlic, finely grated
2 x 70 gm tins Tomato Paste
2 tbsp Mustard (Hot English or Dijon)
2 tbsp Dried Herbs (Sage works well if using pork mince)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Oil

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix together well. (I find that using my hands for this works best, although it is a bit messy !)

Shape in to small balls and lightly pan fry in the oil until golden.

Serve with tomato & onion gravy over pasta, or with a dark meat based gravy over mashed potato. These also make a great light lunch or cocktail snack.

Makes +- 75 meatballs but you could halve or even quarter the recipe if you like.