Mighty Meatloaf

Last Monday I spent my day in the town of Bath taking a bread baking course. I have been stuck on bread since last summer and was super excited when the chance came up to finally get to take the class. Thanks also in part to my birthday present from Carey and Ben a bit ago in the form of a gift card for the class it made it that much sweeter. I took the train from Paddington to Bath early on Monday and made my way to the studio/kitchen. Besides me there were 8 other women and 3 men plus two assistants and the teacher Richard Bertinet. He runs the school and has published two books, Dough & Crust. I now of course have both of them but before the class I only had Crust and successfully made the seeded bread from the book which is pretty good but does take a bit of work too. Richard has a technique that is very different then other bread books and his kneading is not kneading but more of a way of folding or working the dough to capture the air pockets in the dough. The dough in his recipes is often much wetter and thicker then others and so is hard for sure at first when one is used to putting the extra flour on the counter to keep it from sticking. Here there is no extra flour you are working with the sticky dough no matter what!

The class started out with introductions and listening to Richard talk about his theories of bread that is out there...meaning not much is actually bread. Read the packaging how much of it can you actually pronounce? Then finally it was on to watching him demo his technique which was pretty amazing to watch and a bit scary at first as you knew no matter how much you watched and paid attention one would mess it up and sure enough pretty much all of us did that, oh well we were there to learn. We split up into pairs and got to work on the first dough which is the basic white dough used for many things but only has flour, water, yeast and salt in the ingredients list. We let that rise and then moved on to the next recipe of Olive Oil bread which we made 4x the amount on the recipe and worked in 4's to get it sorted. It seems like a lot and it was but it made for good work and learning on how to work the dough. Afterwards it was time for a quick break for those who drank coffee & drunk prunes, really they were tasty! Back to work we went shaping the dough into Fougasse. It is a flat bread shapped and cut which when baked turns out crusty and tasty. I must admit mine were not so pretty but it was fun to do. We also made bread sticks with olives, cheese and seasonings and those were good! Our Olive Oil Bread for our table then was turned into a huge Foccacia coated with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and lemon zest. Finally we learned how to put the other tables Olive Oil bread into tins to make loaf bread. It was a busy day to say the least and the room smelled sooooooo good of fresh bread baking. The final part was getting to eat a late lunch and all the bread we had made that day was on the table for munching to go with the cheeses, salads, and other snacks plus of course wine. As it turns out this is where the Meatloaf comes in...I sat next to two women one who had lived in the states for awhile and another who had a son living there who both wanted an American recipe for Meatloaf that didn't dry out. Being Midwestern in the blood Meatloaf was part of growing up. I have many memories of my mom making this along with mashed potatoes and green beans. It was often considered an easy meal as she could throw it in the oven and work on other things and there are not many ingredients to it. I did add a bit of garlic to mine to give in some zing but for the most part I still make it the way it was when I was a kid. So due to popular demand here is an American's take on Meatloaf on UK soil.

Mighty Meatloaf...with Sauce

1lb ground beef (minced meat)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

2 Tablespoons chopped onion

1 garlic clove chopped

2 Tablespoons flour

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 can tomato soup (favourite is campballs but Heinz will work too)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

Preheat oven to 350F/160C Degrees. Mix first 7 ingredients in mixing bowl until combined. Place in loaf shaped pan and mold to fit the pan. I tend to pile it a bit more towards the middle giving it space on the sides for the juices and sauce to come later to be able to have a place to go while cooking. Place meat mixture in oven for 30 minutes. During this time mix the soup, sugar and green pepper together and set aside. When 30 minutes are up pull out the meat and pour over the soup mixture, place it back in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. Give the meat a few minutes to cool before serving as it will be very hot and will be easier when cooler for cutting and pulling out of the pan. Also as my dad says makes for very good leftovers on sandwiches the next day!

Pizza Dough

Pizza! It is a great time to be making pizza dough and really such an easy thing. I never thought I would be out there making pizza in my own home or own a pizza stone which has become a valuable part of the kitchen. In our house we been making two different types of pizza one is thin crust for this recipe and the other is a Chicago style deep dish. Lorie managed to secure her mother's recipe and I have tweaked it to make it work for us and it is really good but takes a bit more work. The thin crust dough works well for when we have guests and want to try and make a lot of different pizzas and snack around. The other thing that makes homemade pizza amazing is the different and fresh ingredients you get to put on to your taste. Our most recent foray into pizza making was after going to the Real Food Show which I blogged about in my other blog. We came out with yummy mozzarella freshly made that just was screaming out for pizza toppings. Alan while we were in Italy had been given a huge roll of cured meat from friends there along with fresh Aspargus from market that morning we were pretty sure our dinner would be awesome.

I have a favourite bread book one I picked up from Ireland during our trip there with Alan's parents in 2007. I use their white bread recipe quiet often made with fresh yeast and probably one of which I must share this summer when bread is really at its best. The book: The Ballymaloe Bread Book is also a cooking school and cafe, no I have not been there yet but someday! This recipe is simple and easy to make and the nice part is that there is no real rising time which makes it something that can be made after coming home from work. The dough will keep for a few days in the fridge or also you can freeze it if that works better for you. For a sauce I make my own or sometimes follow Heidi's on 101 Cookbooks as it is simple, easy and tasty.

Garden Cafe Pizza Dough

from The Ballymaloe Bread Book

680 grams/ 1 1/2lb strong white flour (bread flour)

50 grams/ 2oz butter

1 packet fast-acting yeast

2 level teaspoons salt

15 grams/1/2 oz sugar

2-4 Tablespoons olive oil (good quality makes a difference)

350-400 ml/12-14 fl oz lukewarm water, more if needed

Into a large, wide mixing bowl, measure the flour, add in the salt and sugar and rub in the butter. Stir in the fast-acting yeast into the dry ingredients.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, add the oil and most of the lukewarm water. Mix to a loose dough, add more flour or water as needed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work top, cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Then knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until smooth and springy. If kneading in a food mixer with a dough hook 5 minutes is usually long enough.

Leave the dough to relax again for about 10 minutes. Shape and measure into 8 equal balls. A scale if very handy for this process. If we are having a big group over I do measure the balls to exactly 140grams/5 oz, but sometimes I do make them a bit bigger and then have usually one less ball. It all depends on how big your pizza stone is and your oven!

Lightly brush the balls with olive oil. If you have the time and it does help then place the oiled dough balls into a plastic bag and chill. The dough will be easier to handle when chilled but it can be used immediately.

On a well-floured work surface, roll each ball out to a disc about 25.5cm/10in. Top with your favourite ingredients.

For baking I bump my oven up to around 450 degrees this usually takes about 25-35 minutes to preheat, enough time for the dough to chill & make the sauce, and do remember to preheat the pizza stone in it the whole time to get it nice and hot. I tend to roll out the dough and then prepare all the toppings and once the oven is ready to be used I pop out the stone, lay on the dough and quickly top the pizza. Depending on the oven aim to bake between 8-12 minutes.