Footloose and Foodist

Loaf-ing around!

Marriage does strange things to women. It suddenly makes you feel that you should get into the kitchen and awaken the culinary queen in you. The disastrous results are too many to enumerate but even twenty-four plus years down the wedded route, the first meat loaf attempt makes one cringe. In the kitchen, of the stone-wood cottage in Darjeeling, with one entire row of windows overlooking the verdant Peshok Hills, with the cook and two home guards watching curiously, I tried to make my first meat-loaf. What is it all about - just putting together mince, eggs, some bread crumbs, diced onions, seasonings tra-la-la-la! Feeling smug and so up there, one put the loaf tin into the over, adjusted the temperature and timing, flung off the apron and impatiently awaited the accolade, orchestra in the background et al. It was a horror story all the way - first the electricity played truant, one moment the voltage would zoom up as if in a frenzied hurry to streak like lightning across the sky, next it would be dead as dodo, no heart beat, no pulse, simply lifeless. The devilish dance of the electric supply continued the whole day. It infected me too, one moment I would switch off the oven, next switch it on and adjust the timing again. What came out was a hard lump, charred at some ends, sickly pale at others. I promised myself that I would never ever, make a meat loaf again, ever. But as they say, never say never!

Over the years, the meat loaf has become a perennial during the winter months in my kitchen. Don't ask why not during the other months. Have to analyse that. Though everybody's preference is pork mince, chicken loaf too turns out quite tasty. Simple, easy to make, keeps for some days and versatile, it can be the main dish with sauce, salads and garlic bread or dinner rolls. It can go in as sandwich fillers (especially for school tiffin boxes), cut into squares it can be served with drinks, crumble it and it makes a great pie filling. Or like the little girl in the old Horlicks ad who chirped, I eat it by itself (or eat it just like that) one can eat it just like that.

For the one I made the other day I took:

Chicken mince, 300g ( I prefer the breast meat)

Egg,1, slightly beaten

Breadcrumbs, 50g

Onion, 1 medium, minced finely

Star anise (allspice) 1, ground finely

Salt, to taste

Parsley, 1 tablespoon, chopped

Eggs, 2, full boiled

1 loaf tin ( I refuse to discard my old beaten, worn out, aluminium tin)

Heat the oven to 160 C

Put the chicken in a glass bowl, mix in the breadcrumbs, onion, allspice powder, salt, parsley and mix in gently but thoroughly. Put in the slightly beaten egg and mix well.

Grease the loaf tin. I use butter paper simply because I refuse to discard my old beaten......

Put half the mix in and pat it into place. If the tin is big, no issues, just fill half, 2/3 rd whatever. (see below)

Take the full boiled and shelled eggs, lay them in the middle.