Alton Brown, again, showed me the error of my ways. (I really need to find another chef to watch on the Food Network!) I saw his episode about meatloaf and, for the first time ever, I actually wanted to eat meatloaf.

Bacon wrapped meatloaf.

I was apprehensive at first, so I looked around the internet for a few more ideas. How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman has been very dependable, so I opened his book in search for some meatloaf direction. I also turned to Cook’s Illustrated, knowing that they run so many tests that they bound to come across something useful.

So I set about to combine recipes for myself. Here is what I came up with: a bacon-wrapped, three-meat, free-form meatloaf.

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf.

I no longer fear the meatloaf. I have learned to love the ketchup glaze, and you should too. Click through for the recipe and more pics… and also to find out one huge change I’ll do next time I make it.

Meatloaf
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 small celery rib, minced
4 oz cremini mushrooms, minced
1 carrot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup whole milk or plain yogurt or cream
1 1/3 cups bread crumbs
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pound ground beef chuck
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground veal
6 – 8 ounces bacon, thin sliced (8 to 12 slices, depending on loaf shape, enough to cover the loaf)

Glaze
1 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 F with oven rack in the middle position. Prepare a baking sheet (see image below recipe).
2. Mix all the glaze ingredients (the ketchup, coriander, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and honey) in a saucepan; set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, mushrooms, and carrot, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown (7-8 minutes). Add the garlic near the end of cooking.
4. While the above is cooking, mix egg with cayenne pepper, thyme, paprika, mustard, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and milk or yogurt.
5. Add the egg and spice mixture to meat in large bowl along with bread crumbs, parsley, and cooked onion and garlic. Mix with forks until evenly blended. The mixture should not stick to the bowl–if it does, add more milk or yogurt, a couple tablespoons at a time until it doesn’t stick anymore.
6. To mold the meatloaf, either free-form a 9-5 inch loaf or pack it into a 10-inch loaf pan (turn the pan upside down to dislodge the meatloaf). Do this directly onto your prepared baking sheet.
   

   Snugly wrapped in bacon.

7. Brush with the glaze. Arrange the bacon slices over the loaf. Overlap the slices slightly (they shrink with heat) and tuck the ends under as best as you can.
8. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. After about 30 minutes, brush more glaze onto the loaf. Bake until the probe registers 160F, about 1 hour. Let rest at least 15 minutes.
9. Simmer remaining glaze over medium heat until thickened slightly. Slice the meatloaf and serve with extra glaze.

Notes: Preparing the baking sheet.

The baking sheet is prepared this way for a number of reasons. First the entire baking sheet is covered with an extra large sheet of aluminum foil. This is for easier clean-up. You don’t need to clean the sheet-pan afterwards, simply ball up the dirty foil and throw away. Place a metal cooling rack into the baking sheet and lay a large piece of foil over this. Poke holes into the foil with a skewer or chopstick to allow the fat to drain through. The loaf is baked free-form to allow a crust to form on all sides of the loaf rather than just the top.

Prepared sheet pan for Bacon-wrapped Meatloaf

Full Disclosure:  About that “huge change” I mentioned; well, I messed up the recipe on the first go-around. I forgot a key ingredient when I was assembling it: the breadcrumbs. I know, I know. How could I forget the breadcrumbs you ask? I was in a hurry and got distracted. Wouldn’t that have changed everything? Probably, but cooking isn’t always perfect and this still turned out very tasty.  If you do make this recipe, be sure to add those breadcrumbs… I’ll let you know how it turns out when I make this again.

Finished Chicken Stock

Once you make your own, you’ll realize that it is much better than any of the dozen or so of the brands offered at the supermarket. Sure, one or two may be serviceable, but making it yourself is truly stunning.

Interested in making the simplest chicken stock? Click through to find out how.

This recipe comes courtesy of Mark Bittmann’s How To Cook Everything. There are several variations on chicken stock and broths, and this is one of the easiest I have come accross. I do keep parts of cut up chickens in my freezer to roast and and make a rich stock, but this time I took the easy way out. Just boiling a whole chicken with some vegtables got the flavor I was looking for to help me feel better.

Just add water and boil to get stock!

Ingredients

1 whole (3-4 lb) chicken
1 quartered onion
2 chopped carrots
1 chopped celery rib
1 pinch thyme (or fresh rosmary)
3-5 springs of fresh parsley
1 teaspoon or less salt
about 14 cups of water (or enough to cover everything thoroughly)

Directions

1. Put the whole chicken and the vegtables into a large pot. Add the water.
2. Bring to a boil, cover partially, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 45-60 minutes.
3.  Strain the broth and press on the vegtables to extract as much liquid as possible.
4. Refridgerate, then skim off the fat that hardens on the surface.

The stock will keep for 4-5 days in the fridge. It will last longer if you boil it every couple of days. It can be frozen for much longer.

I should probably add a tip of what to do with that whole cooked chicken you now have. Lot’s of choices: sandwiches, salads, shred/dice it and put it in chicken soup with the broth, shred it and mix with barbeque sauce, put in a pasta dish, make chicken wraps, use to stuff vegtables…

This was something I have been wanting to try for a while: cooking pasta like a risotto. I’ve seen it on several blogs, in How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and at Cook’s Illustrated. Everybody knows that with pasta, you just have to boil it in a big pot of water until al dente. Generally, the more water you have, the better, because the starch has more opportunity to be released from the pasta. But if you cook it like risotto, then the starch stays in the dish. While it may sound counter-productive, that is exactly what you want here. The starch is what makes a risotto a risotto. Now, I have to admit, I have never made a risotto. I will try that soon. But I did have some Orzo left over from when I made some soups. I figured I could use orzo to make absorption pasta. I cribbed a bit from How to Cook Everything, Bittman has a slightly different method in his How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (online recipe here, courtesy Google Book Search ), and the Cook’s Illustrated version.

Absorpotion Pasta
2 tbsps olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound orzo
3/4 cup vermouth (dry white wine works fine, I had no wine on hand, so I subbed vermouth)
4 cups chicken stock
1 Lemon (grate the zest and juice the lemon)
10 oz frozen peas (one 10 oz box. I actually added only about 3/4 of it.)
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tbsps butter, unsalted

1. Heat the chicken stock in a small pot over medium high heat. If it begins to boil, reduce the heat. The purpose is just to keep the liquid hot for when it is added to the rest of the dish.
2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet on medium high heat. When hot, add the shallot, 3/4 tsp salt and cook about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cook about a minute more. Add the orzo and cook, stirring occasionally until “toasted”. At this point, most of the orzo should look lightly golden brown. This can take about 5 minutes.
3. Add the vermouth (3/4 cup), stir. Continue to stir using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and let the liquid absorb into the pasta.
4. Add the lemon juice and zest. Add the chicken stock about a 1/2 cup at a time. Stir each time you add more liquid. Do not add more liquid until the previous addition has nearly been completely absorbed. The orzo should never get “dry” nor should it look soupy.
5. After about 10 minutes, begin tasting the orzo. It will be finished when it is al dente–it should be tender, but still firm. This time it took about 17 minutes for it to reach that stage, but it can happen sooner. Do not worry if you do not use all of the stock.
6. Add the frozen peas and mix until everything has warmed through.
7. Reduce the heat to low, add the Parmesan and the butter.

The peas are optional. I find that they add a nice contrast in texture to the orzo in the dish.
The lemon is optional. I served this with the Pan-roast Chicken which had a lemon-herb pan sauce, so I figured keeping the lemon theme going couldn’t hurt.