Well hello my little darlings! I know it's once again been a while since I've posted, but I have a very good reason. You see, while I've been gone, some interesting developments have happened in mine and JP's lives. You have to understand that this was not expected, I swear! Neither of us were really prepared for it in any way. But, to make a long story short... well, shorter really, here it goes. We've been transferred. Again. So as sad as it is, it's time for us to say goodbye to our beloved Sydney, and hello to Jacksonville, Florida. Random, I know. So, seeing as we will be in full-on move mode over the holiday season, I wanted to give a parting gift until my next posting, which will probably be sometime in the new year!
And here it is! This is my Chipotle Meatpile. Really it was supposed to be a Meatloaf, but I didn't add enough breadcrumbs to soak up the juices, and the resulting dish was far more pile than it was loaf. Don't worry, it still tasted delicious! So without further ado, lets get started!
Naturally, the first thing you'll need are the ingredients. This is a pretty easy thing to make, and the ingredient list is just as simple. You'll need an onion, a green bell pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, one egg, 500g (about a pound) of ground beef, 200g (a little less than half a pound) of mushrooms, one can of diced tomatoes, some dijon mustard, ketchup, tomato paste, breadcrumbs, brown sugar, Mexican cheese mix, and most importantly of all, a can of chipotle peppers in adobo. This is the must have ingredient to make this after all!
Mmm Chipotle Peppers in Adobo. Smokey and spicy and delicious. Trust me on this.
So lets start with the meatpile. Start with dicing up the onion, and throwing it into a pan to sauté for a bit.
Chop up the mushrooms and toss those in as well.
Then add the diced green bell pepper. Let this mixture cook for a bit, until the onions start to turn translucent.
Dice up the cloves of garlic, and throw those into the pan. Allow to cook for about 5-7 more minutes, then switch off the heat and allow them to start to cool.
While that is happening, grab the beef and toss it into a large mixing bowl.
Take the peppers (I used all of them, but you can use less if you don't want as much heat) and chop them up nice and fine. Make sure to keep the Adobo sauce. That stuff is like liquid gold in this recipe.
Throw the chopped chipotle peppers into the meat, and add the can of diced tomatoes. Add about half of the reserved Adobo sauce that you saved.
Now, this is where you can go either way: Add the 1/2 cup of bread crumbs that I did, and enjoy a nice moist meatpile. Add 3/4 cup of the breadcrumbs, and have a nice, moist, meatloaf. Your choice!
Crack an egg into the mixture, to help bind everything together. At this stage, add the cooked veggies too. Also, pretend there is a photo of me doing that. K thanks.
Mix everything together. Just be careful not to over work the meat. Using two forks is a good way to ensure that everything gets evenly mixed in, and keeps the meat nice and light.
Then, if you'd like, add a nice handful of a Mexican blend cheese mix. This will add to the goodness of the meatloaf, I swear by it!
Form everything into a nice loaf shape.
And cram it all into a nice greased non-stick loaf pan.
This looks soooooo amazing. Get excited about dinner at this point.
Now for the topping. Grab the mustard, the remaining Adobo, the ketchup and the tomato paste. You'll want about a tablespoon each of the mustard and brown sugar. Add all the leftover Adobo, a squirt of tomato paste, and a dash of the ketchup.
Mix it all together into this delicious looking sauce topping.
Naturally you will want to spread it over the meatloaf.
Bake it at 190° C (that's about 375° F) for about an hour, until it is nice and bubbly and beautiful looking. Commence drooling now.
Plate it up with some nice steamed veggies (hooray for purple carrots!), and dig in to your fabulous meatpile! Errr.. meatloaf!
xoxo
Craig
