Last Thanksgiving, I tried my hand at making a meatless loaf. Actually, I tried to make two that would complement each other as an entree for the sole vegetarian in our group. Going through my photo archive I found that I had some nice pix taken by Chris McNDP on his fancy new camera. Also, thanks to Miss Julia for the bag of grits, all the way from North Carolina.

Anyways, here is the recipe and a couple of photos of my Grits and Greens Loaf.

Grits and Greens Loaf

3 tbsp unseasoned dry breadcrumbs
2 pkg chopped frozen spinach
3 tbsp butter
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 cup uncooked grits
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Generously butter a loaf pan and sprinkle the bottom and sides with breadcrumbs. Thaw and squeeze excess moisture out of spinach.

3. In medium skillet, heat 1 tbsp of butter. Carefully cook onion and garlic until tender. Add spinach and cook further for about 2 minutes. Set aside.

4. In a 1.5l suacepan, bring milk, salt, pepper and cayeene to slow boil. Stir in grits, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly until grits are thick. Stir in remaining 2 tbsp of butter, cheese and spinach mixture.

5. In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in about 1 cup of grits mixture to warm the eggs. Blend the egg mixture back into grits suacepan.

6. Pour mixture into loaf pan. Place pan in larger pan half filled with water. Bake until firm, puffed and golden, about 45-55 minutes. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.

I served this with a vegetarian mushroom and onion gravy as well as an attempted Sweet Potato and Tofu loaf (which didn't turn out).


It was very tasty and a great addition to the Thanksgiving feast at Gangster and Sarah's.

A few days ago, Athena mentioned her idea about a 'Thanksgiving Loaf', which was basicly a turkey meatloaf with a vein of dressing (stuffing to you mainlanders) running through it. On Saturday, I was all keyed up when I was leaving work from selling roughly 1000 copies of Harry Potter combined with seeing almost every child in the free world get excited about reading. So needless to say I was jazzed and needed an outlet. Making a meatloaf seemed to be as good an idea as not and since I had been negligent in that area I felt it was my duty to try something new. So without further ado, here is:

Stuffed Turkey Loaf with Sweet Potato Frosting

2lbs lean ground turkey
2 med carrots, grated and chopped
1 lrg onion, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup cream of celery soup, undiluted or milk
2 tbsp chili sauce or ketchup
1 tbsp dried rosemary, ground
1 tsp black pepper, ground
all-purpose flour

Dressing/Stuffing
1 box Pepperidge Farms Stuffing
1 stalk of celery
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp savory, ground

Sweet Potato Frosting
1 lrg sweet potato (I mean large, use two if you are unsure)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 375F.

2. Combine carrots, onions, mushrooms, garlic, rosemary and pepper in large bowl. Add turkey, soup and chili sauce. Mix evenly with hands.

3. Lay out large sheets of wax paper and dust with flour. Lay turkey mixture out and roll flat until about an inch thick with rolling pin or bottle (I personally use a full bottle of Jameson's). Width should equal length of loaf pan. (see below)



4. Mix your dressing according to instructions on the box or make it from scratch (I sauteed onions and celery which I combined with my box dressing. I also added savory to make it taste more like traditional Newfoundland dressing). Distribute dressing/stuffing evenly over tukey mixture leaving small area at either end uncovered. (see below)


5. Roll turkey mixture into a loaf as you would roll a jelly-roll. Lightly press to connect join at end. (see below)



6. Place roll in loaf tin and bake for 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 180-190F.

7. Boil sweet potato in salted water until soft. Drain (you may want to reserve some of the water for a gravy base) and mash. Add cinnamon, 3/4 tbsp brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

8. Take meatloaf out of oven when cooked. Cover top of loaf with uniform coating of potato mixture. Sprinkle remaining brown sugar on top of loaf. Broil for 5-10 minutes or until sugar begins to caramelize. Remove meatloaf from oven. (see below)


9. Let stand for 10 minutes. Slice and serve. (I served it with mushroom gravy - see below)

A few things I learned were, firstly, make your dressing/stuffing a little drier than you think as it absorbs a lot of the meat juices. Secondly, it is important to get that internal temperature up because, although it is a meatloaf, it is still poultry. And finally, it may be a little better with a brown sugar glaze instead of sprinkled sugar.

All in all, a pretty good recipe that is easy to modify to your ideas about Thanksgiving. Although, in making it it reminded me of an old joke whose punchline is "Wrecked 'im? Damn near killed 'im!".

Just 'cause you love meatloaf doesn't mean you can't love vegetables. Good food is good food and creative competent cooks can be meat eaters and not. Well, my friend Bill is a meat eater and his girlfriend Keri is not. So Bill cooks phenomenal vegetarian dishes when he is at home and eats meat when he is out with friends.

Because of this I asked Bill to send me his recipe for nut roast. It is a great dish (so is Bill) and I thought it needed to be shared. It is a great example of vegetarian cooking that isn't bland or boring, isn't a poor copy of a meat dish and is better than the sum of its parts. So here you go.

Vegetarian Nut Roast with Miso Gravy

You won’t believe how delicious this nut roast is especially when it’s smothered in rich miso gravy, which tastes like the real thing. But it’s purely veg – perfect for those nostalgic vegetarians who pine for the flavour of gravy on special occasions – or any time, for that matter. Don’t assume this dish is just for vegetarians, either. The biggest meat-eater I know tried this nut roast and he loved it. It’s perfect as a side dish, too. But you absolutely must to try the gravy on some mashed potatoes.

Vegetarian Nut Roast

1 large onion
2 large cloves garlic
1/8 cup butter
1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup whole unsalted cashew nuts
1 cup whole pecan nuts
1 cup white bread, torn into pieces
1 cup vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
thyme leaves

Stuffing

1 x 284 gram bag spinach
2 cups water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 shiitake mushroom, sliced, cut in medium dice
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 cup white bread, torn into pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable stock

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400º F.

2. Grease and line a 1 lb loaf tin with parchment paper. Use a pair of scissors to cut the paper into two strips – one strip to fit the length and one for the width of the tin. Make sure there is enough paper hanging over the edge so that you can easily pull the paper up to remove the nut roast from the tin. Make sure the parchment paper is greased, as well.

3. In a medium-sized saucepan, lightly sauté the onions in a combination of olive oil and butter until tender but not brown. Remove from the heat.

4. Grind the cashews and pecans in the food processor with the bread and garlic and add to the sautéed onion in the saucepan (off the heat), together with the boiled vegetable stock, fresh thyme leaves and salt and pepper.

5. Let this mixture stand while preparing the stuffing.

6. Wash the spinach leaves, break off and discard the stems.

7. Fill a medium-sized saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil. Fill a small bowl with ice water and place near saucepan on stove.

8. Plunge spinach leaves in boiling water and blanch for 1-2 minutes.

9. Immediately remove spinach from boiling water with a slotted spoon and drop into the ice water in order to cold-shock it. The spinach will retain its vivid green colour this way.

10. Drain and thoroughly squeeze excess water from spinach. Set aside in small bowl.

11. Put shiitake mushrooms into a different bowl and drizzle sherry vinegar and olive oil over top.

12. Add chopped garlic and thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper. Let stand for 10 minutes to absorb flavours.

13. In a small skillet, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until it turns translucent. Add mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes or until they are tender and the juices have released. Let cool.

14. Grind bread, spinach and mushroom mixture in food processor and moisten with vegetable stock, if necessary.

15. Pour half of the nut mixture into the prepared tin, top with all of the stuffing, then spoon the rest of the nut mixture on top.

16. Dot with the remaining butter and stand the tin another larger tin to catch any drippings.

17. Bake for 30 minutes or until it turns deep brown. Remove from oven.

18. Cool for a minute in the tin, then slip a knife around the sides. Turn the nut roast out onto a cutting board and strip off the parchment paper strips.

19. Cut roast into slices and serve fanned out on a platter. Serve with miso gravy.

Miso Gravy
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 carrot, peeled, finely, diced
1 finely diced stalk celery
1 finely diced medium Onion
1 leek, (white part only), rinsed, finely, diced
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups canned vegetable stock
1 tbsp barley miso, soybean paste available from any health store
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh parsley, with stem, cut in 3 parts
1 tbsp cornstarch
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. In a skillet, over medium heat, saute the carrot, onion, celery and leek in the vegetable oil until caramel-y on the edges and the pan is fairly dry.

2. Add the wine and bring to a medium boil, scraping the bottom of the pan to dissolve any brown bits into the liquid. Simmer until most of the wine has evapourated.

3. Add the vegetable stock, Miso, soy sauce, thyme and parsley and stir until Miso is dissolved. Bring up to the boil then reduce to medium low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let the herbs steep in the liquid for about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Strain the sauce with a fine sieve. Bring the mixture back up to a simmer over medium high heat. Mix the cornstarch with 1/3 cup water in a measuring cup and stir together with a fork.

5. Add the cornstarch mixture to the gravy and simmer until it thickens slightly.

6. Keep warm until ready to serve, or refrigerate and warm up when ready to go.

My dear friend Kate sent me a short anecdote about growing up in her household. Her Mom, who I have known my entire waking life, is a phenomenal cook. And she is the most patrician woman named Patricia I have ever met. I never imagined she would ever cook a meatloaf, but according to Kate she did, on special days. Have a look:

"As kids, we got to choose our own birthday suppers. For a few years in a row I chose....meat loaf. I think this was in the Eva [the best Hungarian gourmet family friend anyone could ask for - editor] years when food at our house took a turn for the gourmet and meatloaf fell out of favour with the chef. What I really wanted was "frosted" meatloaf - oh yes, the loaf can be coated with a creamy white casing of mashed potatoes...I have seen photos in my Betty Crocker Junior Cooks cookbook. But I never got it. The mashed potatoes were always on the side... probably thesis writing and tending house and kids did not leave a lot of time for a left-handed, uncrafty-type to drive herself insane trying to smear potatoes evenly over a log of ground meat..."

Well, this was the first time I had ever heard of this 'frosted' loaf and to be honest, it really intrigued me. Albeit, 'frosted' loaf sounds like Shepherd's Pie without a 5pm visit from the gravy train, but what do I know. So as any enterprising blogger would, I googled it. And let me tell all of you once and for all. My Google-Fu is stronger than yours!!! So here is a simple recipe (from a very God-fearing woman named Heneliz) for...

Frosted Meatloaf

1 egg
1/3 cup quick oats
1/3 cup barbeque sauce
1/2 tsp salt
dash black pepper
1/3 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
instant mashed potatoes(or real,it's up to you)
sliced american cheese
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 clove minced garlic

1. In a bowl beat egg and add oats, barbeque sauce, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, chopped onion and minced garlic. Mix well add ground beef & mix with hands.

2. Put your meat mixture into a loaf pan, bake at 350 degree oven for 1 hr & 15 mins. Remove from oven and drain fat.

3. Make instant potatoes according to package directions but use only 1/2 the milk. Spread the potatoes over top and sides of meatloaf bake 15 minutes more.

4. Put american cheese slices on top of potatoes and let melt before serving. Place meatloaf on serving platter and slice. You may substitute any kind of cheese you like.

I would pay particular attention to the last sentence. Please, by the will of God, substitute ANY kind of cheese you like. American cheese isn't!

And Kate, maybe it is time you frosted one up for your kids.