Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

If the premise behind posting this recipe was a real-life assignment in a college or school, I would have failed.Or been thrown out of school. Well, OK, not that serious, but I probably would be in detention for a while. Herein is a lesson on How Not To Be a Good Member of a An Otherwise Earnest Little Food Blogging Group:

1. The very charming Simran of the equally charming food book club This Books Makes Me Cook announces that the book "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" by former blogger Julie Powell as a contender for the May book choice.
2. Yes, May 2010. Lets do a little fact check. Star Date Now: February 2011.
3. Back up to May of last year. Sulk, because I don't want to read this book. Because I watched the MOVIE version THREE times. And I didn't like it. All.Three.Times.
4. Secretly conspire to NOT have the book chosen by trying to buy out the other book club members. Fail at mission as the book is overwhelmingly chosen.
5. How can someone watch a movie THREE times if they didn't like it, you ask. Easy. Be stuck on a three-stop-layover aeroplane where this was the ONLY movie available to watch. Three times over.
6. Except for the two hours you squeezed your head between the gaps in the seat in front to spy on what was playing on the other passengers mobile DVD. No I didn't. Really. It was cartoons.
7. And you start mimicking Julia's shrill accent to the flight attendant when they come around with peanuts...."Bon Appetit!"
8. For an excruciating 15 hours of flight time which feels like 67 years after adding two kids to the mix, and this is the ONLY movie that you get to watch can make someone feel a tad "underwhelmed" when asked to review the book that sprouted the movie. So I read My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prudhomme (her auto biography) instead.
9. And in case anyone wants to do a psychological analysis of my deep-seated resentment. The answer is quite simply Jealousy. Yes, I'm jealous of blogger Julie Powell. That she got to blog way back in 2002 when some of us were not even born. Oh wait, I mean some of our blogs were not even born. And then she comes up with this great idea to cook all of Julia Childs recipes. And then she gets the book deal. And then she gets the movie deal. And then Meryl Streep. Oh my. Meryl Streep!!! I'm JEALOUS.
10. Have an overwhelming urge to try Boeuf Bourguignon - a stew of beef in red wine with mushrooms, pearl onions and bacon (pronounced BUH-YOF BOOR-GWEE-NYON (heh heh, that's me pulling a Dictionary sounding thingy heh heh)) because it
• factors so prominently in the Julie and Julia Project (movie/book/blog) - its the dish Julie Powell slaves over, burns to a crisp because she gets drunk and/or falls asleep and finishes perfectly the next day only to be stood up by her important journalist dinner guest
• gained notoriety amongst cooking circles as the quintessential French recipe captured absolutely perfectly by Julia Childs
• has a lot of bulleted steps, which I seem to be a fan of
11. Host a Valentines Day pot-luck and pick the theme FRANCE for your unsuspecting guests, and decide "This is it! This is the time to try this dish, once and for all!".
12. I did like this dish, and I thought it was worth the effort (see the mixed reviews from my powerful critics a.k.a. my family, below).

So in a nutshell, in the time it could have taken to, I dunno, maybe birth a child (9 months exactly May 2010 - Feb 2011), I finally made Boeuf Bourguignon, all three components of it

• beef stewed in red wine with onion, carrots and bacon
• sauteed mushrooms in butter
• brown braised pearl onions and 3 hour cook time later I present it to you, along with these pointers and reviews from my critics a.k.a. the Family.

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe - Completely sourced from her publisher's website Knopf Doubleday. I copied the entire recipe, so I am not cutting and pasting it here, instead I'm adding my pointers and the mixed reviews from my critics.

1. This dish takes some time. Be prepared. It's mainly cooking time, but there are a couple of prep steps, the most time-consuming being the searing of the beef prior to cooking it in the stew.
2. The recipe calls for the searing to be done in small batches to get the right crust. Of course, I cheated by using my largest non-stick pan so I could get more done, and possibly paid the price by not quite getting the crust that a cast iron or steel skillet would have given you. But then I had less clean-up. *snicker*.
3. Bacon needs to be sliced, boiled and then fried in butter. Julia? WT? I know, heaven help her. But she lived to be 91, so she must have known some s^*t. This process, though completely weird to me, removes all the salt from the bacon.
4. Two of the three components are basted pearl onions and sauteed mushrooms, they taste really good as individual dishes, and I questioned why they needed to be thrown into the powerful stew and lose their identity. I used frozen pearl onions and defrosted them prior to cooking. Here is the odd thing, two days later, when I was reheating leftovers, the onions still stood out in the stew. Julia. You are one smart cookie. 

Now the reviews:

• My mom preferred the stew straight out of the oven, bubbling with heat. I preferred it a day or two later, re-heated of course, I felt the flavors had really become pronounced over time. This is a really rich stew with meat that becomes fork tender after the long cook time. I also like the fact that there are quite a few vegetables included in it.
• My dad thought I had cooked the beef in cough medication. He didn't like the strong wine flavor. This critique has issues of its own.
• The dish was almost finished by all the guests, they must have liked it?
• I didn't give it to The Kids - Too Much Wine I thought...
• The Husband Who May Have Been On His Crackberry/Blackberry The Entire 3-4 Hours That The Dish Took To Make:
• Me: How Is it. Its BUH-YOF BOOR-GWEE-NYON. It's Julia Childs. It's this really long recipe. It's the one from the annoying movie we watched. Remember, the one with the lady that I am so jealous of. How is it? What do you think? Do you think it needs salt? It's got a bottle of wine in there.... a WHOLE bottle.
• THWMHBOHCTE3-4HTTDTTM: Good. Good. good-good-good. Needs a little salt.
• Me: How is that possible! It has BACON in it! And stock! How can it need more salt???!!!
• THWMHBOHCTE3-4HTTDTTM: Good. Good. good-good-good. Needs a little salt.
• Me: I think I am going to stick my head in the oven now.
• THWMHBOHCTE3-4HTTDTTM: Good. Good. good-good-good. Needs a little salt.

This is a long recipe, but do not despair. It only took me 9 months...errr.. 3 hours to do.

Julia Childs :  Obituary from USA Today

Morocco, The Caliph's House and Kefta Tagine...Here's Looking At You, Kid.

When I was in the second grade, we had a show-and-tell session at school, which was followed by a parent-teachers conference. At the dinner table that night, my mother calmly asked me to recount what I had told the teacher that morning about the last vacation we had taken.

 "Uhm, I dunno," I mumbled back.

 "Really? Because the sweet lady asked me how our trip to MOROCCO and MAURITANIA had been?!" my mother countered, staring me down from across the table.

 My dad chortled, I feigned innocence and everyone returned to their dinner. The story hasn't been forgotten, and I still get teased about the incident to this day. I, on the other hand, still cannot fathom where those two exotic and yet inaccessible countries had entered into my otherwise staid schema of normal 7 year old activities like dolls, fighting with the neighbors kids and stealing chocolate cake.

Had I been subjected to re-runs of the movie Casablanca as a baby?
I distinctly recall Sesame Street characters from my infancy, but definitely no Bogart.

Had a caregiver incessantly sung "As Time Goes By" to lull me to sleep? Highly unlikely, the constant stream of nannies that had passed through our household had not known English too well to be able to master that feat.

Chalk it up to unsolved mysteries (not so much, my parent's theory was that we had visited Mauritius earlier that year, and unable to bend my tongue around that name, I had come up with two fairly similar but highly unlikely destinations to enthrall my class with), but the fact remains that Morocco and the mysterious splendour that is Casablanca has been high up on my bucket list of places to visit (there is is an insatiable 7 year old in all of us, right?)

So I could totally relate to this months book choice at This Book Makes Me Cook which was The Caliph's House by Tahir Shah. Tahir Shah gets increasingly frustrated with his monotone, humdrum life in England, where the incessant grey skies and the conformity and boredom of his staid life starts to threaten his sanity. Against the warnings of his well-wishers and even family, some of whom ironically wish they could escape the same monotony that Shah detests, he packs up and sets off to Casablanca with his little daughter and heavily pregnant and highly sceptical Indian wife.


Morocco had always been refuge for Shah's wanderlust, he had travelled there as a child, and its mystery, landscape, heritage and culture re-ignites his passion for life and sets him on an even more personal and deeper quest, to retrace the last days of his grandfather's life there.

Ominous signs throughout the authors endeavour would have scared off lesser mortals like me. The day Shah signs papers for a derelict Moroccan mansion known as Dar Khalifa, a suicide bomber ignites a bomb, killing several innocent by-standers and Shah is grazed slightly in a terrorist attack that jolts the otherwise secular country into the throes of fundamentalist strife. It only gets worse, the princely house he has acquired is in a state of complete decay and borders a shanty town or bidonville, complete with rogue characters and a crumbling infrastructure.

The house also comes with three resident caretakers, part and parcel of the deal and who cannot be shaken off, who then appear to sabotage the authors every move to renovate the house, due to their unwillingness to change their ways and their steadfast belief that the house is possessed by jinns, supernatural beings that are honored and feared in North African Islamic culture.


The book is a lively account of everything Tahir Shah, his children and what sounds like his long-suffering wife, go through in restoring the house to some sense of normalcy. It is no lie that we deal with inept technicians and shoddy workmanship at times in the Western World, but they are small fry compared to the cast of characters, some ghoulish and some absolutely comedic, and outlandish scenarios that befalls the author as he tries to convert his dream into reality.


Interspersed with Shah's very light-handed account of his trails and tribulations is a fairly insightful look into how things are done in the mystical country of Morocco and the day-to-day life of its citizens, some of which may seem obtuse and unimaginable in our minds, but is reality in that part of the world.

There is a silver lining to this story, while it may not seem apparent as you read through the book. Here is a glimpse of the renovated house in Casablanca from NY Times and BBC reports of the place, which the author has turned into a bed-and-breakfast type resort.


While I enjoyed the book thoroughly, the parts where the author tries to find out more about his late grandfather and some of his secret dealings felt a little out of place in this story and lacked depth for me.


And to cook something from this book, I chose the tagine, which is the signature dish of Morocco. Typically a stew of protein and vegetables that is lightly spiced, the dish gets its name from the use of a special dish with a turret lid, which slowly re-utilizes the vapors of the food to produce a fork-tender product. In that case, since I am woefully lacking a tagine dish, I should have probably renamed my dish Kefta Calphalon Non-Stick. But, as in my second grade show-and-tell, lets just pretend we went the authentic Moroccan way.


When I went to source a recipe for kefta tagine, my first stop was the remarkable Sousou Kitchen, your one-stop shop for all Moroccan goodies. And if blogging wasn't hard already, you should check her site out, she has VIDEOS of every recipe prepared! I also wanted to incorporate what I had seen at Almost Bourdain's fantastic site, where her spicy egg and meat tagine had caught my eye.


Kefta Tagine (adaption from both Almost Bourdain's Moroccan Kefta Mkaoura and Sousou Kitchen's Kefta Tagine (this is a video link)


For the kefta/meatballs:
1 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped fine
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1 Tbsp olive oil


1. Mix all ingredients except oil, and form small balls. Heat oil in non-stick pan, add meatballs, and toss till cooked and lightly brown on all sides. Remove from pan, drain on paper towels and reserve. Wipe pan and re-use for sauce.


For the Sauce:
1 medium onion, chopped
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1 heaped tsp crushed garlic
1 large potato, diced into large pieces
1/2 tsp turmeric
large pinch saffron
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 - 1 cup warm water
chopped parsley/coriander for garnish
Salt to taste
* cooking times are approximate given how thick you want your sauce to be


1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add onion, saute till they become soft, then add garlic.
2. When the garlic and onions have started to brown, add in the spice powders (except saffron and salt) and stir. Add tomatoes and continue frying over medium heat till the oil starts to separate out. Add potatoes, give them a quick stir fry and then add some warm water to form a gravy. How much water you add depends on your preference as to how "soupy" you want the stew to be. You may have to add some more water later on as the potatoes cook, so do not add too much water at this step.
3. Let the sauce simmer, covered,  for about 10 minutes to develop the spice flavors..
4. Add salt to season the sauce, and add in the meatballs and the saffron. Adjust the sauce consistency by adding more warm water if you wnat more gravy or reducing it further in the next step.
5. Let the sauce cook further, covered, for about 5- 10 minutes to let the kefta absorb the flavors of the sauce.
6. Remove from heat, adjust for salt, garnish with parsley or coriander.
Serve with middle eastern flatbread or rice.

So we read stellar books every month at This Book Makes Me Cook, chaperoned by the very efficient Simran. 

There is yet another  internet Book Club that also Cooks Their Books (who knew?) and they sweetly asked if I could be a guest judge over at their place as they read Madhur Jaffrey's Climbing The Mango Trees.
Confused? Yes? No? Read my guest post over at their place , and then you can also read our reviews too.

Beef Negimaki

Once upon a time (yes, its been YEARS), when we used to live in New Jersey, my husband and I chanced upon a tiny Japanese restaurant in Little Falls named Sukeroku.

We were smitten on our first visit because everything we illiterately ordered off the menu, helped (or un-helped) by the sweet non-English speaking kimono clad waitresses ("and they're Korean, they're not even REAL Japanese" wryly whispered a co-worker) tasted amazing and we happily joined the ranks of Japanese food lovers.

The restaurant became the de facto place for celebrating anniversaries, birthdays or random significant events like "I didn't get punched in the face by a customer" Day, and my personal fave "Oh My Gaahh, my car just skidded down Montclair Ave. as it iced up and I didn't die" Day.

One dish we routinely would go back for was the Beef Negimaki. It was wafer thin slices of beef stuffed with green scallions and braised in a sweet and salty Teriyaki like sauce. The dish would be served sizzling on a hot iron plate along with tender steamed cubes of potatoes that had been dressed in just a hint of butter.

Now, I hope I haven't committed some act of dishonor in confusing the name of the dish, because I expressly remembered the dish being named Negimayaki in the menu, but most of my Google searches turn up no finds on that name, but plenty on Beef Negimaki. Same difference? Yes/No? If anyone knows the difference, do drop me a line.

By the way, we left New Jersey 3 years later, and I randomly searched the Internet for the restaurant, and could not find any new links but a disheartening note that it had been turned into a bar/lounge. Any Little Fall-ians out there who can back this up?

Beef Negimaki (adapted from Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations)

About 10-12 stalks of green onions
~1 lb steak (I found a thin cut of sirloin tip, cut Milanese style, 1.2 lb had 4 slices)
1/4 cup sake
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup Soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp shredded ginger
1 tsp chilli oil + 1 tsp sesame oil (available in Asian grocery stores)
Salt to season meat

1. Blanch scallions. Some recipes on the Internet did not advocate doing this as the scallions get limp in the process, but I stuck to it because I wanted to ensure the scallions were "cooked" enough. Submerge scallions in boiling, salted water, remove immediately and plunge into a bowl of cold water and ice cubes. Remove immediately and dry on paper towels.
2. Lay out the steak, either slice it lengthwise to get 1/2" -1" thin thickness (or have your butcher do that for you). Now invoke your annoying neighbor, ex-boyfriend or high-school nemesis, grab that meat hammer and pound that meat . OK, not so much into pulp, but beat it down a little.
3. Season the steak with a little salt. If you think the marinade is salty enough, you can omit, but I found that the meat itself needed some seasoning.
4. Place three to four green onions on each piece of steak (I had a total of 4 steak pieces). Roll up the steak from the longest side until you get a tight cylinder. Tie in three spots with kitchen twine.

4. Repeat for all the meat and green onions. Refrigerate.

5. Prepare the marinade - mix the mirin, sake, soy sauce, sugar and ginger. Stir together and pour over the steak rolls. Let the meat marinate for about 30 minutes. Note the green onions may get more soggy the longer you leave them submerged in marinade.

6. Heat a grill pan or skillet. Add oil ( I used a combination of Asian chilli oil and sesame oil). Add the meat to the pan and cook, turning over occassionaly till all sides are browned. Baste the meat while cooking with remaining marinade and allow the meat to cook in the liquid, it will caramelize and give extra flavor to the dish. The amount of time to cook the meat will depend on how rare you want the final product. I cooked the meat for about 10-12 minutes total and used all the marinade, and the steak was medium-done.

7. Transfer the rolls to a plate and slice into mini rolls. Serve while hot. 

This is going off to Joanne of Eats Well With Others  and Regional Recipes which is spotlighting Japan this month.

Lamb Kabouli - Cuisine of Oman

A month ago, the Walima group explored the country of Oman as part of the Middle Eastern Cooking Challenge and this layered rice and lamb dish was the featured Omani dish.

I will plead ignorance on Oman, I only knew of it as a tiny country in the south of the Middle East, I had heard of its capital city Muscat through a cousin who used to live there....And that's about it. When reading up on it recently, I was fascinated to find out that Oman actually used to rule Zanzibar (and parts of East Africa) and as a result was a strong player in the lucrative spice trade that emanated from that region.

But far more pressing issues were on my plate. As in, where the heck do I get lamb?

Fearless readers, I have never sourced, procured or cooked lamb before. In.My.Life.

So this was a supreme challenge for me, because I couldn't find this meat. Not at the local grocers. Not at Whole Foods. (Shock! Horror!). Not at the Asian meat market, where I got into an elaborate discussion complete with hand gestures with a fellow customer who insisted lamb was goat. He refused to believe lamb was potentially from the same animal that his wool sweater was from. I hear 'ya. especially with that sweater, dude.

So who came to the rescue?
Super Target. Tarzhay.
Yes! The same place where you can pick up socks, garden hoses and an Isaac Mizrahi dress offered me a tiny portion of lamb.
And the challenge ensued...

I followed Yasmeen's preparation to the T, because I much fancied her way of cooking the lamb in oil with the spices and onions, as opposed to cooking the meat in seasoned water as originally suggested. Which may have technically transported this Lamb Kabouli from Oman to the Northern plains of Moghul India.
Much apologies....

Thanks to Arlette of Phoenician Gourmet for spearheading the challenge! I will definitely make this dish again....Now that I know where to get lamb from....

Lamb Kabouli (adapted for quantities and method from Yasmeen of Health Nut and Walima Challenge)

Step 1: Prepare Omani Spice Mix (Omani Bizar A’Shuwa)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, crushed
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
1 heaped tsp coriander seeds
1 heaped tsp cardamom seeds
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
About 2 Tbs distilled vinegar

Combine all ingredients in an electric food processor and process until a thick paste is formed, use vinegar sparingly as it can make the overall taste too acidic Store refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Step 2: Prepare Lamb
1 lb lamb, cut in small pieces, visible fat removed
1.5 cups white Basmati rice
2 cups (Medium size can) cooked chickpeas
Whole Spices:
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cardamom pods
3-4 cloves
1 tsp peppercorn, lightly crushed
1 large onion, chopped fine
Omani Spice mix (above)
1/2 tsp saffron strands
Salt (to taste)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup stock or water

1. Heat oil in non-stick pan.
2. Saute onions and half of the whole spices. When onions start to brown, add the prepared Omani spice mix.
3. Add lamb to the pan and mix with all the spices. Add 1 cup stock or water, cover pan and allow to cook till meat is tender. Depending on the cut of meat, it may take up to 30 minutes on medium heat.
4. When meat is done, add in chickpeas and incorporate.

Step 3: Cook Rice and Layer Meat1. Rinse and drain Basmati rice.
2. Bring 3 cups of water (add a large pinch of salt and remaining whole spices) to boil in another large pan. Add in rice and cook till rice is fluffy.
3. When rice is done, add lamb and chickpeas into the pot. Cover and remove from heat. After about 10 minutes, open pan and carefully mix together the meat and rice.
4. Serve.

Bifteki - Feta Stuffed Beef Patties

The old adage "the world is your oyster" couldn't have been more true, especially when it comes to food bloggers far flung across the Net. The evidence?

I was poring over the web looking for a recipe for Spaghetti Pie.

Why?

Because Carmela had just served it to her dysfunctional family, and I was getting hungry watching them eat it. So I had to have it.

Enter Google, who safely deposited me in the Netherlands where a Dutch Girl was Cooking. Not in New Jersey, far from the Garden State to be exact. And I subsequently forgot about Spaghetti Pie (even though she makes a mean one too). Because I discovered Bifteki. Which ironically , is Greek.

QED.

And I've been making it religiously ever since. My dad likes it so much, he even requests it "You know that one, the meat, with the cheese inside, can you make it!". Which is more of an order, and not so much of a request.

And it just occurred to me that I'd never posted it yet. But here goes a shout out to Kay, who is the brilliance behind Kayotic Kitchen. Check out her mad photo skills in her step-by-step tutorials. I've caught myself trying to reach into her kitchen and grab some of that food via my computer screen. And since I'm no Oprah, all 5 of you who read this blog, hurry on over and check out the other wonderful recipes she has on board, 98.7% of which I've bookmarked. Don't go crashing them servers, now!

Bifteki is ridiculously simple to prepare, and is essentially seasoned ground beef, with a shard of feta cheese in the center. I make them stove-top on a grill pan because I'm not so great around real fire. Long story.....

And they are wonderful with potatoes or on pita bread along with a huge dollop of tzatziki. I've tried making them with goat cheese and gorgonzola, and I prefer the feta version hands down, I like how feta doesn't ooze as much while cooking, and yet loses a little of its tartness to the meat.

Bifteki (adapted ever so slightly from Kayotic Kitchen)

1 lb ground beef
1 small red onion - finely diced
1 heaped Tbsp Greek dry seasoning (I have a pre-mix of dried oregano and spearmint - I love this stuff)
1 tsp dried red chilli flakes (I make 'em hot!)
1 egg - beaten
2 cloves garlic - grated
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste (~1/2 tsp each)
Feta cheese - cut into shards or crumbled - as needed (individual taste)

1.Mix beef, onion, garlic, dry spices, egg, garlic and breadcrumbs together. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Let the meat rest for about an hour in the fridge to let the flavors blend.
3. Form patties ( I made about 8). Place a patty in the palm of your hand, depress the center and add some feta cheese, I like to work with crumbled feta. Add as much as you like, then close the patty by pressing the sides all around (feta will now be in the center of the meat patty).
4. Heat a grill pan, and cook patties on both sides.
5. If necessary, leave in oven with broiler on low to keep them warm and to complete cooking before serving.
Great with roasted potatoes and a Greek salad and tzatziki.

Armenian Beef Kebabs

OK, I know, kebabs aren't the most "pretty" foods in town, they don't photograph well, and my blog is starting to feature more and more recipes for clumps of meat. However, summer is upon us, and boy are kebabs a quick treat to whip up for dinner when you can't bear to slave over a cook top. Just marinate some protein (most of the time, you don't even have to wait for the marinade to absorb), throw it on the grill, whip up a cool side and you're done in 15 minutes!
Except in our case, where it has been so unbearably hot outside, that you have to practically wait for nightfall before you can fire up the grill outdoors. So, in this case, I made these in the oven on broil.

Lesson #1 - I have just now realised that my broiler has two heat settings - Zero and Gates of Hell. So I ended up overcooking these kebabs a tad. Keep an eye on them, and occasionally turn them over to get all sides evenly cooked.

This recipe came from Woman's Day magazine, and I served the kebabs with a side of curried couscous, which ended up (ironically) being the star of the evening, and a nice dollop of tzatziki. More on that recipe later...;-)

Armenian Beef Kebabs (adapted from Woman's Day Magazine)

1lb ground beef
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
a handful of fresh mint leaves - finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp grated garlic

1. If using bamboo skewers, soak in water for a few hours before use in grill or broiler.
2. Mix ALL the ingredients until just combined (Cooks note - over mixing causes the kebabs to become tough).
3. Form patties or long cylindrical kebabs, skewer and place on grill or Broil on a foil lined baking tray.
3. Cook for about 7 -10 minutes, turning the kebabs over occasionally .

Bobby Flay's Balsamic Glazed (Veggie-filled) Meatloaf

Meatloaf and I. Me and meatloaf. Whichever way, I haven't had much luck with this ubiquitous Americana staple. If it wasn't rubbery, it was greasy goopy mush. If it wasn't flavorful, it was dry with the charm of an old leather shoe. Every recipe and store bought package (*shudder*) elicited the same lacklustre verdict.

And then I met Bobby. (OK, fine - I met him on my TV screen).
Bobby is sassy. Bobby is from NY (HOMEBOY Alert!), Bobby exudes the suave of a know-it-all chef coupled with the boyish charm of a guy-next-door-who-just-happens-to-grill-really-really-good. OK, before this turns into a Bobby love fest - try this for din din one night, the secret is in the balsamic vinegar glaze which REALLY kicks things up a notch. I was a disbeliever (What!! Ketchup and Vinegar in my meatloaf?? EGAD!). Trust me on this one....

I also took the opportunity to sneak in a host of veggies into these meatloaves - and turned a blind eye when my kids eyed me suspiciously. They still wolfed it down....Score 1 for the sneaky mom....
Cook's Note - Bobby Flay's original recipe calls for ground turkey - so his version has much less calories and fat than my adaptation because I used 90% lean ground beef.

Recipe - adapted from Food Network Magazine (Feb/March 2009)

2 Tbsp EVOO
1 small zucchini - finely diced
1 red bell pepper - finely diced
1 yellow bell pepper - finely diced
2 small stalks celery, finely diced
1 large carrot - finely diced
1 small onion - finely diced
5 cloves garlic - mashed with a little salt
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp fresh thyme - chopped (I used store bought Greek seasoning)
1/4 cup fresh parsley - chopped
1.5 lbs ground beef
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup tomato ketchup
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Heat oil in a large saute pan. Add all the vegetables, garlic paste and half of the red chili flakes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook till almost soft (about 5 min).I added a dash of Greek seasoning. Set aside to cool.
2. Whisk egg and herb/seasonings in a large bowl. add meat,panko, cheese, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and the cooled vegetable mix. Mix until just combined.
3. Press mixture into a baking loaf tin, or form individual mini loaves and place on a lined baking sheet. Whisk the remaining ketchup, chili flakes and balsamic vinegar and brush this mixture over the entire loaf. Bake for 1 - 1.5 hours. Let rest before slicing.