Ground beef roast (meat loaf)
============================= 2022-05-13


Comment: Use a generously buttered ~25 cm long cake pan. Orange zest is optional, but brings an interesting touch, especially with the Madeira sauce. You need to make enough sauce to coat the slices of roast, especially if reheated in a baking dish as recommended. Note that the sauce is here rather sweet, because of the Madeira, carrots and tomatoes. We can of course consider any other sauce for a roast, for example green pepper sauce or mushrooms. However, everything is in the sauce. The roast might be a little dry, but will be saved by the sauce.


For 4 to 5 people

Ingredients:
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600 g minced beef or better (1/2 beef, 1/2 veal)
300 g ground pork or raw pork sausage meat (not seasoned!)
50 g of bread, cut into small pieces (2 slices of bread without crust)
a little milk (just enough to wet the bread)
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 medium onion, finely chopped (brown in a little EVOO beforehand)
1 bunch of parsley, leaves, finely chopped, reserved tails for the sauce (opt)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
1+ dl dry white wine
1 teaspoon of salt for 900 g of meat
pepper
strong paprika or cayenne pepper (opt)
the zest of a finely grated orange (not too much, a full turn is enough)
3 bay leaves


Preparation:
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Preheat the oven to 200C - 400F.

Moisten bread with milk, let soak, puree, wring out excess milk in a colander.

Mix all the ingredients, including spices, knead until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

Generously butter the mold and place the meat in the mold. Pack well.
Place 3 bay leaves on top of the roast with a little butter on top of each.

Put in the oven for 40 minutes, then increase to 240C (460F), and cook for another 10 minutes until a crust forms on top. The internal temperature should reach 70C (160F).
Turn off the oven, leave it ajar and let the meat stand for ~10 min.
             
Take the roast out of the oven. Reserve the juice (or pour it into the sauce) and unmold.


Sauce :
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butter or EVOO
50 g carrots (~1 carrot)
1 onion or 2 chopped shallots
2- dl madeira or dry red port wine
roast cooking juices (if any)
~5 dl beef stock (double strength - 2 cubes for 5 dl)
1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, small branch of rosemary, parsley sprigs, cloves)
1 can of GOOD crushed tomatoes (400 g) - one can really find shit in a tin!
A little beurre manié (10 g, 10 g)

Prepare the sauce (in parallel with cooking the roast):
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Cook the carrots cut into very small dice or thin strips, until almost tender, in a little bit of vegetable broth.

Sweat the chopped onion or shallots in butter or EVOO; salt, pepper, add the carrots with their broth.

Moisten with 2 dl of Madeira and the stock, then the roast cooking juices as soon as it is available. Add the tomatoes and their juice.

If necessary, mash the tomatoes. Add the bouquet garni and let reduce by 1/3.

Remove the bouquet garni.

If at this point the sauce is too runny. Add a little beurre manié to thicken.

You can either serve the roast as is with the sauce, or cut it into slices and place it in a baking dish, then coat it with sauce and heat it in the oven for ~ 20 min at 140C (if it has cooled).

Serve with noodles or roasted PdT or mash or polenta.