September
17
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Maple Glazed Mini Chorizo Meatloaf
Remember when you were a kid, and your friends brought something to school for lunch, that you secretly coveted. Meatloaf was mine. My mum never made meatloaf, it just wasn’t on her list of recipes on rotation at our house. I’d see someone with a meatloaf & tomato sauce sandwich, and it looked like the best thing ever.
Mind you, I would have been happy to swap my lunch with most people. My parents had their own business, and worked crazy long hours, so my well-meaning mum came up with the brilliant idea to freeze what I’m sure was a whole school terms worth of sandwiches for my brother and I. Now I know this may work for some sandwiches, but I can tell you, there is not much worse than a defrosted ham, tomato, cheese & pickle relish sandwich. Amongst the many varieties of soggy bread offenders, that one was my least favourite, and she would make about 20 of the same type, so had weeks worth of them to look forward to. To this day, I still struggle to take a packed lunch to work, I have to take all the ingredients separately, and make them up freshly at lunchtime.
When I see pictures of meatloaf in magazines, I still feel that pang of jealousy. The only problem is, that I haven’t tried many good ones – until now. I saw these in Donna Hay mag, and they looked amazing (doesn’t everything!). They have been on my ‘to make’ list for quite a while, so this weekend I set about converting them to gluten, dairy & egg free with some adaptions thrown in for good measure. I took a quick test bite, and I found myself in the ‘zone’, devouring the whole thing before I even realised. The sweetness of the maple glaze, does something pretty special to the prosciutto, then you bite into the succulent, meat mixture – it’s just perfection.
Suitable for: gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy & nut free diets. You need to check all the labels of the products you use, especially the chorizo and prosciutto, some brands may contain gluten or dairy.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large brown onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 18 slices prosciutto (depends on the size of the loaf tins you use, you need enough to completely cover each loaf. I needed 3 for each)
- 1 cup rice crumbs (I use Casalare Brand rice crumbs. Or use fresh breadcrumbs if you can have them)
- 1/2 cup milk (I use rice milk)
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 chorizo sausage, skin removed and finely chopped. (Mine weighed 115g without skin)
- 500g pork mince
- 500g veal mince
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup (2 tbsp in the mixture, and reserve 2 to glaze)
- 2 tablespoons whole seeded mustard
- sea salt and cracked black pepper
Method
1) Preheat the over to 180°C (350°F). Lightly grease your loaf tins (see note)
2) Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a frypan, add the chopped onion, and sweat the onion until transparent over a low heat for 5-10 mins. Add the garlic for the last minute or two. Put aside to cool, until you can touch them.
3) While waiting for the onions to cool, add the rice (or bread) crumbs and the milk, in a small bowl and combine well. Set aside to let the liquid soak into the crumbs.
4) In a large bowl, combine the mince, chorizo, parsley, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, mustard, onion & garlic mixture and the crumb mixture. Season well with ground sea salt and black pepper. Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together until completely combined.
5) Line the loaf tins with prosciutto, making sure that there is no gaps and that you have enough to wrap up over the top. For the size tins I used, I made 6 meatloaves, and used 3 slices of prosciutto to line each one. Press the mixture into the lined loaves, and then fold in the ends first, and then the sides, so that the mixture is completely covered.
6) Place the meatloaves in the heated oven, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and carefully tip them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, putting them the right way up. Using a pastry brush, coat the tops and sides of each meatloaf with maple syrup. Put them back in the oven for another 20 mins or until golden (the time will depend on the size of your loaves. Smaller ones may take 12 mins.)
Note – If you are making one large meatloaf, I would cook first for 20 minutes, then glaze with maple syrup, and cook for another 25 – 30 mins to make sure that it is cooked through)
I hope you enjoyed this post. Please feel free to leave any comments or stories about lunch-box fails 🙂
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The Sensitive Foodie 
Defrosted sandwiches – that’s a tough one! Great that you’ve found a way to compensate… This looks amazing. I love the idea of the prosciutto and maple. I’ll keep it in mind the next time I’ll make meatloaf. 🙂
Thank you! Yep, defrosted sandwiches are pretty bad 🙂 I can sometimes find prosciutto a bit strong, but the sweetness really balanced it out nicely. I think I’ll be using the combo all the time now.
Reblogged this on Favourite Gluten Free Recipes.