Aromatic Turkey Meatloaf with Caramelised Fennel and Red Onions

Tastey Boy doesn’t really like fennel—he says that it’s a weird vegetable and is averse to it in most forms! I on the other hand, think fennel is remarkably versatile—shaved thin and served raw in a salad or cooked in rustic chunks as a side dish—and lends it’s anise-y scent to fish and poultry beautifully. So to temper TB’s distaste, I hid two whole bulbs in a golden and aromatic turkey meatloaf one night, and he was none the worse for wear. In fact, the caramelized strands added oodles of moisture and texture to the finished dish and he had no compunction wrapping leftovers for lunch the next day and sneaking cold nibblies from the fridge the rest of the week.

Ingredients
1 cup Breadcrumbs
1 cup Milk
3 tbsp Olive Oil
4 cloves Garlic, finely minced
¼ cup Celery, finely chopped
2 large Red Onions, sliced
2 large Fennel bulbs, sliced
2 large Eggs
2 lbs [1 kg] ground Turkey
1 tbsp fresh Thyme
Salt (to taste)
1 tsp Black Pepper

1. Stir together breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl and let stand for 5 mins. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. 
2. In a large skillet or frying pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and sauté garlic and celery over high heat for 3-4 mins until softened. Transfer celery and garlic to the mixing bowl with breadcrumbs mixture. 
3. In the same skillet, heat remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and cook onions and fennel for 7–10 mins, until golden brown and well caramelised. Add onions and fennel to the mixing bowl. 
4. Whisk eggs and add to mixing bowl along with ground turkey, thyme, salt and black pepper, and mix well with your hands to combine all ingredients thoroughly. (Mixture will be fairly moist.) 
5. Place mixture in a baking pan and shape into a roughly 9- by 5-inch rectangular loaf. Cover with foil and bake in a 400ºF [200ºC] pre-heated oven for 1 hour. Remove foil from the baking dish and continue baking uncovered for another 15 mins until the top of the meatloaf is golden. Remove from oven and serve cut into 1-inch thick slices.

Turkey Meatloaf with Mushrooms and Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade

This summer has been a giant cooking homage to American comfort food for me. After meatballs, I got obsessed with everything meatloaf. The traditional meatloaf (if one can call it a tradition), is a smorgasbord of leftovers from the fridge, mixed with ground meat, baked in the oven and finished off with a liberal smear of ketchup. While using leftovers from the fridge is always appealing and economical, the rest isn’t. The question is how to hold in moisture and impart maximum flavour without getting too complicated. So after much experimentation, I’ve ended up with a formula where I brown the aromatic vegetables on the stove-top first, then add them to the ground meat. And instead of using ketchup (which I detest), I’ve come up with a sun-dried tomato tapenade, which I’ve added to the meatloaf mixture itself as well as spreading on the top at the end. No more dried-out shoe leather for supper!!

Ingredients 

1 cup oil-marinated sun dried tomatoes
4 tbsp leftover oil from sun-dried tomatoes
6 Shallots (or 1 small onion)
4-6 cloves Garlic
1 cup Breadcrumbs
1 cup milk
3 tbsp Butter
10 oz Mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup Carrots, finely chopped
¼ cup Celery, finely chopped
2 large Eggs
2 lbs ground Turkey
½ cup Parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp Sage, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh Thyme (or ½ tsp dried thyme)
1 tsp Black Pepper
Salt (to taste)

1. In a food processor, grind sun-dried tomatoes, oil from tomatoes, shallots and garlic to a fine paste. Reserve 4 tbsp of paste for later use and put remaining paste in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Stir together breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl and let stand for 5 mins. Transfer to mixing bowl with tomato paste. 
3. In a large skillet or frying pan, heat 2 tbsp butter and sauté mushrooms over high heat for 3-4 mins until golden brown. Transfer mushrooms to mixing bowl with other ingredients. 
4. In the same skillet, heat remaining 1 tbsp butter and sauté carrots and celery for 6-7 mins, until softened. Add celery and carrots to the mixing bowl. 
5. Whisk eggs and add to mixing bowl along with ground turkey, parsley, sage, thyme, salt and black pepper and mix well with your hands to combine all ingredients thoroughly. (Mixture will be fairly moist.) 
6. Place mixture in a baking pan and shape into a roughly 9- by 5-inch rectangular loaf. Cover with foil and bake in a 400ºF pre-heated oven for 1 hour. About 45 mins into the baking, spread the reserved tomato paste on top of the loaf and continue baking uncovered. 
7. Remove meatloaf from oven and let stand for 10-15 mins, Cut meatloaf into 1-inch thick slices and serve.