Bruce’s Mums Meat Loaf

For years now, Bruce, a friend of mine has been cooking his Mum’s meat loaf recipe, which I believe is the ultimate “business” when it comes to this family favourite. I have finally extracted the recipe from him and here it is for you to enjoy.

Ingredients
650 grams mince
500 grams sausage meat
1 large onion – finely chopped
6 medium garlic cloves – minced
1/2 green capsicum – roughly chopped
1 tbs tomato paste
2 small green chilli (optional)
1/2 dozen button mushrooms
2 tbs curry powder
Salt and pepper
1 tbs oregano – chopped
1 tbs thyme – chopped (or substitute the herbs with 2 tbs of Simon Gault’s rub)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 eggs
1 tbs olive oil

Sauce
1/2 cup of Wattie’s tomato sauce
1/2 cup malt vinegar
1/4 cup Lee & Perrons
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp coffee

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Mix all the casserole ingredients in a large bowl with your hands, combining thoroughly with the exception of the olive oil which you drizzle into the casserole dish. Form the paste into a meat loaf, place in the casserole dish and bake for 11/2 hrs. After 40 minutes cooking time, mix the sauce and place in the microwave and heat to dissolve the sugar.  Pour over the casserole and continue cooking basting every 15 minutes for the remainder of the cooking time.  Remove from the oven and carefully remove the loaf to slice and serve with the remaining sauce.

Serves 4

Degree of Difficulty 1