Moroccan meat loaf

This Moroccan meat loaf, from Simply recipes, has become a kind of base or mother recipe in our house, because of the delicious five-spice combination it taught me to add to many other beefy or meaty dishes: generous spoonfuls of paprika, cumin, and curry -- it makes you feel so virtuous to actually use those spices up, while they are still fresh, in less than a year -- plus smaller but equal parts of cayenne pepper and cinnamon. (Just a quarter teaspoon of each will do.) Moroccan meat loaf also gives you a chance to use the ground lamb you bought at the local specialty meat market, which unfortunately doesn't sell duck breasts. Ever.

Moroccan meat loaf

It's a huge recipe, calling for no less than three pounds of meat -- two of ground lamb, one of ground beef. Mix the meats together in a bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy skillet, and then add 1 carrot, 1 onion, and 1 stalk of celery, all diced; plus about 6 cloves of garlic, diced; and a 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, diced. Cook for about five minutes, until the vegetables start to soften.



Next, add your new magic Moroccan five-spice powder (with salt and pepper, of course):

1 and 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp each curry powder, ground cumin, and sweet paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon



Mix and stir the spices into the sauteeing vegetables, just for a minute or two until the spices release their aromas. Then remove all from the heat and let it cool for five minutes.

Stir the vegetable-spice mixture into the ground meats. Mix in 2 eggs, 1 and 1/4 cup bread crumbs (or not, if you are keeping this gluten free), 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, and 2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint (or not, if your grocery store didn't have it that day). The original original recipe also calls for saffron, which Elise of Simply Recipes omitted because she doesn't like it. So there.

After mixing the meat loaf thoroughly, put it in a greased 1 and 1/2 quart loaf pan, which you then place in a second pan. This pan you will fill with water, to reach halfway up the sides of the nested pan. Place this arrangement carefully in the preheated oven, and bake the meatloaf for 1 and 1/2 hours, or until the meat is cooked completely. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes, and then unmold it onto a serving platter. If you wish to augment matters with a pomegranate barbecue sauce made with pomegranate molasses (wha-ha?), you will find the recipe back at the source. Elise says that isn't necessary, and I believe her.


Can you see both pans, and the water level?

The meatloaf is delicious with almost anything -- some rice, some polenta, some fresh tomatoes; perhaps for your accompanying wine you'd like an inexpensive and unambitious riesling or gewurztraminer, which will know its place at the table: it will be more interesting than tea, but also smart enough not to try to really compete with cayenne and cinnamon.

And for handy future reference, that very useful Moroccan five-spice combination is:

1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon