Nathalie Dupree's Mint Julep Meatloaf

 There aren't many cookbooks in my cookbook library that make me cry.

 

But I cry every time I read Nathalie Dupree's recipe for Mint Julep Meatloaf from her Matters of Taste cookbook, a cookbook of personal stories based on the 27 menus included in her early PBS show of the same name.

 

Nathalie Dupree, recently called by Garden & Gun magazine the Doyenne of Southern Cooking, started Rich's Cooking School in the large Atlanta department store in 1975 and her fifteenth cookbook was recently published. I have seven of her cookbooks that I use all the time. 

 

Hers and Lee Bailey's would be the last cookbooks to go if ever forced to winnow down my collection to two authors. (That's my maternal grandfather in a snapshot by Lee's stack of cookbooks. He--my grandfather, not Lee--owned a butcher shop in the small town where my mother grew up.)

 

Matters of Taste is a book of personal stories along with recipes, some sad stories, some funny, and one for Cold Curried Tomato Soup that is the sexiest love story I've ever read in a cookbook. But her Mint Julep Meatloaf story makes my heart ache for every child who ever heard angry arguments between their parents, including my own children.

 

 

 

Her parents quarreled all the time when they were together. She thought her father was leaving them all soon. He always said he was going to...The little girl felt it was her fault that her parents constantly argued. If she left home her father might not leave...Her parents were still shouting when she left the house, and no one asked her where she was going...After a day of trying to find a house that looked like a new little girl might be wanted, she returned home...It was late when she walked in, and the heat of the day was gone. No one said hello. No one had missed her...Her dad left soon after and never came home again.

 

 The little girl grew up and all her life believed that good food is a way to nourish people.

When she moved to another country, she served American meatloaf, macaroni, and greens to her exiled friends. When she was left alone, she cooked onions to comfort her in her loneliness. And always, she kept gingersnaps on hand and a jar of peanut butter. All of them, when she need them, soothed and comforted her.

 To all the children who probably aren't getting off a school bus this fall of pandemic, may the cookie jar be full and their homes filled with love and laughter. To all their parents, here is the Doyenne of Southern Cooking's recipe for Mint Julep Meatloaf that she attributed to Charles Carden Snow. The recipe says to make two loaves; I've done that but this time just made one large one. 

4 pounds lean ground meat [she uses 1/2 beef and 1/2 lamb but I use sirloin or very lean ground beef]

2 eggs, beaten slightly

1/8 teaspoon curry powder

1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 onion, chopped

1 beef bouillon cube, crushed

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 large handful fresh mint leaves, dried and crushed [I use fresh mint, slivered, not dried except in winter]

1 cup chili sauce [divided into 1/4 cups]

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup bourbon

Garnish: fresh mint leaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F. Combine meat, eggs, curry, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, onion, bouillon, garlic, mint, and 1/4 cup of the chili sauce. Form the meat mixture into two thick, oval-shaped loaves. Pour the water into a greased baking dish that has a cover. Gently place the loaf into the dish. With a tablespoon, make a deep indentation down the center of each of the loaves. Combine the bourbon and 1/4 cup of the chili sauce and fill the indentations, pouring any remaining mixture over the loaves. Cover and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Uncover, spread each loaf with 1/4 cup of the remaining chili sauce, and bake uncovered until brown. Remove from pan. Garnish with mint leaves. Freeze one loaf and serve the other.

 

This meatloaf is a far cry from the dry onion soup mix meatloaf I grew up on. Mama's was good, almost any homemade meatloaf is, but I went on to two better recipes and now this one that we think tops them all. No need to get the ketchup bottle out for eating this meatloaf. The sauce is sensational! 

 

   

Thank you so much to so many who emailed me that they understood my reasons for turning off comments here at this stage of my life.  

You Say Potato, I Say Potato...Salad

There is no such thing as really bad potato salad. So long as the potatoes are not undercooked, it all tastes pretty good to me.

Laurie Colwin in Home Cooking

   
I love good potato salad. Do you?

Everyone has their own favorite recipe for potato salad so the only reason I presume to give a recipe for it here is that my gal Nathalie Dupree's recipe has been our family favorite for two decades, and her technique in making it is different from most. 

 Here's her recipe with a few of my own additions.

Boil new potatoes until tender and drain on tea towel. I agree with Laurie Colwin about undercooked potatoes so I err on the side of overcooked.

While potatoes are cooking chop 6-8 ribs of celery and one large onion. Lots of nice fresh celery leaves chopped is a plus.

[If you love celery leaves as much as I do, this really helps to keep them pretty longer: before putting celery in the fridge after buying it, cut off the tops that have nice leaves and plop them in a bowl of cold water while you're putting other groceries up. Change the water a few times, dry well with a tea towel, wrap in paper towel and put in plastic bag or covered bowl in fridge to use as needed.]

Peel potatoes while still hot and put on top of the chopped onion and celery. I crosswise slice them with a knife while still warm in the bowl and then pour over equal amounts of a good apple cider vinegar and olive oil, about a 1/3 cup of each. 

Season with salt and pepper and chill in fridge overnight or at least 2-4 hours. 
 
Stir in 1 cup of mayonnaise and refrigerate another two hours. [I also then add hard boiled eggs, cubed, and sliced olives, and extra mayonnaise if needed.]

Just before serving stir in a few tablespoons of sour cream. Dust with paprika if you like it as much as I do. Delicious!

And how about some Caesar-crusted Crispy Chicken Strips on lettuce to go with it?

 Combine 1/2 cup of Caesar dressing with 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add 2 pounds of chicken strips and toss to coat.

Combine 1 cup Japanese panko, 1/2 cup flour, and 2 tablespoons dried parsley. 

Dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture, pressing crumbs in gently. Place on baking sheet. Chill at least 30 minutes in fridge.

Cook chicken in batches in coconut oil, not crowding, 3-4 minutes on each side till golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Serve warm with Caesar dressing on Romaine leaves. [My favorite container for mixing a vinaigrette or dressing is a jam jar with handle from a thrift store!]

Comfort food! 

Another really good recipe for chicken strips I tried recently was from Half-Baked Harvest's Spicy Honey Mustard Pretzel Crusted Chicken Fingers. Recipe here. 

How are you doing this week? Anyone else feeling kind of jittery lately? When I realized it had been 39 days since I'd left our property, I asked RH to take me for a drive in the country. 

That helped and I took some pictures of pretty dogwoods in bloom and cows and horses grazing.

A post like this seems trivial, so much of social media does now. Next week some non-essential businesses here in Tennessee are set to reopen in Phase I. How about in your state? 

How are you feeling?

A Cook Full of Stories

My favorite cookbooks tell stories

and Nathalie Dupree tells good stories.

Her Matters of Taste is full of good stories

and recipes that never fail

including the sexiest story ever about tomato soup.

"After he ate the soup, they worked together,

she on one side of his desk, he on the other.

The sun filtered through to her work in a golden beam,

moving around the room as they worked.

He taught her so much that the small,

hard part of her soul became plump and tender,

like a raisin soaked in wine.

Without a touch or a word of love,

they had each given the other a new world.

She never made the soup again

without thinking of him."

That makes my toes curl under with passion

as much as a romantic movie scene.

Today I tried another of Dupree's recipes,

her Apple Crisp from her chapter on comfort foods.

I set a dessert table for two with glass snack plates

shaped like apples.

I peeled and sliced 3 organic Granny Smith apples

and 4 McIntosh apples.

I tossed in a cup of cranberries and 

a little chopped crystalized ginger.

Nathalie said to sprinkle with a 1/4 cup of water

but I doused the fruit with Boiled Cider

from King Arthur Flour's catalog.

I topped that with a mixture of 1 cup sugar,

1/2 teaspoon each of nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt,

1 1/2 cups of flour, stirred and 6 tablespoons of butter

cut into the dry ingredients.

I put the dessert, covered, into a 350 degree oven

for 1/2 hour, removed the aluminum foil and

continued to bake for….

the recipe called for another 1/2 hour.

At least an hour later I realized my timer 

had not gone off.

Tears, frustration and much wailing to R.H. later,

we decided to eat it.

Can you believe that it was delicious?

The apples were like a condensed applesauce.

I'll make this again but next time?

Next time I'll be sure my timer is working.