Recipe Revision - (Green Chile) Meatloaf

Quick summary of my cooking strategy:
1) Learn/build on basic techniques.
2) Try new recipes, constantly.
3) Improve, in equal measure, skills and recipes.

I feel like I've made enough dishes to know what I like, and I pride myself on the ability to tweak a recipe before I've started cooking. While this might be considered blasphemy by some recipe-purists, I make it a benchmark of my personal cooking style.

One small consequence of knowing a recipe's "faults" (at least for my own palate) is that I often make a recipe one time, and one time only. I get bored with the flavor by the end of my plate, and the leftovers just drive home how this particular dish isn't going to decidedly change the course of my cooking repertoire the first, or the second, time around.

But sometimes I make a gem. And it falls into the routine of my meal planning, a comfort food that I dream of afternoons before hitting the grocery. So I make it again (GASP!). But true to my nature, I tweak. I play. I "proof" in the more literary sense of the word.

Last night's revision: Meatloaf.

Now I also have to disclaimer this entry, because I have a slight culinary handicap. I don't eat red meat. Yep. No beef, no pork. As I have to simply describe it, "I don't eat anything that started out on 4 legs." It has been this way since 2000, and shall remain into the foreseeable future. Now I'll taste almost anything I can stomach, but I don't as a rule, cook or ingest meals based on aforementioned 4-legged protein repositories.

So Meatloaf is "meat" in the animal sense, but not the beef-based sense. I use ground turkey, generally, but the other caveat is that I've never actually tried the real "meat" meatloaf. My mother despised it. She never cooked it. I only discovered it after working at a restaurant that built it's reputation on a particularly indulgent version. "I can do that!" I said. So I did, but I based my first impression off of the Better Homes & Gardens' New Cookbook (14th ed.). This single volume is the holy-grail of my cookbook collection. I believe that because of it's low-brow status, it provides what is the most standard, American "home-cooking" version of many classic dishes. I had an earlier version in college, which gave me many evenings of good eats. I upgraded to a fancy-shmancy three ringed version, an act I equated with my childhood, baking cookies during the holidays based on recipes in my mother's own greasy-fingerprint-smudged edition. God only knows how old it was. (I still use it when I go home in December, and it's getting awfully yellow and maybe even a bit crinkly. It's amazing.)

So...finally now to the revision part. Ha.

I've made the same basic recipe about half a dozen times, mainly just adding garlic and other seasonings. Last night, a true revision. My husband and I love green chiles, as any good Southwesterner. I've been dying to makeover a meatloaf into its spicier self. Like a gratutious teen movie where the dorky math girl gets va-vavoom hair and a sexy red tube dress. Here goes:

Original Ingredients:

2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbs snipped fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried herbs (basil, sage, oregano), crushed
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/1 lbs lean ground beef, lamb, or pork
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbs packed brown sugar
1 tsp dry mustard

Mix the first 8 ingredients, add meat to mix, pat mixture into loaf pan, and bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes. Spoon off fat. Mix last 3 ingredients. Top loaf with mixture and bake 10 minutes more to 160 degrees. Let stand for 10 minutes to cool and firm up.

Recipe Revision:

1/4 cup finely chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz. container of frozen "extra hot" green chiles, thawed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
2 tbs snipped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1 tbs ground cumin
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/1 lbs lean ground turkey
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbs honey
2 tbs red chili powder
1 tbs green chili powder
generous dash of Tapatio

Saute first 3 ingredients over low heat until softened. Set off heat to cool. In a bowl, mix the next 8 ingredients, add cooled chile mix and ground turkey, pat mixture into loaf pan (I HIGHLY recommend Williams-Sonoma's special meatloaf pan as it does WONDERS removing fat, keeping it off the top of your loaf), and bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes. Spoon off fat. Mix last 5 ingredients. Top loaf with mixture and bake 10 minutes more to 165 degrees** (higher temp. for ground poultry). Let stand for 10 minutes to cool and firm up. I served this with steamed french green beans and cilantro mashed potatoes (made with lots of butter, sour cream for the dairy, a turn of olive oil, and a boiling and mashing a parsnip with the potatoes for a bit of extra earthy spice). Good pairing, I'd have to say. I was full and the hubby was in a food coma by 8 pm.

Revisions to the Revision (or What I'd Change Next Time):

1.) The loaf was a bit too moist, even after the firming time. I'd probably substitute 1/4 cup heavy cream for the 3/4 cup milk as a way to get flavor and eliminate half a cup of extra moisture. I also believe that ground turkey has a higher water content anyway, so this fix serves two purposes.

2.) I don't' know about you, but I love, I mean love the sweet-spicy combo with hearty foods. I'd probably make even more of the ketchup mixture. I debated using a salsa last night, so I might actually try a half-ketchup, half-red chile salsa mix. Extra spicy, extra saucy. (Sounds like a sequel!)