Grilled Meat Loaf, Mushrooms, Spinach, Cheese, on Sourdough
There’s lots of vroom vrooming going on in my neighborhood today marking the first appearance of the development- wide landscapers who have resumed weekly mowing and trimming of yards for the season. This is cause for some optimism, though my earlier overly enthusiastic notions from last weekends heatwave caused me to ignore this year’s frost date warning, and hence early this morning required tugging out from deck containers some those varieties of basil, patio tomato, and the grape plant, Pixie, temporarily now stationed in a bright corner of the sun room.
Despite my slight annoyance with the plunging temperature, still, the sun is brightly shining, and, I’m looking forward to the big evening ahead at our International Ladies Group get-together Dinner tonight at Jaya’s. I’m so excited to see everyone, and have barely eaten a thing all day saving up plenty of room for all of the wonderful Kerala Indian food that Jaya prepares. Over this past twenty-three years there is one certainty upon any event in our sharing of foods from everyone’s native countries, we all eat, a lot.
Today I have prepared Grilled Meat Loaf, Mushrooms, Spinach, Cheese on Sourdough, a sandwich whose components can be made in advance, and are easily assembled and grilled to order simply by heating up and cooking in the Panini grill. The extra topping of sauteed kale and melted cheese over the juicy stuffed meatloaf really brings it together in the crunch and depth of flavor- hot sandwich category, leaving me feeling guilt free, that is, for those in the household not as lucky as me, to be savoring an evening of wonderful Indian dishes of Kerala.
Grilled Meat Loaf, Mushrooms, Spinach, Cheese, on Sourdough
Notes
Yields two loaf pans of meatloaves
1 sandwich per person
6-8 sandwiches per loaf
Ingredients
- Vegetables for the Stuffed Meatloaf:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound crimini mushrooms, stems removed, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed drained
- coarse kosher salt
- For Preparing the Stuffed Meatloaf:
- spray cooking oil
- 2 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1 cup bread crumbs, more or less to desired amount
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup water
- couple pinches each, coarse kosher salt, cracked black pepper, garlic powder
- vegetable mixture for stuffing
- For Assembling the Sandwich:
- 2 cups chopped kale pieces cooked in 2 tablespoons butter until softened, sprinkled with salt
- 2 slices cooked meatloaf per sandwich
- 2 slices sourdough bread for each sandwich
- 2 thin slices provolone
Instructions
- For the Vegetables: Heat a large size saute pan on medium temperature, add in butter, swirl to cover pan then drop in mushrooms, stirring around to avoid pan crowding, cook mushrooms without disturbing for two to three minutes, shake the pan, cook another couple minutes until mushrooms are fully cooked, and with no liquid, sprinkle with a pinch each of salt and pepper, transfer to a plate, let cool. Wipe out saute pan, add in 2 tablespoons olive oil, tumble in the fresh spinach with some water still clinging to the leaves, saute on medium heat until fully wilted and cooked about three to four minutes, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, stir through. transfer to a colander, press down using a spatula, squeeze dry with paper toweling
- Preparing the Meatloaf: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 bread loaf pans with cooking oil. In a large mixing bowl combine together all of meatloaf ingredients. Using wet hands form a sort of rectangle with one-quarter of the meat mixture, set into the bottom of one greased loaf pan, press down spreading evenly across loaf pan, repeat with the other loaf pan. Spread half of the mushrooms on top of meat in each loaf pan then evenly top with the spinach. With the remaining meat, shape two more rectangles and lay on top of the mushroom/spinach mixture of both loaf pans, press to evenly cover each stuffed meatloaf. Set filled loaf pans onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool, un-mold cooked meatloaves by running a plastic spatula all around then turn over onto a tray. Cover and refrigerate until using. Loaves may be frozen for another time and defrosted in the refrigerator
- For the Sandwich: Heat greased Panini maker on medium high heat. Butter the outsides of each slice of bread, two per sandwich. Top two slices of warm stuffed meatloaf onto the un-buttered side of bread, spoon on a couple tablespoons sauteed kale, top with two slices of provolone, cover with a bread slice buttered side up. Place sandwich on Panini grill, cook for three to four minutes, rotate sandwich to create grill mark, close lid and cook another 3-5 minutes to desired golden color
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