Wild Mushroom Beef Meat Loaf with Horseradish Gravy and Roasted Broccoli

I mentioned once before that each winter I need Mac n Cheese and meatloaf. Tonight we had Rachael Ray’s meatloaf from the Big Orange Book. It was very good, but not as good as Sheila Luken's from Silver Palate fame. Jim liked this one, he rated it number 2, but felt I should give up on trying different ones and just fix the one we like best. We will see.


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Serves 6

4C beef stock

2oz. dried mixed mushrooms

1 loaf of Italian bread. (3” required for meatloaf and the rest is served with dinner)

2# ground sirloin beef. (I bought a 2# sirloin steak and ground it myself as I do not trust ground beef in the stores)

5 sprigs fresh thyme. (I used 1t. dried)

8 fresh sage leaves (I had fresh I had just dried)

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 egg

Salt and pepper

3T EVOO

1 large head of Broccoli

1T tomato sauce

2T flour

1T horseradish

1T mustard

1 handful of chopped Italian parsley

Place a 3” piece of bread in a bowl with 2C beef broth. Warm, in the microwave, to near boiling 1 C of beef broth and pour over the mushrooms in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap for 5 minutes.

In a bowl with the ground beef add ¾ of the onion, thyme, sage, garlic, egg, chopped drained mushrooms, salt and pepper. Save the mushroom liquid. I use disposable latex gloves and mix it with my hands. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and form in a long log. Mine was about 18” long. Drizzle with EVOO and roast for 45 minutes. Next separate the Broccoli and place on another baking sheet and sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. I used a special EVOO mixed with herbs that a friend gave us. Place in with the meatloaf for the last 25 minutes.

Finally the gravy. Place 3T of EVOO in a pan and add the final ¼ of the onion and the tomato paste; season with salt and pepper. Cook stirring for about 4 minutes to soften the onions. Sprinkle with flour and cook for a minute. Add the last 1C of beef broth and the mushroom broth, pouring slowly to retain the grit. Add in the mustard and horseradish. Wisk and slowly cook for about 7 minutes.

Take out the meatloaf and rest for 5 minutes before cutting. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with the gravy. This meal was very good. It serves 6 if you eat like me. If you eat like Jim is serves 2. We have about 4 slices left over to have as sandwiches for lunch. Yum O!

We had a 1993 Concannon Vineyards Petite Sirah Reserve from the James Concannon Vineyard; Livermore Valley. This was the last bottle of a case we bought in CA in 1996. It was a really big red with good tannins and a great aroma of dark berries. We felt it was a wonderful accompaniment to this meal.