Meat Loaf

I made this meat loaf following the recipe given by my favorite children's author Leela Majumdar in her simply great cookbook " Ranna Boi" [রান্নার বই] written along with Kamala Chattopadhyay. The recipe is simple and fast and the meal loaf turned out to be a wonderful main dish for dinner.

The recipe, as given by Leela Majumdar:
[For 5 people]

Ingredients

1. Keema [minced meat] -500 grams
2. Eggs-2, beaten
3. Onion- 4, large, finely sliced
4. Ginger Paste- 1 tsp
5. Parsley- a bunch, finely chopped
6. Salt
7. Pepper
8. Tomato ketchup or tomato paste- 2 big spoonful
9. Bread -2 medium thick slices
10. Water or Milk- 1/2 cup
11. White Oil- 5 tsp

Process

1. The meat type was not specified, I used minced chicken.
   
2. Soak the bread in milk or water and knead.
   
3. Add all other ingredients with the bread dough and mix well.
4. Grease a baking dish, and shape the dough like a loaf.
5. Bake in medium heat. Bake covering fot the first 30 minutes, then without a cover . It should be done in about an hour.
6. Serve with french fries, boiled peas, salad, tomato sauce.
   
7. Leela Majumdar suggests to serve this dish along with bread.

I modified the recipe a bit. This is what I did:

1. I also added chopped celery leaves, [because they were in my fridge and needed to be used.]
2. I did not add the oil to my dough at all.
3. I did not add so much amount of onion [it is not possible with the current sky-rocketing price of onion :) ]
4. Somehow my dough was seeming a bit runny and was giving difficulty in attaining the shape. So I added a scoopful of flour and a tsp of baking soda, to tighten it a bit.
5. I did not cover the bowl, as directed.
6. No time is specified in the original recipe. So i baked the loaf at 150degree C for about 50 minutes.
7. I teamed it up with vegetables stir fried with salt and pepper.

I feel there is no need to have this item with bread. It is a complete meal in itself.

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