Meatloaf... Kinda

I was not planning on this post since I already have a couple of them lined up but this was a request. I made a meat dish for potluck at the temple and recipe was requested. The story behind the dish is simple. A staple of Russian cuisine is a ground meat patty much like a hamburger but it is not eaten in the bun nor its it grilled. It is ground meat flavored and shaped like a large flattened meatball fried in the pan with a little oil. The dish is great and loved by kids and adults alike.
I make it frequently and my usual recipe converts great into meatballs. Here meatballs are formed and covered with can of spaghetti sauce then baked initially covered with foil then without.

1 large onion
bunch of each:
fresh dill, Italian parsley, (optional cilantro, basil, fresh oregano)
4-5 clove of garlic
1 egg
1tsp (or more) vegetable seasoning like Mrs Dash or that  from Costco
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt pepper

2-3 slices of white sandwich bread soaked in water

about 3 lbs of ground beef 80% lean

Pure all of ingredients to almost liquid form and mix with ground meat. There really is a bunch of dill and parsley and it gives the mix a greenish look and the meat looks slightly greenish, too. Sometimes I use 1/3 turkey or chicken and 2/3 beef. Soaking bread adds moisture to the meat. On this picture I formed meatballs and arranged them in a baking dish and poured a can of Spaghetti sauce over raw meatballs. I baked it at 350F. Those meatballs were super soft, moist and delicious.

I recently decided to stop making meat patties for couple of reasons. For one, it adds unnecessary amount of extra fat while being fried and forming the patties is a laborious and time consuming process much like meatballs but even more so.  Once the patties or cutlets are shaped they are coated in flour, which allows them to maintain their shape as they cook, and, if this step is omitted the patties loose their shape as they inevitably shrink. I decided that I will make one but really large patty but in the oven and then would cut it up. The difference between it and meatloaf is in shape and size. The way I make it is by lining a baking sheet with foil in a manner that the ends if foil stick up a little and fill entire baking sheet with flavored ground meat. Just like in the picture here. The thickness of the loaf is only about an inch, thus only cooks for about 20 min in the oven in the middle rack but under a broiler setting. This allows for uniform cooking. The large patty shrinks by about 10-15% and looks like it is swimming in the soup. It isn't pretty. I do not remove it from the liquid it's sitting in but let it sit in it and cut up in serving size pieces while still in the juice. All those juices that run out of the meat make it dry but if nothing is done the meat remains moist and soft. Another big plus is that I can make a lot and once it is cool divide and freeze for later. Another thing that can be done is to bake the BBQ bamboo sicks in the meat as it it raw and once the meat is cooked it can be cut up into the serving sizes of meat loaf on the stick.

The following recipe was made up because I did not have fresh herbs in the house I decided to use what I have in the pantry. I cant be exact because I'm translating this recipe - shrinking it down, since I made it for 6 lbs of ground beef for potluck. The spice mix I use here I found in the local Assyrian(Iranian) store Setareh Market I frequent, called sabzighormeh and is made of dry parsley, leek and fenugreek.

1 large onion

1 carrot

1 rib of celery

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbls all purpose vegetable seasoning

1 1/2 tbls sabzighormeh

1 1/2 c croutons (like those for Thanksgiving stuffing)

1 egg

1/2 - 1 c water

1/2 - 1tsp ground pepper

salt

3 lbs of ground beef

I have to reiterate that the numbers are very much approximate - I did not measure when I was cooking it and I was making a larger amount. In a food processor puree first 8 ingredients before adding the egg but add about 1/2 c of watter. You may not need to use the rest and the consistency of blended vegetables should be that of cream soup. What works well for me is tasting the mix when it has been blended before adding the egg. This is when you want to adjust the seasoning and salt it if it needs to be salted more because the mix should be little saltier the you would like - you will be mixing it with meat. If you are satisfied with the blend of spiced and vegetables, add the egg and mix with meat well. Then place in the baking sheet and broil on the middle shelf. I suppose it could be baked at high temperature, because T is quite high when broil is used.