“Pain de viande” Meat loaf in any language is still just as yummy!

Marion and her sister over at  “She said, she said“  have been writing about nostalgic/comfort food such as tuna casserole and meat loaf.  Well, that got me to hankering after meatloaf, so, what’s a gal to do but whip up a little “pain de viande” (everything sounds tres chic in French, doesn’t it?).  I leapt in with gusto, completely disorganized but chomping at the bit to have meatloaf for the dinner hour.

Warning!  there is no “mise en place”  ahead,  just frantic home cookin’!

Lately, we have been trading in regular ground beef for ground bison, which has become more readily available in the supermarkets.  It’s farmed in Alberta, on grassland, and is quite a bit leaner than beef, and a bit more flavourful.  Bonus was that a bunch of the bison was marked down, so… into the shopping basket it went!

Because the bison is so lean, it can be a bit tough if not handled right.  I started by making a pannade (French for goo made from dough).  I had yogurt in the fridge, so opted to make the pannade out of yogurt and sandwich bread.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes or so, and then mush up all the bread until its turned into goo.  Don’t worry, it looks really unappealing right now, but it will all turn out in the end!

So after rummaging around in the fridge for a bit, I opted to add sauteed onions and celery

and king oyster mushrooms.  These look huge and alien, but are pretty mild.  You eat them stem and all.  They are pretty meaty, and are really easy to get into a nice even dice.

So at this point, the mushrooms and onions are sauteed, and cooling.  I added one egg to the pannade, a couple of garlic cloves, salt and pepper, barbeque sauce and some thyme, and then dumped in the meat, onions and mushrooms.

At this point, there’s no dainty way to mix this properly, so you just have to roll up your sleeves and get in there with your hands!  Once its mixed, form it into a loaf shape on a sheet pan slather with the glaze of your choice (I used BBQ sauce today), and bake.  I’ve lined my sheet pan with foil, because I hate washing pans!  Bake at 400 degrees until it measures 165 degrees.

Dinner is served!  Meat loaf with mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus on the side.  For some bizarre reason, we had no butter in the house (gasp!), so the mashed potatoes got made with cream cheese.

My best guess as to proportions:

• 1.5 lbs ground bison
• 2 slices sandwich bread, cubed
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 onion, diced and sauteed
• 1 large celery stalk, diced and sauteed
• 1.5 cups mushrooms, diced and sauteed
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/3 c barbeque sauce + 1/3 cup extra for topping