Curried Tater Top Meatloaf

Don’t get me wrong. At 5 o’clock I was still convinced we were having a leftover night.  We had plenty of leftovers to deal with, all good ones.  All I had to do was get off the couch where I was comfortably settled with my new quilting project, head to the kitchen and reheat a few things, and maybe make a salad to tie it all together.  Then THIS happened.

I don’t really know how it happened, but it did. And it happened so quickly that we sat down for dinner, fully cooked at 6:01. Complete with skillet fried zucchinis.  Don’t ask. I am an enigma.

Curried Tater Top Meatloaf

Makes 4-6 good size portions.

• 2 large red skin potatoes (substitute with your favorite ones, I would opt out of Russets though)
• 1-1/2 lbs of meat, it’s just that non-specific, mine was lamb, you can use beef, veal, turkey, chicken, etc…
• 1 large onion
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1 small bunch of fresh cilantro
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• salt, fresh ground pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp or so of “filler” — bread crumbs, oatmeal, matzo flour
• 1 tbsp mustard (any)
• a bit of olive oil for drizzling

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. While it’s not critical for cooking process, it saves time heating the oven later.
2. Clean and scrub potatoes, leave the skin on. Slice potatoes thin, a bit thicker than for au gratin.
3. Cover sliced potatoes with cold water in a saucepan. Add a pinch of salt. Bring to a rapid boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain, shock with cold water and drain again.
4. In a processor bowl combine your meat cut in small cubes, chunked onion, peeled garlic, cilantro, curry and eggs.  Process until uniform, taking care not to let everything turn into complete mush.
5. Transfer meat farce into a bowl, add salt, pepper to taste.
6. Add filler and mix thoroughly until evenly distributed.
7. Coat meatloaf pan with mustard on the bottom and sides.
8. Fold the farce out into the pan and smooth over with a wet spatula.
9. Sprinkle some fresh ground black pepper on top.
10. Arrange potato slices on top of the meat in rows, slightly overlapping them, just like for au gratin.
11. Season potatoes with salt and pepper, drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
12. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
13. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes.