Recipe: Meatloaf

Ah, good old Meatloaf- and no I don't mean the bat outta hell kind! I've never had a go at making this, but it seems to be rather an american dinner staple, so i thought i'd have a go. This is a recipe I have just slightly adapted from Good Food magazine. The changes I made were that I turned it into 1 big meatloaf (as their recipe was for "spicy mini meatloafs"), so had to adjust the amounts and timings a bit, I did not add any tabasco, and i added a couple extra cherry tomatoes. It was really delicious, me and my brother loved it! And it was not dry atall, which is a reputation that meatloaf has seemed to have gained in the past few decades.

Meatloaf (serves 3)

500g minced beef
50g white breadcrumbs
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
1 egg
1 tsp ground cumin
Small handful coriander, chopped (plus a little extra for garnish)
50g sweet chilli sauce
½ tsp salt
Black pepper
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
Vegetable oil (for greasing)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix all the ingredients together (except the cherry tomatoes and vegetable oil) in a mixing bowl until well combined (but do not over-mix, otherwise the meatloaf will become tough).
2. Line a non-stick loaf tin with a little oil and greaseproof paper, and arrange the halved cherry tomatoes face down. Then add the meatloaf mix into the loaf tin, making sure it is nice and even and flat at the top.
3. Bake in the oven for 1 hour. Remove, and turn the oven up to 220C. Turn out the meatloaf onto an ovenproof plate/dish- be careful when you do this, as there will probably be plenty of juices that will come out with it.
4. Remove the greaseproof paper, drain away the juices (if you are making a gravy for the meatloaf, add these juices to it) and put in the oven for a further 5 minutes, just to brown a bit. Garnish with a little extra coriander, and serve!