Meatloaf Glaze and Orange Meringue Tart

Miss Eagle and Herself are a mother and daughter: two single women. So sometimes food is "catch as catch can" but we do have a few proper meals during the week. Some meals are prepared by Herself. Herself is a good cook but is not into food preparation in a big way. Miss E prepares some and now, being at home all the time with Herself as the worker, tries to do the maternal putting-a-decent-meal-on-the-table-for-the-hard-worker thing.

Herself has not yet taken the plunge into a meatless diet although she recognises that would be preferable. She gives two reasons: her susceptibility to iron deficiency and her acculturation to a meat diet. So Miss E does prepare carnivore food - usually about once a week - in consideration of Herself although she does note some decrease in beef consumption in Herself's diet. So, during this week, Miss E prepared a small meatloaf: something she hasn't cooked in at least two decades. The rainy, cold Melbourne weather this week has meant that good, old fashioned, solid comfort food is much appreciated. So the meatloaf came served with mashed potatoes, mashed pumpkin (Australians regard pumpkin as a vegetable more than a fruit), and peas. Miss Eagle always glazes her meatloaf and this time used a different ingredient because there was no brown sugar in the cupboard. The recipe for the glaze is below. Miss E presumes you all have your own favourite meatloaf recipe stashed away somewhere.

MEAT LOAF GLAZE

Ingredients + Method:

• 1/4 cup of commercially prepared tomato sauce/ketchup
• 1/4 cup of commercially prepared barbecue sauce
• 1 teaspoon of commercially prepared mustard
• Worcestershire Sauce to taste (1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon perhaps)
• (The sauces can be varied to taste - chili sauce for instance)
• 3 rounds of palm sugar (would usually use about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar)
• Mix together until sugar is dissolved.
• If using palm sugar, you will need to heat ingredients in a pan and keep stirring until the palm sugar rounds dissolve.
• Brush over meatloaf

Dessert was Orange Tart served with custard. The oranges that were used were Australian grown Navel Oranges. These are the most readily available oranges in Australian food markets. Citrus growing has been problematic in Australia in recent years and we have watched with sadness as many growers have uprooted their trees. Australians are amazed at this - particularly when they see Californian Navel Oranges in the supermarkets on occasions. In the last year or two though, there has been a focus on Australian-grown fruit and vegetables and, generally, food markets are taking pains to label the national origins of produce. It is not clear to all of us how beneficial this is to Australian growers overall and we do know that some fruit canning companies have gone out of Australian hands in recent years and a lot of fruit products list on their labels that they are constituted from local and imported products. In spite of the severe and prolonged drought experienced in Australia through which our food producers have battled, Australians still think of their land as a land of plenty and food sufficiency. So, many of us are saddened when basic food lines come from elsewhere. Now to the Orange Tart. First a disclaimer. Miss Eagle is not copycatting Ahn at Food Lover's Journey. Miss E has only caught up with Anh and her marvellous Candied Orange Tart this morning. Perhaps because we share the same Melbourne weather, the need for Orange Tart was on the wind! Anh's tart looks wonderful with candied orange slices so Miss E resolves to try this one out. Miss Eagle's Orange Tart has been tweaked from Amy Schauer's Orange Tart in The Schauer Australian Cookery Book (p.413) so the ingredients below are Miss E's.

ORANGE TART

Ingredients

Pastry. (Miss Schauer calls this Cake Pastry. My mother called it Biscuit Pastry. The reference to cake/biscuit is because of the method which begins with creaming the butter and the sugar)

Ingredients

• 3 oz butter
• 4 oz sugar
• Vanilla (a capful)
• 1 egg yolk (save the white)
• 6 oz self-raising flower
• 4oz milk (approximate)

Method

• Cream butter and sugar
• Add vanilla
• Add egg yolk
• Fold in flour and milk alternately
• Line a pie dish. The one I used is approximately 1" deep and 8" across the base.
• Please note this pastry can be difficult to handle. In summer, it may be best to refrigerate before rolling it out. The pastry is very short and it may not be possible to roll the total amount around your rolling pin to place across the pie dish in one movement. You may have to put the pastry in to the dish in pieces pressing them together.
• Bake blind in a very moderate oven until golden.
• Remove from oven
• Cool and then fill.

Filling

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• Juice of 2 large oranges
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup water
• Pinch of salt
• 2 egg yolks (save the whites)
• 2 good tablespoons of custard powder
• 1 teaspoon butter

Method

• Place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to boil stirring until boiling.
• Let the mixture just begin to thicken (don't boil for too long or mixture will be too thick or may even go lumpy)
• Pour into baked pie case.
• Cover with Meringue

Meringue

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites that have been retained
• Caster sugar (4 to 6oz approximately)

Method

• Beat egg whites until peaks form
• Add sugar a dessertspoon at a time, waiting until each addition is beaten in and dissolved before adding the next.
• Spread over cooled filling.
• Bake tart in a moderate oven until the meringue is set and lightly browned.

Following Anh's example, Miss E will be participating in Sharmi's blogging event A Fruit A Month.