Mountain Lion Meatloaf

 This is a pastry covered meatloaf inspired by a Scandinavian recipe. The original calls for Elk meat, but that's not Edward's favorite, so we'll use whatever we can easily hunt for in the local grocery store. 

Serves 2

Preheat oven to 400˚ 

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend substitute (not just almond flour.)

4 Tablespoons of chilled butter

3 Tablespoons of sour cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 an egg

Filling:

1 cup of pre-cooked ground meat (beef or turkey) (don't tell Edward before hand.)

1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese. About 6 ounces by weight.

1 - 2 cups of flat, Italian parsley. (The curly parsley gives a bitter taste when cooked in this recipe. You can also use dry parsley. Cut the amount down by half. In my house, we love how the parsley cuts up the meat and cheese so we use 2 cups.)

1/8 teaspoon each of ground marjoram, rosemary, thyme, and allspice.

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Optional ground black pepper

1/2 an egg

In a food processor, add all the filling ingredients EXCEPT FOR THE EGG. Process till everything is minced. Stop before it turns into a paste. Dump everything into a medium size bowl. Do not scrape the work bowl with the big pieces of parsley. The big leaves could prevent the molded meat from adhering. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix up the egg so that it is well blended and the whites are broken up. Use grade A or AA eggs, large size or larger. 

In another medium size bowl, add slices of chilled butter and the flour. Make sure you measure the flour after you have aerated it with a fork and you spoon the flour into the measuring cup. Avoid scooping flour as that could pack the flour and put way too much flour into the recipe.

Cut the butter and flour with a pastry cutter or large serving fork with widely spaced tines. Cut until it looks like pebbly sand. Using a spatula, stir in salt, 1/2 the mixed egg, and the sour cream.

Take care not to over blend your dough. If using gluten-free flour, you can blend more than you think. Form into a ball in the bowl. Cut in half and separate. With each half, divide 60/40. The smaller portions are for the bottom of the meatloaf and the larger portions are for the tops. 

Roll our smaller portions one at a time between 2 pieces of wax paper. Try to shape your dough into a long triangle the size of your hand. If you end up with an oval, that's fine. Place the rolled dough onto a non-stick mat like a Silpat or some parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Back to the meat mixture. Now you add the remaining egg and stir in thoroughly. Grab as much as will fit into your hand and press into a triangle that is about 1 1/2" thick. Place that one one of the dough bottoms. Place another one on the other dough. Now carefully press the remaining meat onto the formed meat. There will be a lot left because you can't hold half the meat mix in your hand with the initial mold. The triangles are supposed to look like the head/face of a mountain lion.

Keep the top of the molded meat flat. Any kind of shaping you do will flatten as the cheese melts.

Press the dough up the sides of the meat.

Roll out the tops of the dough about an inch bigger all around than the bottom dough. Loosen the dough from both pieces of wax paper so it comes of easier over the meat. Working with real flour will be much easier than the gluten-free flour.

Place the dough on top. You'll need enough overhang to seal the dough and to cut off some to make the nose and brow ridge. Ball up the cut away dough. Divide in half. Roll into tubes and make sort of a T on the dough. Sculpt at will. Sometimes I make a dent at the top to make a heart shape out of the whole thing so there are "ears." Make sure when working with real flour that you seal the dough at the bottom. While cooking, the dough will shrink, exposing the sides. If you have time to rest the dough before baking it, it will shrink less.

Make holes at the bottom of the face for venting and "whiskers."

Bake for 25 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may need to cook it at 425˚. You want the dough to be golden but not the meat and cheese to melt too much and dry out.

Cool for 10 minutes before moving to serving dish.

If you double the recipe, you won't need to use 1/2 an egg. :)

I hope you'll bake this often. It's a family favorite in my house. Before this class, it was shaped into 1 long log. It makes the task much easier. But mountain lions for Edward is fun for a Midnight Sun cooking class. When you make it into a log, save some dough to make a lattice design or little leaves and flowers.

Enjoy!