Chinese Sweet and Sour Meatloaf

Posted by Cookin' Dad at recipegoldmine.com -ay 23, 2001

Dear Recipe Goldmine Friends,

This recipe was a rather different recent experiment that turned out delicious. Hope everyone likes it. Regards, Cookin' Dad

Sauce:
2/3 cup ketchup
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons FINELY minced ginger
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard*
1 teaspoon regular mustard

*Optional (I used it just to see what happened. Regular mustard to taste would work just as well).

Meat Loaf:
1 pound ground beef
3/4 pound ground pork (approximation)
1/3 cup finely chopped green onion
    (white and green parts)
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 tablespoons rice wine or any dry white wine
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all sauce ingredients thoroughly. Set aside to allow flavors to marry.

Next, combine all meat loaf ingredients except cornstarch. Take 1 cup of sauce AND mix it into meat. Follow this step with evenly sprinkling cornstarch over meat and thoroughly mixing it in.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place meat in loaf pan and pack it down. Bake covered with foil for about 30 minutes. During last 10 minutes of initial 30-minute baking cycle, remove meat loaf from oven, drain fat and slice into several serving-size slices. Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce over meat, making sure some of sauce runs down into cracks. Bake uncovered for about 15 more minutes.

Meanwhile, if you want, you can heat and thicken leftover sauce with about 1 teaspoon cornstarch and an equal amount of water. As sauce starts to thicken, you can add about 2 teaspoons hot oil to sauce.

This recipe makes a lot of sauce, so leftover heated sauce can be spooned over individual meatloaf servings if desired.

NOTE: If you want a browner meatloaf, bake covered for about 20 minutes and uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Then drain fat, slice meatloaf and pour sauce over it.