Meat Loaf

Ingredients
900g minced beef
2 onions, peeled
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 celery stalk
4 slices of stale white bread
3 eggs
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons mustard
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Cajun Seasoning
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (optional)
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
12 streaky bacon rashers


Method
1. Place the minced beef in a large bowl and set aside. If you don’t have a hand blender or food processor, you will need to chop all the vegetables finely by hand, but the easiest way to make a good meatloaf is to chop them into rough chunks, then put them in a bowl and blend them together with a hand blender.
2. Crumble in the bread and add the eggs, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, chilli flakes, if using, coriander and mixed herbs. The mix should be quite sloppy and wet.
Make sure your hands are clean, because I believe the best way to make meatloaf is to get your hands into the mix. Pour the chopped vegetable and bread mixture into the mince and combine well.
3. Once the mixture is completely blended, shape it into 6 oval meat loaves, about the size of a balled up fist. Wrap each one in streaky bacon by crisscrossing 2 rashers over it, then place on a baking tray. Alternatively, you can line two 900g loaf tins with bacon rashers, then press the meatloaf mixture into them.
4. Place in an oven preheated to 180oC/Gas Mark 4 and bake for 40 minutes for the small loaves or 1 hour for the larger ones. Serve with mashed potatoes and green beans.