Yorkshire Pudding — Celebrating British Food Fortnight

check out my blog on lovebritishfood.co.uk.  It’s called: Brussels Sprout Tops, the Buried Treasure.

“Now I will teach you how to make Yorkshire Pudding,” said Dora Robinson, my soon-to-be mother-in-law. “And you can be sure it’s right, because you have been taught by a real Yorkshire lass.”  My American heart sank.  “This will be a real test of my love for her son,” I thought.    Floating into my head came visions of a quagmire of custardy creamy pudding globbing and glooping  around  a perfectly decent slab of roast beef , mixing with the gravy.  Suffocating  the roast potatoes .  “How in the world could anyone want to put PUDDING with such a dish?  Let’s hope it’s not chocolate pudding!”  And then the revelation!  A glorious mouth watering miracle of  hot light crispy cups begging for warm gravy, nestling close to the beef … or chicken….or pork….or whatever roast she managed to produce!.  All this and Heaven too!

Needless to say, the Brits have a different definition of pudding, for it can mean pudding as I know it, or pudding meaning dessert.  And Yorkshire pudding, says my husband, could be used for dessert, too, if served with jam, OR as a starting course, served with gravy, so that people would eat less of the very expensive meat when it later arrived at the table.

I have also seen it served at buffets, with a patch of cheese melted into the cup, right after baking. Toad in the Hole is Yorkshire pudding baked with sausages in it….a very special favourite of our Bulgarian students who visited a few summers ago.  If your oven is hot, you could use a pudding or two as your starch for the meal, as it isn’t as heavy as potatoes.  (see below)

It only took one meal to turn me into a Yorkshire Pudding Convert. And here are Dora’s instructions:

The recipe uses the simplest of ingredients:

                                             

Plain Flour, 75 gms. 3 ozs, ¾ cup.                                  Milk 75 ml. 3 ozs, scant 1/2  cup

 

 

 

 

 

 Seasoning: pinch of salt and a dash of pepper.

Prepare a 12 cup muffin tin: put 1 teaspoon of oil in the bottom of each cup.  Place the pan in the oven.  Turn the oven to 425F or 220 C – very hot.

Meanwhile, beat the above ingredients well.  An electric beater or food processor can zip it up in no time.

When the oil is smoking hot (says Dora) remove the pan from the oven.  Quickly fill the 12 muffin cups with a tablespoon or so of the batter.   There should be a healthy sizzle every time you add the batter.  Quickly (yes, I do mean to use “quickly” twice)  put it in the top shelf of the oven and bake.  Check after 20 minutes to see if it is crispy and finished.  If not, cook it some more.  Ovens vary.  Eat as soon as you can with yumscious gravy and perfectly roasted meat.

Left over puddings? Dora always turns her puddings over to crisp up both sides.  We turned ours upside down and baked them in a very slow oven the next supper meal,  until they were crisp again (they had turned soggy overnight.)  We ate them with Kheema Matar, an Indian curried ground beef dish with peas.  Lovely.   See what I mean?  You can serve them with anything!

Happy eating!