My fiance's father's family is from Yorkshire England... so this weekend, since some relatives from away are here, we decided to cook a roast beef and make Yorkshire Puddings for a treat and have some people over.
Now, I have never eaten, nor even laid eyes on, a Yorkshire Pudding before today... so maybe it was a little gutsy to attempt to make a British favorite for authentic Brits? but it seemed to go okay in the end. My father in law walked off with 3 on his plate for the first go around, and had another couple after that. I'll try not to let it go to my head :P
Oh, and just so you don't sound like a noob when hanging out with English Folks - it's pronounced York-Shurrrrrr Puddinnnnns. I got laughed at for saying it funny by two elderly Yorkshire residents.
I used a recipe from Alton Brown of "Good Eats", which is a favorite cooking show of ours. In fact it doesn't seem to matter what Alton makes, my mouth waters, and I have to go try and make the stuff myself. (Point and Match: his episode on Deep Frying. not long after that a stainless steel deep fryer made it's way into my kitchen... Show on homemade Pasta? nice shiny pasta rolling machine... Drinks episode? James Bond Martinis. need I go on?) You can find the recipe here if you're interested.
The batter is a very plain runny concoction... visiually similar to pancake batter, but you pour it into heated muffin tins that have been greased with drippings from the Roast, and then it goes into a very hot oven, and they puff up like you wouldn't believe. I'm told the trick is to make sure your batter is at room temperature when you pour it into the hot pans, and to really beat the batter well so it gets little air bubbles throughout. To do the beating, I used a little Wand Blender (meant for pureeing things) and whipped a bunch of air in. Apparently these grotesque puffed up monsters look like they're supposed to. So then when they come out of the oven, all light and full of airy pockets inside... you serve next to the Roast meat, smothered in hot gravy, with veggies on the side. Sound yummy? well they were!
To complete the feast, we had homemade Pickles a-la-Mom-and-Grandma (thanks guys :) and Debi's delicious BlueBerry Cheesecake. No-one left hungry. That, is for certain.
I told ya... the Proof is in the Pudding!