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I wish I were British...

#301
UncleFluffy said:
no pics, no pudding ... :)
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Mate, shift happens ;) I was ready to cook, then I felt nausea, measured my body temperature - fever again.

I will see what tomorrow brings.
---------
jdthebassman, it is not up to me to talk for Americans; I would be only happy if the American musical gear were produced in the U.S. (and the British in UK), and I would be prepared to pay more. Now, my mouth is sealed, viz TB rules.
 
#303
UncleFluffy said:
But someone's drinking it. Bottom-left of the picture. Let me guess ... drummer? ;-)



The thing with Yorkshire pudding is that it isn't really a pudding. (isn't English great?).

Puddings are usually a form of dessert, but Yorkshire Pudding is usually served either with the main course or just before. It's basically a batter mix like you'd use for a crepe but savoury rather than sweet and cooked in the meat fat. There's three traditional ways of serving it:

- as small muffin-sized puddings along with the meat:

roast_beef_yorkshire_pudding_.jpg


- as a large plate-sized pudding with the hollow in the top filled with gravy (and sometimes other things):

3875430545_d2e3450b28.jpg


- or with sausages baked into the batter, known as "Toad In The Hole"

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Whichever way, the recipe is simple but getting them to rise is tricky. Everyone's grandmother makes them slightly differently but here's "the" recipe:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/accompaniment/yorkshire-pudding.html
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I don't care what educated foodies say, I LOVE English comfort food.
 
#304
Mates, now I'm cooking the Bassybill's English Gravy. The weak point of the recipe were "proportions to taste", but I think I've managed them. My observations are that while Marmite and even Bovril are bitter, tomato puree changes the taste of the gravy dramatically, making it really palatable. Worcestershire sauce helps with its distinctive note. Beef broth cubes add necessary amount of salt. If I gave such gravy to anybody here, they would say that the taste is really exotic, but very good!

Now, I'm heating up the oven for Yorkshire pudding! I intend baking the pudding in meat juices, we'll see.
 
#305
Unbelievable! I managed to screw up the most simple food, that is, Yorkshire pudding ;-) Let me not tell you how. Next time I'll ask my wife, she knows her baking :)))))

The gravy itself is delicious. It will go with today's roast meet.
 

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#309
bassybill said:
Hey, glad the gravy worked well for you. What did you use to thicken it?
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Strange, I needed nothing to thicken! I think the secret was the tomato puree; we use the 30% variety here that is highly hygroscopic :)

Approximate proportions were half litre of water, two beef cubes, three large spoons of tomato puree, a large spoon of Marmite, same of Bovril, two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and that was basically all I needed. The gravy turned out to be thick and velvety. (I had cornflour handy, but there was no reason to use it).
 
#311
Now, going away of culinary matters, a little story of our driving in England:

Fancy an intersection of a principal road with two secondary roads. Our car is at one of the secondary roads, opposite us a British couple tries -- as we do -- to drive out onto the principal road. They turn left, we turn right.

Now: What could the British couple see?
They saw the DRIVER of the opposite car reading a large road map the way she could not see anything through her windshield, and that cheeky and crazy driver then forced the right of way! Unbelievably cheeky! Crazy people!

My wife still giggles when recollecting that. Of course, I was the driver sitting at the left hand side of the car, and indeed I forced the right of the way. However, the English believed that the driver was the person at the right hand side... Their face expressions were priceless :)
 
#312
bassybill said:
That sounds very close to the mixture I use. Last time I made it, it was just perfect with my steak, kidney and oyster pie, as mentioned earlier in this thread:

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My mother will make steak and kidney pie about twice a year. Kidneys are HARD to buy in the US. Nowhere carries them.

One time is my birthday, and I get it all to myself. The other time she usually makes two, and she, my nieces husband, and I are the only ones who will eat them, so we get them all! She makes a "kidneyless" version for everyone else, but why bother? It's not NEAR as good without the kidneys.
 
#313
AntekStalich said:
Now, going away of culinary matters, a little story of our driving in England:

Fancy an intersection of a principal road with two secondary roads. Our car is at one of the secondary roads, opposite us a British couple tries -- as we do -- to drive out onto the principal road. They turn left, we turn right.

Now: What could the British couple see?
They saw the DRIVER of the opposite car reading a large road map the way she could not see anything through her windshield, and that cheeky and crazy driver then forced the right of way! Unbelievably cheeky! Crazy people!

My wife still giggles when recollecting that. Of course, I was the driver sitting at the left hand side of the car, and indeed I forced the right of the way. However, the English believed that the driver was the person at the right hand side... Their face expressions were priceless :)
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Ha ha! You must have frightened them half to death. :D

cheezewiz said:
My mother will make steak and kidney pie about twice a year. Kidneys are HARD to buy in the US. Nowhere carries them.

One time is my birthday, and I get it all to myself. The other time she usually makes two, and she, my nieces husband, and I are the only ones who will eat them, so we get them all! She makes a "kidneyless" version for everyone else, but why bother? It's not NEAR as good without the kidneys.
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Indeed not - the kidneys are what make it taste so good. It's weird that it's so hard to get them over there. Where do you guys buy meat - just at the big supermarkets? I don't think I've ever seen a traditional butcher's shop in the US.
 
#314
A question to you, people. My knowledge on Australia is close to nothing. When reading "The Last Continent" by Terry Pratchett (the fantasy book describes Australia as if it were placed in the Discworld), I found some notes about "green peas soup with floating meat pie and ketchup".

Indeed, once I made something like that:
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Even not bad.
Now please tell me: Does Pratchett only make a big joke or something like that is actually to be found in the land Down Under?
 
#316
AntekStalich said:
Now, I'm heating up the oven for Yorkshire pudding! I intend baking the pudding in meat juices, we'll see.
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Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong... wrong.

The trick is to put some oil in an ovenproof dish/tray/bread tin, put it in the oven & wait until the whole lot is around 180° to 200°C - not quite smoking, but 'spitting' hot. Then pour the batter mix into the dish & return it to the oven.

The meat juices should go into the gravy.

As to the Pie Floater... that has to have been invented by someone who was ver' drunk, but not quite incapable.

Some references from the interweb:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_floater
Aussie National Trust: http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/harryscafe.html
Uncyclopedia: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It seems to be real. May God have mercy on us.

Pete.
 
#317
Deathblade Eric said:
Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong... wrong.

The trick is to put some oil in an ovenproof dish/tray/bread tin, put it in the oven & wait until the whole lot is around 180° to 200°C - not quite smoking, but 'spitting' hot. Then pour the batter mix into the dish & return it to the oven.

The meat juices should go into the gravy.
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Right. Th problem is, I'm not good at baking at all. My wife is, she laughed at me a little today :-)

Deathblade Eric said:
As to the Pie Floater... that has to have been invented by someone who was ver' drunk, but not quite incapable.

Some references from the interweb:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_floater
Aussie National Trust: http://www.nationaltrust.com.au/harryscafe.html
Uncyclopedia: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It seems to be real. May God have mercy on us.

Pete.
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Well, my version of that funny stuff was quite edible. Taking into account funny English stuff like Ma., Bo., the pie-floater seems to be quite good, and nourishing when we are at that ;)
Thanks Pete for the references! There is a site some-where on the Web discussing in detail different things mentioned by Pratchett in his books. I must have missed a reference to the pie-floater there if there was any. No doubt, Pratchett is a good and witty observer. I laughed at his description of ""Ankh-Morpork beer", nothing else than real ale :)
 
#318
Deathblade Eric said:
The trick is to put some oil in an ovenproof dish/tray/bread tin, put it in the oven & wait until the whole lot is around 180° to 200°C - not quite smoking, but 'spitting' hot. Then pour the batter mix into the dish & return it to the oven.
Click to expand...

Ah, well spotted. It's the meat fat that you use, not the juice. (Or, as DeathBlade Eric says, you can always use oil).

Deathblade Eric said:
The meat juices should go into the gravy.
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Yes. If you need to separate the two, empty out the liquid in the roasting tin into a small pan and put it in the fridge. The fat will rise to the top and solidify, the juice will stay underneath. Keeps the gravy less greasy and the yorkshire puddings good and crisp. And if there's any fat left over, you can use it for the roast tates next time around.
 
#320
Looks good, Billy!

Your gravy did not go to waste ;) Here is roasted pork with mushroom and Bassybill's Gravy. The taste's rocking!

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Thanks for the recipe!
----
(The Yorkshire Pudding Disaster was of course because of meat juices instead of fat. All the rest was done by the book. Remember, I'm ill and do not think very clearly ;)
 

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