Monday 21 April 2014

Easter Sunday Beef with Yorkshire Puddings ...the Paschal Bull ...

Typically, it should be the Paschal Lamb on Easter Sunday. But I didn't have lamb, I had a rib of beef ....

Which meant we got to have yorkshire puddings. Oh I love yorkshire puddings. But only with beef. You can't have yorkshire with lamb or pork. It isn't right.



Yorkshire pudding isn't difficult, you just need to be careful about a few things. I use a pretty standard recipe:

115g plain flour
2 eggs
pinch of salt
150g (or 150ml if you prefer to use a measuring jug - I tend to weigh my liquids these days) skimmed milk (or whole or semiskimmed partly diluted slightly with water)
splash of water

here are my tips:  

1. make sure your oven is as hot as it will go before you put the yorkies in. They will take about 20 minutes and you will need to rest the beef at least this time, so take it out and move the potatoes around so you have room at the top for the yorkies.
2. use fairly strong flour - OO pasta flour or half and half with bread flour works well.
3. beat the hell out of the flour, salt, eggs and half the milk to strengthen the gluten.  Then mix in the rest of the milk and rest for around an hour or longer.
4. put your tin on the hob and bring to a smoking heat before adding oil or dripping. Don't use olive oil, it burns at too low a temperature. Use groundnut or rape oil. Beef dripping is also very good.  
4. stir a splash of water into the batter just before pouring it into the tin whilst it is still on the hob. You should see the batter go all frilly round the edge when it hits the hot oil.
5. Straight into your very hot oven, and turn the heat down to c. Gas mark 7.  Cook for 20 minutes. They should be really puffed and crunchy.

Easy isn't it!


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