POPOVERS AND YORKSHIRE PUDDING

Popovers and Yorkshire Pudding

          Two of the most imposing presentations at the table are Popovers and Yorkshire pudding. Amazingly both require only eggs, milk, flour, a bit of salt and yes, some fat. After all, as Fats Waller, the famous jazz pianist was quoted to say: “Fat’s where it’s at”!

          My first encounter with popovers came many years ago at the Jordan Pond restaurant in Acadia Park. We had hiked around Jordan pond admiring the reflected beauty of the scenery, while avoiding tripping over the exposed tree roots and slippery puddles on the path and we were hungry. It seemed the favorite menu item was ‘Soup and Popover’ and never having had popovers before, I succumbed. It was love at first bite!  These tall puffed rolls were exquisitely moist and with a bit of butter, truly addictive.

          Since then I have learned to make them in my own kitchen and we enjoy them not only as elegant accompaniment to soup, but they also make a delicious breakfast dish with butter and jam and a side of fresh fruit. The only drawback is that the professional quality black steel pan holds only 6 cups, limiting number of popovers to be baked at a time, since the result with 2 pans at the same time has been less than satisfactory.

                             Amazing Popovers

          Set the rack in the middle of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. Heavily grease the popover cups with vegetable shorting. Quickly beat 3 large eggs with 1 ¼ cups milk, ¼ tsp. salt and 1 tblsp. melted butter in a medium bowl. Beat in 1 ¼ cups flour until smooth and distribute the batter among the 6 cups. Bake the popovers for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for an additional 17 minutes. Remove from oven, let stand a couple of minutes, release the popovers by rimming each cup with a thin table knife. Serve immediately.

          Our younger son was always very fond of popovers, so when he developed serious gluten intolerance later in life, I took it as a challenge to come up with gluten-free popovers for him. It took several months of intermittent experimentation and my husband would humorously refer to that time as our “hockey puck” breakfast days. It seemed the commercial gluten flour mixes at the time were all too heavy to do the job. Finally I made my own mix and by cheating just a tiny bit by adding ¼ tsp. of baking powder to the batter came success!

                             Gluten Free Popovers

          Gluten free (GF) baking mix: 2 cups brown rice flour, 2/3 cups potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, thoroughly blended. For the popovers: heavily grease the popover cups with vegetable shorting. Quickly beat 3 large eggs with 1 ¼ cups milk, ¼ tsp. salt and 1 tblsp. melted butter in a medium bowl. Beat in 1 ¼ cups Above GF mix and ¼ tsp. baking powder until smooth and distribute the batter among the 6 cups.  Bake as in the above recipe and you will have only slightly denser popovers, but amazingly good nevertheless.

          As the Holiday season is upon us, we are more likely to indulge in making a roast for a festive dinner. Thrifty cooks in Northern England learned to utilize the drippings of roast beef as early as 1737 by making a ‘dripping pudding’ in the roasting pan. It shortly became known as Yorkshire pudding and is often served with rib-roast as the roast provides an abundance of drippings. The beautiful puffed up pudding from the roasting pan can be cut in squares and served alongside the beef. Another attractive way to bake and serve the pudding is in a ring mold that can go directly to the table for serving.

Yorkshire Pudding in a Ring

          While the beef is resting on the sideboard before serving, select an attractive 1 ½ - 2 quart ring baking mold, pour in ¼ cup of the beef drippings and swirl to coat the sides. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Beat together 2 large eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 tsp. salt and 1 cup sifted flour. Pour the smooth batter in the mold and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking 15-20 minutes until the pudding is puffed and browned. Serve hot.

          In one dish or cup-sized this simple egg-milk-flour blend is guaranteed to please whether at breakfast, lunch or dinner. Bon appetit!

         

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

CREATIVE STUFFING

Creative Stuffing

          Thanksgiving this year seems to have snuck up to most of us. Barely the third week of November and suddenly we are faced with the oncoming Holiday Season, when all we wanted to do is bask in the late summer sunshine and enjoy its reflection from our colorful pumpkins gracing the front step.

          Last week ‘Nature’ though had a different view. They say the animal world is more tuned in to oncoming weather. If so, we are bound for a harsh winter, with early snow as predicted at the end of this week. Our abundant squirrel population must have felt the ‘cold winter’ vibrations and decided to avail themselves of the plump pumpkin seeds encased in our beautiful pumpkin on the front steps. The thick pumpkin flesh was no deterrent for their enthusiastic and industrious gnawing. We now have a pumpkin imitation sculpture of Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” on our front porch, created by local squirrel artists. Too bad, they did it after Halloween.

          While most thoughts now turn to the Thanksgiving turkey with trimmings and pumpkin pie, the stuffing often gets short shrift. Some people actively dislike it, but for others it is a Holiday ‘must’. Creative flavorings and shapes can make this very old-fashioned food a treat.

You may wish to toast your own croutons from white country bread cut in 1 inch cubes, or use the store bought variety with or without the flavorings. Stuffed inside the turkey it will have more flavor, but also has the potential to become a soggy unappetizing mix, if allowed too much liquid. Thus many cooks prefer the casserole method, baking the stuffing separately and even a day ahead of the actual meal. Separate cooking allows you to even experiment with different shapes. This recipe for Stuffing Bites is one such example.

                   Sausage – Apple Stuffing Bites

In a large skillet melt 2 tblsp. butter and 1 tblsp. olive oil and sauté 2/3 cups finely chopped onion with 2/3 cup finely chopped celery for about 5 minutes. Stir in ½ lb. crumbled sweet Italian sausage (casings removed), 4 finely chopped garlic cloves, ¾ tsp. dried sage, ¼ tsp. dried oregano, ½ tsp. fennel (optional) and cook stirring to break up the sausage until it is no longer pink. In a large bowl toss together 2 ½ cups unseasoned stuffing mix, the sautéed sausage, 1 small peeled Granny Smith apple chopped, 4 beaten eggs and ¼ cup chicken broth with 1 tblsp. lemon juice. Let stand for 10 minutes and spoon into two 12-cup mini-muffin tins that have been sprayed with a vegetable cooking spray. Bake 20-25 minutes in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Cool for 5 minutes before loosening the muffins to lift them out. Can be made ahead, stored refrigerated in pans and reheated. Serve warm with turkey or as an appetizer at another time.

The variations on this recipe are countless, from a mushroom/pine nut/lemon combination, to artichokes with Parmegiano-Romano cheese and you might even make savory muffins out of the mix in a muffin tin baking a bit longer at 375 dregrees.

The ultimate savory stuffing recipe was given to me years ago by my friend Jane Button. It has many ingredients and is quite tedious to prepare, but is worth every bite.

          Cornbread and Porcini Stuffing

Soak 2 oz. dried porcini in hot water for an hour, remove and cut in slivers. Pour the soaking liquid (about 1 cup) through a paper towel to remove particles and set aside. In a large skillet sauté 2 cups chopped red onions in 2 tblsp. butter with 1 cup diced celery and 1 cup diced fennel bulb for 10 minutes, then add another 2 tblsp. butter, 1 lb. sliced domestic mushrooms, 1 tblsp. lemon juice, 2 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper and continue to sauté stirring until most moisture is absorbed and the mixture turns brown. Add 3 minced garlic cloves, 1 medium chopped tomato, 2 tsp. dried thyme, 1 tsp. dried rosemary, ¼ tsp. ground juniper berries (optional), ½ tsp. dried sage, ½ tsp. dried savory, ½ cup white wine and the porcini liquid, letting each bubble up and  then 1 cup heavy cream. Stir in the porcini mushrooms and allow to simmer about 5 minutes. In a large bowl toss: 3 cups crumbled corn bread, 3 cups cubed croutons, ½ cup chopped parsley, ½ cup chopped fennel fronds, 1 cup freshly grated Romano cheese and the vegetable mushroom sauté. The stuffing may be baked in a buttered casserole, covered for about an hour in a 375 degree oven. If baking alongside the turkey, add a bit of the turkey juices during the baking.

The foundation of all stuffing is toasted bread cubes, which when combined with other savory and moist ingredients yield intriguing and flavorful dishes which not only can fill the cavity of a roasting bird, but can also stand on their own as side dishes.

         

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)