Yorkshire Pudding

Want to know how to make the perfect Yorkshire Pudding for your Roast Beef diners?

The Recipe

equal parts

eggs, flour, and milk

and a pinch of salt

I break two room temperature eggs into a measuring cup and determine how much fluid I have. I tip these into a mixing bowl. Then I add an equal amount of milk. I use 2% but you can use whatever you have. Next measure same amount of all purpose flour. Mix all ingredients, the batter will be quite loose, add a pinch of salt. Rest in the fridge for half hour or so if you can, if not go ahead and use it right away. Batter will still rise unrest-ed.

 Heat about a quarter cup of canola or vegetable oil in a large baking pan to 450 F. Make sure the oil is to the point of smoking hot. A 10 inch cast iron skillet works very well for a single large pudding!

You are going to cook your pudding in two stages.  First 10 or 12 minutes at 450 F, so the batter will rise.  Then turn back the oven to 350 F, to dry out the pudding so it will hold it's structure!!  The whole cooking time needs to be about 25 minutes.

The timing of this pudding is crucial, you really have to make it at the very last minute and serve immediately.  If you cook it to early it wont be nice when you eventually serve it. If you leave it too late then your plated roast is going cold.  Since the roast is in the oven cooking at 350 or so I like to heat up the counter top convection oven and cook my Yorkshire in there!  If you are going to use the same oven as you are roasting in then do the following.  Cook roast to completion, remove from oven and tent with tinfoil and rest it for the next twenty five minutes.  Then turn the heat up to 450 F and get your oil smoking hot and cook off your Yorkshire while the roast rests.  This is also the time to make your pan gravy. Good luck! It helps to have a sous chef with you! If not do your best! The Yorkshires once poured into the hot oil need no more tending.... just turn the heat back at 10 minutes!

 Pour batter into pan cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown.  After 10 or 12 minutes turn the oven back to 350 F to dry the pudding out.  The puddings will puff up and look good at the ten or twelve minute mark, but don't be fooled.  If you pull the puddings out at this point they are still too wet and will collapse, you need to leave them in for 15 more minutes, the full 25 minutes so they can dry out a bit and hold the puffed up structure.

This is a really good recipe for Yorkshire Pudding, I like to make it in one large Pudding. You can do the same in a muffin tin, if you want separate puddings.

More glorious single serving Yorkshires!!!

Ahhh perfection!!!!!!!

Rough Apple Galette

Make this super easy Rough Apple Galette ahead of time, then when the steaks are finished grilling and the guests are eating them, fire this off in a 450 degree BBQ. Make sure your Apple wonder is not over the burner but on the cold side, your using your grill like an Oven now. When the steaks have been devoured, you are ready to pull this tasty apple desert off the grill and slip it under some French Vanilla Icecream. Serve hot, nothing but happiness here!

Ingredients

Pastry

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsps flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• About 2 Tbsps ice-cold water

Filling

• 4 tablespoons brown sugar, more to taste
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• About 6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 tablespoon butter (optional)

Directions

Pastry

1. Make the pastry: Put the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the butter pieces and pinch with the fingers to create a crumb texture. Make a well in the middle, and pour in the vanilla and water. Quickly work in the flour to create dough. Do not over-mix. Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 15 minutes.

Filling

1. Heat the oven to 450°F/230°C. Roll the pastry into a round and lay on a baking sheet. Stir together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl. Toss in the apples to coat, and dump onto the pastry. Dot with the butter. Bring the edges of the pastry up over so they lay in, rough-edged, on the apples. They won’t cover the apples completely. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden and the apples soft to a fork and caramelized, 40 to 45 minutes.

Cool Vessels from the Thrift Shop

Now and then I come across some of the best kitchen items at the Thrift Shop. Here are a few, very cool vessels, I have managed to find for next to nothing. The first set of pics is a hand hammered Cataplana from Spain. The second set of pics is a hand hammered Ruffoni cooper pot from Italy. I got both of these items for less than 15 dollars, now that was a bargain.

Owen Sound Thrift Shop - Carbon Steel Vintage Kitchen Knives

Just got a new bunch of carbon steel kitchen kinves.................... from the Owen Sound Thrift Shop................... was very pleased to open up the tupperware container with the knives in it......... to look down on a four star elephant Sabatier.................. that was unexpected.............. after sorting through the various knives............ the lady behind the counter said.............. 'here's some more old ones...........' and proceeded to pull out some more ancient carbon steel knives that looked like the local black smith had hammered them out................ lol

Great haul for 5 bucks....................... *smile*

Update on O.C. Vail knives

From all accounts, Orfred (Orrie) Cleveland Vail of Tobermory was quite a man.

At six feet four inches, he was a historian and expert on the Great Lakes.  Like his father and grandfather before him, he was a fisherman and self-taught mechanic.  Born in 1893, he married Edith Whitting, who was from England, in 1914  and, together, the couple had four children.

It's thought that Orrie's great-grandfather was the first white man to make his home on the Bruce, if not all of Grey and Bruce Counties, arriving in a birch bark canoe that he had made himself in 1823. His son, William and all four of his sons, including Orrie's father, were born at Vail point in Tobermory.

After more than 40 years fishing the Great Lakes, Orrie Vail became recognized as an expert on the lakes and was often asked to lecture at Universities and for various organizations.  He collected historical memorabilia from around the world and his handcrafted knives made of Swedish steel were shipped to every country except Russia and Sweden.  He also made fishing lures that have become collectors' items.

Vail often heard his grandfather and father talk of a shipwreck lying in a cove.

According to stories, his grandfather, William, was told by Indians of a wreck on Rabbit Island, lying northwest of Tobermory and, Orrie Vail, came forward with the idea that the ship was the Griffon.  The Griffon, the ship of French explorer LaSalle set sail on  September 18, 1679 and was never seen again.  It remained a mystery that has been searched for by countless divers and historians.

In the mid-1950s however, Orrie Vail showed the wreck, that his father and grandfather had talked about, to two 'Griffon' experts.  At that time, it was still in relatively good condition and its length and shape and type of wood all matched the Griffon's specifications.  It was never proven however.

Today, the remains of the shipwreck that Orrie Vail found, which is now believed to not be the Griffon, are housed in the Visitors' Centre at Tobermory, as is Orrie Vail's Net Shed where he worked for so many years.

The Shed has been painstakingly reconstructed and has become part of the Fathom Five marine display.  Inside are tools originally used by Orrie Vail and many lures, now prized as collectors' items.  The smell of the ancient beams remains and the 'shed' houses the 'visible storage' display.  Here, artifacts of yesteryear, illustrate a time when life on the Bruce Peninsula depended on fishing, hunting and farming.