A Proper British Meal

All things British really appealed to me as a kid… I mean, we had Monty Python… The Beatles… The Stones…  All the pithy British sitcoms on PBS like Are You Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, and then the Vicar of Dibley and of course, the veritable Doctor Who (My grandparents had a Doctor Who coloring book that I am pretty sure was prehistoric, that I colored in for years… Now I kick myself thinking about how collectable it would be now).
But for the longest time, us Americans made fun of the Brits. Hell, I made fun of Brits for a long time. Until my dad met and married a wonderful lady from across the pond and I got a whole new extended British family including two step sisters, a new grandma and grandpa and aunts, uncles and cousins that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Now everything British is cool again. Doctor Who has made an awesome resurgence, British TV is taking over America and everyone is accepting and embracing all things British. People really should have taken my cue and did this years ago.
Why? Because… Their traditions are awesome and while everyone says that English food has no taste is smoking crack.
Today I have a proper British dinner on the blog, complete with Yorkshire Puddings!

To start off, you want a good thick roast. You ideally want something a bit larger than the 2.5lb roast I cooked. I didn’t realize it was this small LOL. Oh well, it still made for awesome food.

In a dutch oven, or roaster pan, melt three tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

While it’s melting, season your roast with salt and pepper on both sides. When the butter is melted, place the roast in it to sear. Sear the roast on both sides and then stand it up on the other sides to sear evenly.

Yummmm.

Turn off the heat, place peeled cut up carrots, onion and some garlic in there. Sprinkle on some more salt and pepper. Cover and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 2-3 hours depending on how done you want. Medium Rare would be about 2 hours; well done would be about 3. I cooked my small little roast for 2 1/2 hours and it was perfect. Don’t forget to put about a cup of water in the bottom of the pan before you pop it in. Cover and let it cook until it reaches a roasty goodness that melts in your mouth.

Now onto the Yorkshire Puddings. This is the tricky spot. The recipe will be at the end of the pictorial. Get your ingredients ready! And find your popover pan. Or just a regular non-stick muffin pan will work as well. I just like my fancy pans you don’t use for anything but that one certain thing LOL.

Get your eggs in a bowl. Because you can’t whisk eggs on a plate. Well I guess you could, but it would be really messy.

Now with your silly whisk that really doesn’t serve a purpose other than to look cute and get stuff stuck in it, whisk your eggs.

Sift your flour. We can’t find our regular flour sifter, so we use this fine mesh strainer. It works well!

Plus it looks REALLY cool when you take a picture at the right time.

Mix your flour with your eggs.

Then start mixing your milk in slowly, making sure all the lumps are gone.

And you wind up with this! Now carefully pour your mix into a measuring cup as it will be easier to pour from there than it would be to ladle from the bowl to the pan.
Take the roast out of the oven…

UGH! It looks so damned good. Let it sit while the puddings are cooking. Drain some of the juices off into a bowl…

A little drizzle from the skies of flavor town
Take the drippings and put about a tablespoon each into the tin you’re going to use for the puddings. I forgot to picture that part. Put the pan into the warm oven and let it warm up for about 3 minutes. You’ll hear the sizzle.
Take it out and carefully pour the batter into the pans about 2/3 full.

Put it in the oven for 20-25 minutes. 20 minutes was about the right time for mine. DO NOT OPEN YOUR OVEN until the timer goes off! It will cause the puddings to fall!!!

You will be rewarded with these gorgeous, airy, yummy little confections that are just begging to be eaten.

I mean, can’t you hear it?! Eaaaat meeeee!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaat meeeeeeee!!!

Plate your roast along with the carrots and onions and drizzle the pan drippings on top of the roast.

Then plate and enjoy! And believe me….

You’ll enjoy it!
Now onto the recipe!
Yorkshire Puddings
1 1/4 c. flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 c milk
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Beat flour into eggs until smooth and gradually add milk until lump free. Season with salt and pepper.
Place grease into tins. Heat in oven until hot (3 minutes or so).
Pour batter into tins to about 2/3 full. Place into oven for 20-25 minutes. DO NOT OPEN OVEN!!! Serve immediately.
This yields about six good sized Yorkshire Puddings.
PS.... I'd like to credit this recipe to my wonderful Auntie Lorna!

Recipe Time! Garlic Bread-Wrapped Meatballs.

You say what?! Garlic bread wrapped meatballs?! What kind of sorcery is this?

Well you’ve probably seen the recipe on Facebook. My mom tagged me in it and once I saw it I had to try it. I try every recipe once the way it’s written in the instructions, and then the second time (if there is a second time- sometimes my recipes fail to impress and we can’t find any way to make them better).

So I figured I’d try this one the way it said to the first time.

This is a pretty easy recipe and I suggest it for a side- unlike an entrée that we made it. Wasn’t filling enough… So I might have to make me and bubs some fried Eggplant later lol.

Here’s what you’ll need (full recipe at the end of the post): Shredded parmesan cheese, Grands flaky layer biscuits, oregano (or Italian seasoning like it calls for, but I didn’t have) Garlic powder or garlic salt, premade Italian style meatballs and string cheese.

Cut four pieces of string cheese into five smaller pieces. You’ll need 20 chunks of string cheese when you’re done.

It was REALLY hard for me not to put this bowl in the microwave and melt it and eat it with bread. REALLY hard.

Take your biscuits out and get them ready.

Get your meatballs ready.

Take your flaky layer biscuits and separate them into two separate layers. I suggest, actually, that you should buy two things of biscuits because no where have I found a package of biscuits that hold 10 biscuits. Only 8. So I don’t know what they were thinking when they came up with this recipe.

Take and place a piece of cheese in the middle of your stretched out biscuit.

Put a meatball in your biscuit pouch. Please excuse my chipped mani. I haven’t gotten the chance to redo my nails. Continue this until you have all your cheese pieces used up.

And there you have your little meat and cheese pouches.

Take your trusty garlic powder and sprinkle thusly….

Not really sure how much I used…. I just sprinkled… No measurements needed.

Do the same with the Oregano or Itallian seasoning….

If you do all this whilst using Julia Child’s accent, then you’re doing it right. Do everything whilst using Julia Child’s accent.

Take your parmesan cheese (don’t sniff it right now, cause it smells like butt) and sprinkle it over your rolly thingies.

This is when it starts smelling like pizza…… Bake for about 25 minutes….

And THIS is what you get. NUM YUMMY!!!!

Serve with marinara sauce and your favorite Italian accoutrements and you have a scrumptious dinner!!!

Garlic Bread-Wrapped Meatballs

1 can Pillsbury Grands Jr. Golden Layers refrigerated buttermilk or flaky biscuits

20 frozen cooked Italian-style meatballs (about 5 oz), thawed

4 sticks (1 oz each) string cheese, each cut into 5 pieces

grated Parmesan cheese
teaspoon Italian seasoning
teaspoon garlic powder or garlic salt
1 cup marinara sauce, heated

Directions:
1 Heat oven to 375°F. Separate dough into 10 biscuits. Separate each biscuit into 2 layers. Press each biscuit layer into 3-inch round.

2 Place 1 meatball and 1 string cheese piece in center of each dough round. Wrap dough around meatball and cheese, pressing edges to seal. In ungreased 8- or 9-inch round cake pan, (or a 9x13 rectangular pan) place seam side down in single layer.

3 Sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and garlic powder.

4 Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and biscuits are no longer doughy in center. Serve warm biscuits with warm marinara sauce for dipping.