The other day while shopping in my favourite food store I saw Sirloin Tip Roast on sale. $15 for 1.4kg, whatever that is. It occurred to me that we had not had a Roast Beef dinner at home for at least a couple of years. It’s a lot of effort for two people. So I bought one and last night cooked it with the usual roasted potatoes, green peas and carrots AND Yorkshire Pudding. Making the latter can be intimidating as one does not want them to end up as dried out hockey pucks that my mother could produce. So using my late sister’s recipe I said ‘Game On’ .  Mixed up the batter, waited until the oil in the muffin  pan was smoking hot and poured them in. 25  minutes later out popped near perfect Yorkshire’s. My favourite girl polished of one completely and I managed to stop at two. Of course, they were lathered with homemade gravy that included a slug of Sherry. The beef was actually quite good, not Prime Rib good, but for a cheap cut pretty darn delicious. 

Speaking of Yorkshire’s, the most memorable ones ever were at  the Rotunda Restaurant in Newman Marcus in San Francisco. The Yanks call them Popovers and at the Rotunda they are served as an appetizer. They are huge. Bigger than a softball. Light, fluffy, and served with whipped  blueberry butter on the side. We have gone back there several times just for the popovers. So good! Can’t get to San Francisco? Who would want to these days anyway. Here is their recipe. It can be cut in half. 

YIELD12

INGREDIENTS

• 3 1/2 Cups whole milk
• 4 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 6 Large eggs, at room temperature
• For the Butter: (a must)
• 1 1/2 Cups butter, room temperature
• 1 Cup of your best quality strawberry preserves

PREPARATION

• Place milk in bowl and microwave on high for two minutes, or warm to touch. Sift flour, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Crack eggs in another large bowl with an electric mixer and whisk for on medium for about 3 minutes, until foamy. Turn down mixer speed to low and add warm milk. Gradually add flour mixture and beat for about 2 minutes. Let batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 450. Spray popover pan generously with nonstick spray. (or place 1 T of pan dripping or butter in pan, then heat till piping hot.) Fill popover cups almost to the top with batter and place popover pan on cookie sheet. Transfer to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 and bake for 30 to 35 minutes longer, until popovers are deep golden brown. Remove from oven and pop out popovers on a cool rack. Serve hot with the Strawberry Or Blueberry Butter.

Enjoy! 

Just saying…