British Entree

Roast Beef w/ Yorkshire Pudding
(Serves 8)

Long considered England's national dish. The pudding, done at the last minute, can
be tricky...but worth the effort. Scrumptious.

Beef
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 T each, salt & pepper
4 or 5 pound roast beef *
_______________

Pudding
1 1/2 C milk
1 1/2 C flour
4 eggs (beaten)
1/4 tsp. each, salt & pepper
1 - 2 T beef drippings or vegetable oil

Beef: preheat oven to 375. Combine first 3 ingredients and rub mixture on beef. Set in a roasting pan and roast till desired doneness (130 for rare, 140 for medium, 150 for well). Remove roast from the oven and pan, cover with foil tent, and let it rest 20 minutes (beef will continue cooking a while longer).

Pudding: while roast is still cooking, begin Yorkshire pudding. Beat together first 4 pudding ingredients and chill. (Batter must be thoroughly chilled before adding to hot oil.)

Once the roast is out of the oven, turn up the heat to 450. Use oil or put 1-2 T of the beef drippings in the bottom of a baking pan. (Use a new pan or same one that held the beef; just drain off all but 1-2 T of fat.) Heat pan and fat/oil in oven for about 10 minutes, till the oil is good and hot, almost smoking. (Hot oil and chilled batter are essential for a light puffy pudding.)

Add chilled batter to the hot oiled pan and cook 20 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve immediately with the beef (carve beef while pudding is in oven). Add Roasted Potatoes and Parsnips as an accompaniment.

* Use your favorite cut of good beef: rib eye, shell, fillet, standing ribs.

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Tips & Glossary

Clotted Cream: a thick yellowish cream made from unpasturized cow's milk. You can make your own, although it's hard to find unpasturized cream in the U.S. Still, you'll find 3 recipes under Scones. All use pasturized cream; try to avoid "ultra" pasturized.

Ploughman's Lunch: sounds romantic, like a peasant dish from medieval times, but it's a marketing gimmick from the 1970's! It's become a popular lunch in Britain now: a piece of bread, hunk of cheese, with onion, gherkin, and an apple. Our Ploughman's Soup is a take-off on that name.

Roux: (“roo”), paste-like mixture of melted butter and flour, into which liquid is gradually added. Used as a thickening agent for soups and all classic French sauces. Basic Roux: melt 1 part butter and add 1 part flour. Stir continuously till it becomes paste-like. Slowly add whatever liquid your recipe calls for.

Tea Time: Afternoon tea became fashionable in the mid-1600's. A light snack with sandwiches and sweets, it's served from 3-5 in a sitting room. High tea, is a light meal served from 5-6 in a dining room. ("High" because the dining table is higher than the low ones in a sitting room.)

Yorkshire Pudding: from the northern county of Yorkshire, originating in the early 1700s when flour was more readily available. A pancake like batter is spooned into the drippings of a roast as it cooks. Eaten alongside the roast or as a separate course.