Dad's Roast Beast & My Yorkshire Puddings

My dad had my brother and me over for dinner the other night. We all know I have a ton of chicken carcasses hanging around my freezer, right? Well, my dad seems to collect roasts of turkey and bison instead. It must be in our blood or something! He is always complaining about his lack of freezer space because he has so many roasts! In order to help him out a bit, Jem (my brother) and I went up for dinner when my SIL was out of town on a road trip.

My dad cooks his bison roasts in a rich gravy made with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and some red wine. It's usually very delicious, and Dad makes all the fixings, too, including roasted potatoes and veggies. For this particular meal, he asked me if I could make some Yorkshire Puddings to go with the roast beast. My mom was the Yorkshire Pudding queen when we were growing up. We had it all the time. But, to be honest, I'd never made it myself before Dad's request. I found a recipe in my copy of The Essential Baking Cookbook.

Yorkshire Puddings (makes 6), adapted slightly by me

3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
3 tsp vegetable oil

1. In a bowl, whisk flour & salt. Make a well in the centre and whisk in the milk. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until nice & creamy & pale. Add to the batter & mix well. Add water & whisk until large bubbles form. Cover & refrigerate for an hour.

2. Preheat oven to 425F. Pour 1/2 tsp vegetable oil in each of 6 holes of a muffin pan. Heat the pan in the oven for a few minutes, until the oil is smoking. Beat the batter again and pour into each hole, filling about 3/4 full.3. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350F and bake a further 10 minutes, until golden & puffed up. Serve immediately!Nice, eh? Here are my little puddings with my dad's lovely gravy:YUM!

Garden Bounty 2009, Part 1: Arugula Meatballs

Last year's lettuce fiasco in my little garden plot resulted in a rethinking of my veggie plans for this year's garden. I decided not to grow leafy greens that grew in tight bunches, so I opted for arugula. I also had seen lots of arugula appearing in various blog posts amongst my regular food blog friends, and I thought it would be a good idea to try out some new things with it. One recipe that stood out to me was Bellini Valli's chicken & arugula meatballs, seen here. Tonight, after harvesting some young arugula, I made a bison version of this meatball.

I got some bison on special at the local overpriced grocery store. There might have been about a pound or so. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and about 1/2 cup of finely chopped arugula.
After mixing well, I got out one of my favourite and most-used kitchen gadgets: my #70 cookie scoop. I scooped out the meatballs and put them in a pan to brown.When they were nice and evenly browned, I added some homemade pasta sauce I whipped up last night using some of the tomatoes I canned last summer.I let the sauce and meatballs simmer until the meatballs were cooked through, then served them over pasta.
Arugula, especially if it's relatively young, has a pungent smell and is quite peppery. I have to say, however, that they didn't add much in terms of flavour to the meatballs. Perhaps I didn't add enough. Who knows. The bison might have been too strong a pairing, too. Still, it was an excellent meal.