Sunday Roast: Traditional rare roast beef lunch for my mum’s 88th birthday with experimental Yorkshire puddings
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Beef and Steak and Veal | 16 comments
Turning her car in the road my mother’s foot slipped from the brake to the accelerator and hit a row of parked cars. Just days before her 88th birthday she climbed out of her car for the last time.
Although her car is slightly older than Jalopy, my mum had cherished it for 15 years. Recently she had begun to think about giving up the car. But this would have such a drastic impact on her independence and freedom she had kept on putting off the decision.
“The insurance company has written it off.” Her voice trembled on the phone. “They didn’t even want the spare set of keys as they are towing it to the breakers yard.”
With a perfect service history, just 55,000 miles on the clock and only a smashed headlight and crumpled wing, someone is getting a bargain.
“I’ve cleared out the car and put the keys in the glove compartment. I’m making sure that I’m not at home when they come to tow it away.”
The experience had clearly rattled her deeply so we decided to make her a really special birthday lunch. Living alone, she rarely eats a decent joint of beef.
I bought a hefty corner of beef from our wonderful butcher – Fred Fitzpatrick, Exning Road, Newmarket.. This is a succulent rolled topside – perfect if you love very rare roast beef. Danny was conservative with the cooking times for his rare roast beef recipe. The beef was about 1.3 kilos and he gave it 15 minutes at 240 (220 fan, gas mark 9) and 50 minutes at 160 (140 fan, gas mark 3) resting it under some foil and thick pile of towels for a good 20 minutes. The trick to carving this joint is to carve it with a very sharp knife, as thinly as possible. Then each mouthful just melts in the mouth.
He made his perfect crispy roast potatoes (in goose fat) and lots of fresh veggies. As taxi driver and mistress of the cocktail cabinet my contribution was just to made some Yorkshire puddings. I decided to experiment and use the buttermilk that was left over from making Mildred’s butter. I had run out of plain white flour so I substituted Strong white bread flour and a couple of eggs.
Everything was perfect from Danny’s end of the kitchen but I wasn’t ecstatic about the Yorkshire puds. They rose but in a flouncy sort of way.
“I reckon that you overfilled the individual patties,” suggested Danny.
“These are great, Darling,” said mum. “Much better than Aunt Bessie’s.”
We make our individual Yorkshire puds in an old cup cake tray with 12 compartments. Mulling it over this evening I spied a small thick Le Creuset dish sitting on the kitchen side. At lunchtime, I had used a thinner cake tray than usual. Perhaps the thicker Le Crueset dish would hold the heat better and create the perfect hot fat – cold batter whoosh.
There was some batter left over in the fridge, so I tried making a single bigger Yorkshire pud this evening in the heavy dish. I popped it into the oven with a splash of the nuttier rapeseed oil to heat up. Ten minutes at 220 (200 fan).
The mixture fizzed and muttered as it was poured into the smoking oil in the thicker pan. Within 20 minutes it had risen into the perfect Yorkshire pud for filling with cold roast beef for lunch tomorrow. And it has kept its shape!
I don’t know whether it was the dish, the Strong flour or the buttermilk or a combination of the three. But I am going to stick to this method from now on. I reckon that ramekins would produce good mini yorkshire puds too.
Leave a reply
I was thinking about my Grandma today, she died a few years ago aged 93 and drove her car until she was 90 . . . it was very hard for her to give up.
I remember her parking her little Mini outside the shops in the village virtually in the middle of the road! When any of the family drove by we had to stop our car, jump in Grandma’s car and park it safely, near to the kirb – she always left her keys in the ignition!
To think, she was born before there were any cars, then went on to run a garage with Grandad.
I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to have to give up my driving. I recall how difficult it was for Grandma to ‘hand the keys over’. Do pass on our very best wishes to your Mum, and keep up the lovely treats!
that impact must be huge, it’s a challenge we’re currently facing with my grandmother.
a stanley is basically like an aga, oil fueled but can be turned on and off like an oven and it’s temperature adjusted, with a hot oven and a warming oven/ variations, and a big hot plate thing on top with lids (can you spot the really technical one in this household?!). ours also heats the house and the water.
thank you for the welcome to the area!
Hi Pat,
Pride led me to this discovery. D’s part of the meal was so much better than mine!
Hi Joanna,
My mum’s driving incident has rattled her. As it happened in her road just outside her house, she sees the damage to the other cars every time she opens her front door.
Being 88 must be hard. No car now and probably her dog (Great aunt Daisy Beatyl) will stay with us. She couldn’t really cope with walking a dog twice a day. She has to make the decision for herself, meanwhile GADB sleeps at my feet.
I reckon that you are right. t was the Le Creuset dish – they hold the heat. When I poured in the chilled mix from the fridge it whooshed and I could see it thickening at the sides of the dish as I put it back in the oven. The dish is small – about 5″. Danny thinks that this must be the perfect size.
I ate the pud, still tasty, with a large slice of Fred’s smoked ham today. Wonderful.
Hi Mildred,
If you hadn’t told me how good buttermilk was in scones and cakes I wouldn’t have considered using it in the YPs!
I reckon that you need smoking fat and chilled batter to create the magical fusion!
Hi Caroline,
Welcome to a great area!
Thanks for asking about my mum. She was worrying about making mistakes driving and had become uncomfortable behind the wheel. However she is no Bill Gates so it will be taxis to the supermarket from now on. She has lost her driving independence and that impact must be huge.
Danny tells me that a Stanley is a sort of Aga in Ireland. I was bemused. Stanley is the name of a great brand of good tools in the UK!
So ramekins work for YPs. Thanks for the tip. Much appreciated.
Glad to hear about your chucks. They are a joy!
Hi Amanda,
I am amazed that you come from Yorkshire and put your batter into cold stoneware (is it Pampered Chef? What temp do you put them in at. Are you willing to reveal all?). I’d love to hear how you get on with the cold Le Creuset. I really want to crack the Yorkshire pud conundrum. I thought that I had until you mentioned cold dishes…
This is why I love cooking. an endless, amazing journey that never ends.
Your poor Mum Fiona, how sad that her driving freedom had to come to an end like that. I hope nobody was too cross with her. People can be very funny about cars.
As for the yorkshire puddings. I was always afraid of making them and now I make them using stoneware which I don’t preheat. I’m going to do an experiment in a le creuset pan and not heat it up to see if it works the same.
Sorry to hear about your mums accident, hope she is not too shaken up.
I use ramekins as they fit better in my stanley! getting two trays next to each other is slightly challenging.. really really cold batter and really really hot fat and -whoosh-!
thank you for the butcher recommendation, we have recently moved near Newmarket and have 2 chickens and 3 bantie babes pootling round the garden.
What a Good Idea to make the pud in your Le Creuset dish Fi, it looks great! And I am butter making tomorrow so I will have some Buttermilk left from that to try in our puds 😉 Thanks for the tip!
I came to the conclusion, following various pud disasters (ie: flat, soggy puds)that the dish with the oil needs to be ‘smoking’ hot and the oven on ‘full’ to make my ‘Yorkshires’ rise properly. Ian, my lovely hubby, has just added that it also helps if the batter is stone cold, straight from the fridge . . . NOW he tells me :O
Hi Leo,
I am really sorry but I can’t help you as I am based in th UK. Perhaps someone in The USA will read this and can point you in the right direction.
I do hope that your Christmas food shopping online turns out well!
sounds good!
Maybe you can help me out with something¦? I want to order all of my food online from now on because of various reasons, but I don™t know where to go for quality food. I have tried 2 companies so far, Fresh Dining, and and Celebrity Foods, but I wanna get others I can try out. Do you know of any? The main thing I™ve ordered so far is steak. I guess you can say, I™m a steak junkie. LOL!!! From what I have found out (from what I have ordered so far) I think I am able to regulate the quality of beef I buy. I hate going to a store and getting that crappy slab of beef that I have to cut down until there is like nothing left. Hahaha!!!! (its so true though) Anyhow, sorry that I made this comment so long. If you can help me out or point me in a direction where I might find more quality foods online, I would greatly appreciate it. Have a good day or night! (depending on when you read this) LOL!!!!
So sorry to hear about your mother’s accident. My mother-in-law’s driving career came to an end in a similar way, and it was a sad day for her.
Wonderful Yorkshire pud … I think it was the Le Creuset dish, and I’m going to try it out. It’s only recently occurred to me (derrrrrrr!) that Yorkshires are something that can easily be made ahead and then reheated. But making them in a Le Creuset dish is inspired.
Thanks for sharing
Joanna
Ohhhhh That does so look yummy!!!! Well done on the experiment and it coming out too!!! Wish all mine did as well. And I think I maybe trying Danny’s recipe for Roast beef too!!! Thanks!!