During all the years I have been teaching I have heard from many students that English food is boring, bland and brown, 3 adjectives I would not use with English food or with my favourite meal, the traditional English Sunday roast.
I lived in Hull, in the north of England, for 21 years, and I am used to (and love) traditional English foods from Cheddar cheese to Hampshire watercress.
Growing up, my favourite day was Sunday when I would sit with my family at 2 pm every week and eat Sunday Roast. This consists of a joint of meat, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, mashed potato, and roast potato and, of course, Yorkshire puddings. Now, a pudding with a meat meal may sound strange but this is something of a tradition for the majority of English families for hundreds of years and they were first made in 1737.
Here’s some I made earlier and soon you will too.
If you ask most people in the world, they would say their mum is the best cook but mine really is and she has very nicely passed down her recipe all the way from Yorkshire so you know you can’t get any more traditional. I/We hope you make them and enjoy them and will now find English food slightly tastier.
My family recipe for the best Yorkshire puddings:
Heat oven to 200 degrees
Take a Yorkshire pudding tray, fill each hole with around 2 tablespoons of oil and put in the oven
To make the batter:
Mix 125ml of milk (millilitres) with 2 eggs, add 125g of plain flour (Grams) and a pinch of salt and pepper
Whisk until thick and lump-free. Put in fridge for 20 mins.
After 20 mins oil will be extremely hot.
Take out batter from the fridge and take the tray out of the oven.
(BE CAREFUL. VERY HOT OIL)
Add batter to the tray and put back in the oven for 30 mins.
DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR UNTIL THEY ARE DONE!
When they are cooked, take the tray out of the oven, take the Yorkshire puddings out of the tray and put them on kitchen paper. After 2 minutes put on your plate, fill with gravy and thank me later.
They should look like this…. Yes, they are mine that I made last week
Vocabulary
bland: (ADJ) not having a strong or interesting taste
joint of meat: (NOUN) a large piece of meat that is cooked whole in the oven
mashed potato: (NOUN) potatoes that have been boiled and crushed, often with butter and milk
roast potatoes: (NOUN) potatoes boiled and put on a tray with oil and put in the oven
tradition: (NOUN) a belief, custom or way of doing something that has existed for a long time among a particular group of people; a set of these beliefs or customs
passed down: (PHR.V) to give or teach something to your children or people younger than you, who will then give or teach it to those who live after them, and so on
recipe: (NOUN) a set of instructions that tells you how to cook something and the ingredients (=items of food) you need for it
batter: (NOUN) a mixture of eggs, milk and flour used in cooking
pinch: (NOUN) small quantity
whisk: (VERB) stir/mix
gravy: (NOUN) a brown sauce made by adding flour to the juices that come out of meat while it is cooking