Easy things you suck at doing

[RoJoHen]

Instant mashed potatoes are an abomination. Particularly since real ones aren't very difficult to make.

I'm on a deadline right now, RoJoHen, but once I live through it, I'll check back here and if somebody hasn't told you how to make mashed potatoes that aren't an abomination, I will. I will make it my mission in life - well, my mission in the 15 minutes or so that it takes me to tell you how to make decent mashed potatoes - to help you eradicate fake potatoes from your dinner table. I feel enobled just thinking about it.

Yorkshire pudding is nothing like any sort of American pudding. No, there's no bread in it. It's really more of a popover, though I have this feeling that telling some of you that won't tell you much...but darn it, I still have that deadline, so rather than explain it to you, let me just send you here: http://britishfood.about.com/od/regionalenglishrecipes/r/yorkspuds.htm

I've never made it, but I've eaten it, and it's very good. But not as good as mashed potatoes, IMO - or roast potatoes, for that matter.

I have absolutely no idea why it's called a "pudding." I know that in British English, pudding can mean several different things, some of which are drastically different from the AmE concept of the word, but Yorkshire pudding seems to stretch even the BrE definition of "pudding" past the breaking point.

This is possibly one of my most favorite posts ever. Everything about it makes me smile.

And yeah, I have no idea what a popover is.

 

[Jadzia]

I've no idea what a popover is either.

Yorkshire pudding is much like a pancake mix but with more eggs, and baked in a shallow dish, in hot oil, in a very hot oven. The result is very different from pancakes though. What is supposed to happen is as the mix cooks it curls up the sides of the dish rising into a tall, crisp, and crusty cylinder.

The flavour is that of the eggs, flour, and oil (similar to pancakes), but with a distinct baked quality from where it has browned, slightly reminiscent of a freshly baked bread crust.

My mum used to make enormous ones when I was a child, like dinner plate size, which rose up to the top of the oven on a good day (over 6 inches). This was cut into slices and shared out.

It was common in England at one time to serve this after a meal with jam, as a desert.

 

[RoJoHen]

Now I want pancakes.

 

[Holdfast]

Instant mashed potatoes are an abomination. Particularly since real ones aren't very difficult to make.

I'm on a deadline right now, RoJoHen, but once I live through it, I'll check back here and if somebody hasn't told you how to make mashed potatoes that aren't an abomination, I will. I will make it my mission in life - well, my mission in the 15 minutes or so that it takes me to tell you how to make decent mashed potatoes - to help you eradicate fake potatoes from your dinner table. I feel enobled just thinking about it.

I will leave it to you to feel enriched by educating RoJoHen, and will stick to merely saying that the secret ingredients strike me as being a good slodge of butter & a generous glooping of cream.

Yorkshire pudding is nothing like any sort of American pudding....
I have absolutely no idea why it's called a "pudding." I know that in British English, pudding can mean several different things, some of which are drastically different from the AmE concept of the word, but Yorkshire pudding seems to stretch even the BrE definition of "pudding" past the breaking point.

IIRC, the word pudding originates from the bastardisation of some French or Norman word for a casing. So anything that's encased could technically be a pudding. Yorkshire pudding is basically a batter casing (awaiting lashings of onion gravy... ) so fits within that definition.

(Today's post was brought to you by the letter P)

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Instant mashed potatoes are an abomination. Particularly since real ones aren't very difficult to make.

This. Very much this.


Personally, while I like potatoes in most of their various forms (except instant mashed), I prefer them curried.

 

[Capn Flukie]

I likek instanta mahed potatoes, I make them into patties and fry them. yummers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

IIRC, the word pudding originates from the bastardisation of some French or Norman word for a casing. So anything that's encased could technically be a pudding. Yorkshire pudding is basically a batter casing (awaiting lashings of onion gravy... ) so fits within that definition.

(Today's post was brought to you by the letter P)

Also isn't "pudding" Brit slang for dessert, like "what are you going to have for pudding"? Kind of like how in the South they say "coke" no matter what actual soft drink they're talking about.

And as for British food, I gotta hand it to 'em, it must take some kind of courage to willingly eat food with names like Bubble and Squeak, Toad in the Hole, Spotted Dick ...

 

[Holdfast]

IIRC, the word pudding originates from the bastardisation of some French or Norman word for a casing. So anything that's encased could technically be a pudding. Yorkshire pudding is basically a batter casing (awaiting lashings of onion gravy... ) so fits within that definition.

(Today's post was brought to you by the letter P)

Also isn't "pudding" Brit slang for dessert, like "what are you going to have for pudding"?

Yes, the origin being from puddings which were - yes, you guessed it - steamed a casing (of pastry).

And as for British food, I gotta hand it to 'em, it must take some kind of courage to willingly eat food with names like Bubble and Squeak, Toad in the Hole, Spotted Dick ...

God, this takes me back to school dinners. Just swap out the Spotted Dick for some Jam Roly-Poly and I'm in heaven.

 

[An Officer]

Wait, you actually enjoyed your school dinners?

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Wait, you actually enjoyed your school dinners?

Maybe he just enjoyed the dick ...

 

[Holdfast]

Wait, you actually enjoyed your school dinners?

Yeah, totally. Proper stodge; I love all those traditional meals.

Or, to put it in a way Shameless will appreciate, I think learning to like the taste of Spotted Dick is a near-inevitable consequence of going to an all-boys boarding school.

(... actually it was co-ed in the Sixth Form and I was only a day pupil there anyway, but that would spoil the joke. Damn reality. Damn it to Hell.)

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

I'll just focus on the aspect of you enjoying spotted dick.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I'll just focus on the aspect of you enjoying spotted dick.

Munching on a spotted dick while experiencing a toad in the hole? I bet you're enjoying reading all this...

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

I'll just focus on the aspect of you enjoying spotted dick.

Munching on a spotted dick while experiencing a toad in the hole? I bet you're enjoying reading all this...

Making me hungry.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

If they ever made a vindaloo and jalapeno version of toad in the hole, could it be called "Fire in the hole"?

 

[indranee]

I have a really difficult time putting contacts in and taking them out. ugh. keeping them in is hard too 'cos I have really long lashes and they tend to get in my eyes. when that happens, with contacts in, it's absolute hell.

 

[Holdfast]

I'll just focus on the aspect of you enjoying spotted dick.

I won't tell you the story of the rhubarb fool and his strawberry tarts, then.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I also can't juggle.

 

[thestrangequark]

^Whoever said juggling was easy?!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Everyone else I know can juggle. I seem to be the only one with two right hands in my neighbourhood(s).