for my next trick…

Before all is revealed, I must tell you that last weekend’s Urban Farm Bicycle Tour was even better than last year’s. I am amazed by the number of urban farms, the variety of foods and the stamina of the growers. And, this year there were chefs at each farm preparing foods from that farm for hungry cyclists to sample. Yum!

This year a few new farms were added to the tour including HausBar Farms and Springdale Farms. I had already visited Springdale Farms on a Slow Foods Austin tour, but HausBar was completely new to me. Well, let me rephrase; I know the owners in their Eastside Cafe context, but the farm, well, the farm is amazing.

I love that Austin is embracing the urban farm concept in a big way. The ideal and practice suits Austin’s “keeping it weird” mentality, and benefits the community as a whole, the Capital Area Food Bank thanks to the kids and teachers at Martin Middle School, and has grown us to an astonishing number of farmers markets each week.

Thanks to Edible Austin, Bicycle Sport Shop and the rest of the sponsors, I think this year’s Eat Local week got off to a great start. And, if spending a sunny Saturday on a bicycle visiting an amazing variety of urban farms with a bunch of friends wasn’t good enough, the ticket sales go to Urban Roots, so there’s another benefit. I’m already looking forward to next year’s tour!

In the mean time, though, I have a nifty recipe to share. It comes with a story. When I was young my father had occasional weekend meetings in Washington DC. If schedules allowed, we’d all get to go along, and while I’m sure the Smithsonian and several art galleries ranked high on “things to see”, what I remember was a restaurant that made something I’d never seen before and fell in love with. Light and airy, bigger than my two hands, like no rolls I’d ever seen, popovers were a magical treat.

I had pretty much forgotten about popovers until a few years ago when I went to Maine with a friend. We ate at Jordan Pond House and there were popovers on the menu. They were just as I remembered, a personal”remembrance of things past” epiphany if you will. Light, slightly crunchy, moist inside, delectable, you get the drift.

Then, the next week I turned up a beautiful popover pan during a thrift store crawl. Apparently it was meant to be. I really had no choice but to try making these wonderful air-filled magical delights for myself.

I tried a couple of different recipes, and settled on this one. You really do need a blender, or a deep container and a stick blender, or at least I’ve never tried to do this with a whisk. If you try it that way and it works, please let me know! And, you can do this is a non-stick muffin tin but only fill the molds about half-way. The result won’t be quite as spectacular, but they’ll be tasty.

Here’s what you do:

Very Easy Popovers

filled popover tins ready to bake

Move your oven rack to the middle or just below the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425.

1 C milk (not non-fat, at room temperature*)
1 t salt
3 eggs (at room temperature*)
2 T melted butter
1 C flour

Put all ingredients in a blender, and mix well. I find that putting an egg in the blender first, before the flour, seems to work well to make sure that everything is incorporated and there are no lumps. Pour into (ungreased and not preheated) popover tins. Fill as shown, or if using muffin tins, fill half-way.

Bake 25 minutes at 425, reduce oven to 350 bake another 20 minutes. (Warning: Do NOT open the oven door to peek!!)

Makes six popovers.

Voila!

*It really is best if the eggs and milk are room temperature. You can microwave the milk for 30 seconds or so, and put the eggs in their shells in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes to warm them.

nothing up my sleeve...

***

These are ready to eat right out of the oven. They are great with butter and jam for breakfast or tea, but are equally wonderful as a “dinner roll”. Personally, I’ll take them any way I can get them, and this way is easy! Let me know if you try them, and what you think. Enjoy!

Advertisement