Quick & Easy Yorkshire Pudding with Onion Gravy and Veggie Sausage Links

Quick & Easy Yorkshire Pudding (slightly adapted from AllRecipes) with Onion Gravy (from AllRecipes) and Veggie Sausage Links (Servings: 6-7, Total Time: 45 minutes)

Yorkshire Pudding Ingredients

·         3 eggs
·         1 cup milk
·         1 cup all-purpose flour (I only had whole wheat on hand)
·         2 Tbsp. butter

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2.      In a medium bowl, beat eggs with milk. Stir in flour. Set aside.
3.      Divide butter evenly into the twelve cups of a muffin tin, about 1/2  tsp. per cup. Place tin in oven to melt butter, 2 to 5 minutes.
4.      Remove tin from oven, and distribute batter evenly among buttery cups.
5.      Bake in preheated oven 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F, and bake 25 minutes more or until puffed and golden.

Gravy

·         1 Tbsp. butter
·         1 ½ large onions, chopped
·         6 cups vegetable broth
·         2 cups red wine

Directions

1.      Melt 1 butter in a skillet over medium-high heat; cook the onions until translucent and just starting to brown, about 8 minutes.
2.      Pour in the broth and wine; boil the mixture down to about half its volume, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Okay, I’ll start of by saying that I had to make some adjustments to the recipes because of dietary restrictions and what I had on hand.  This may have changed the flavor of the dishes, but I really don’t think that the changes I made affected the taste all that much.  I found this dish bland – the pudding was dense (because of the wheat flour), but did have the bready taste I expected, the gravy seemed to just make things wet.  I used two Morningstar Farms Sausage Links for my dish and for my husband’s – I think that was the best part of the meal.  My husband said that he enjoyed the dish, so I guess it depends on what you like to eat.  I will let you know that the pudding grew moldy in the refrigerator after just a couple of days, so I don’t think that I’ll be using that recipe again.  This just wasn’t my “cup of tea”, even though I am of English descent :-)

Cajun Red Beans and Corncakes

Cajun Red Beans and Corncakes (5-6 servings, Total Time: 4 hours, 45 minutes)

(adapted from AllRecipes.com and Runner’s World)

Original Recipe on Allrecipes called for Creole Seasoning, which I didn’t have, so I used Cajun Seasoning.  Awesome decision!  Good spice mix and kick to the beans.  I also used canned kidney beans to make this dish, and the substitution worked out just fine.  Since I used canned beans, I omitted the salt called for in the original recipe.  No need to add sodium when you don’t need it!

Cajun Red Beans

Ingredients

·  2 cans red kidney beans

·  1 green bell pepper, chopped

·  1 onion, chopped

·  4 stalks celery, chopped

·  2 Tbsp. ground black pepper

·  2 Tbsp. Cajon seasoning

·  3 cloves garlic, minced

·  1 package Morningstar Farm sausage links, chopped

Directions

1.     In a crockpot, combine beans, bell pepper, onion, celery, black pepper, Cajun seasoning, and garlic.

2.     Cook on low for 4 hours.

3.     Mix sausage into the beans; cook an additional 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The day I was planning to make this dish, I saw the recipe for Corncakes and decided to use that in lieu of rice.  Another great decision. 

Corncakes (4-6 servings, depending on size of cakes; Total Time: 20-30 min.)

(from RunnersWorld.com)

Ingredients

1 can (14.75 oz.) creamed corn

1 cup yellow cornmeal, divided in half

½ cup water

2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus extra for griddle

1 large egg

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

Directions

·  Heat creamed corn in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in 1/2 cup cornmeal. Whisk in the water, then oil, then egg. 

·  In a bowl, mix remaining 1/2 cup cornmeal with flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined. 

·  Heat a griddle over medium heat; brush lightly with oil. 

·  Working in batches, drop batter in generous ¼ cup portions onto hot griddle. Cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about five minutes. 

For the cakes, I would use less cornmeal in the future – by themselves, you can taste the cornmeal consistency.  However, they do a great job at sopping up the additional sauce from the beans.  This dish was one that I just wanted more and more of.  The meal has great protein, fiber, and carb content, which is an added bonus to its delicious taste.  The vegetables stayed crisp in the crockpot and the varied consistency between them and the beans and corncakes was a nice addition to the meal.  The beans were slightly spicy, but the corncakes dulled the kick a little, making this pleasing to my husband’s palette as well as to mine.  I will definitely be making this in the future.