The Mini Yorkies at D’Arcy McGee’s Pub in Ottawa were a clever creation, and turned out to be very tasty. I gave them a 4 out of 5 Rating.
The D’Arcy McGee’s chain has many locations in Ottawa, and elsewhere, including one at the Ottawa Airport. I have flown in and out of Ottawa so many times I have lost count, but rarely do these visits involve a layover for me. On one particular trip, I had an hour or two to kill and stopped in to the D’Arcy McGee Pub for a drink. I wasn’t hugely hungry, but the menu description of the little appetizer dish you see pictured above sparked my interest, and it turned out to be very good.
Now, for the uninitiated, the ‘Yorkie’ in this dish refers to an English preparation more fully known as ‘Yorkshire Pudding’. The cooked batter can be made as a large sort of ‘pie’, but also in individual sized servings cooked in muffin pans, or the like. Here, they were considerably smaller, hence the name ‘Mini Yorkies’. It may not be easy to tell from my picture, but each of the four ‘Yorkies’ in this interesting appetizer dish were about three centimeters across.
The menu described the mini ‘Yorkie’ filling as being lean ground beef, peas, corn and carrots simmered in rich brown gravy and topped with buttermilk mashed potatoes and creamed corn. Essentially, this is what I was served. The filling was, ultimately, a basic Shepherd’s Pie filling, while the creamed corn topping was an added novelty.
On the whole, the filling had a nice ‘meaty’ gravy, and it was fairly nicely seasoned, but it was still just a little bland. Personally, I think just a bit of sage and thyme would really add a nice little fillip. The potato was okay (garlic mash might be nice) but the blob of creamed corn added little to the taste and really didn’t look that great, in my opinion.
Anyway, in overall assessment, I think this was a great idea that could use a little technique. In particular, the idea of using little Yorkshire Puddings as a vehicle for a stuffed appetizer was pretty clever and I think I shall steal it eventually.