I adored Tim Burton’s 2016 film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children based on the book of the same name by Ransom Riggs. I can attribute most of my love to the film’s charming and spookyl atmosphere, from the Burtonesque settings, to the paranomal abilitied children I’ve described as X-Men through an Instagram filter, to the hauntingly lovely Florence and the Machine song that plays through the credits. I can attribute the rest of my love to the luminous Eva Green as Miss Peregrine.
Illustration by Andrew Tarusov
Miss Peregrine’s school is located in Wales, and to my American sensibility the most iconic Welsh food is Welsh Rarebit (please comment and school me if there are more dishes I should know). As far as dishes go though, this is a good one, the sauce is simply amazing. One of my peculiar children declared “dis is yum!”
I made the lovely rarebit creamy cheese sauce flavored with dijon, worcestershire sauce and ale (I used pumpkin beer!) but rather than on rye toast, I made some light and airy rye popovers to evoke Emma (yes in the book it’s Olive) who is lighter than air. I wonder if she’s a good cook – she’s probably great at things like popovers, soufflees, meringues, puris, foams and lattes.
Just a note, in a rare twist I adapted nothing this time, both unaltered recipes came out really nice.
Rye Popovers with Welsh Rarebit Sauce
For the popovers
Recipe from Food.com
- 3⁄4 cup rye flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
Heat over to 450° and grease a muffin tin.
Whisk together flours and salt, then add milk, butter, and eggs. Mix well and divide between muffin cups.
Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350$deg; and bake for another 5 minutes. Cool on a rack. Serve with rarebit sauce, below.
For the rarebit sauce
Recipe from Alton Brown
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce (vegetarian sauce to make vegetarian)
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
- 1/4 cup beer (porter is best, I used a lighter pumpkin beer, also good)
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 3/4 cups shredded cheddar
On low heat in a saucepan, heat butter and flour, whisking continuously for several minutes (do not let flour brown). Whisk in in dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper until well combined. Whisk in beer and cream, and add cheddar. Cook, whisking constantly, for 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted completely and mixture has slightly thickened. Remove from heat and serve warm with popovers.
Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Podcast Episode 48: MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN in which Carrie and Diana discuss the 2016 Tim Burton film and the novel by Ransom Riggs that it’s based on. Giant carrots, weird little back-teeth, eyeball munching, carnival food; all very peculiar.
