Hoppel Poppel Recipe and a Fairy Story

Hoppel Poppel?Or Hopple Popple? To be honest I don’t know. I had this up in the Great Lakes area years ago, and well it just stuck with me.

Hoppel Poppel? Hopple Popple? Ok it sounds like a German fairy tale.  Well let’s make one up, recipe follows:

Once upon a time in the village of Beirenbarfin in the province of Schaevundahaircuttwobitz there lived a little boy from a family called the Poppels, therefore he was known as young Poppel, stay with me here this may make sense in a moment. His parents were called Mother Poppel the beer taster, and Father Poppel the beer baster, as like most of the residents in Beirenbarfin they brewed beer.

By the time he was eight little Poppel was collecting barley and hops from the fields in the  nearby quaint hamlet of Wienen’puken, walking the fourteen miles barefoot through the dark twisty marshy woods to his parents brewery in his father’s garden shed. Sometimes he would dawdle in the woods skipping and playing and singing “Tralala-lala” (For which anyone should be punished). When he did this he would arrive late home, whereupon his father would beat him mercilessly with an anvil and sing to him. “Linger in the woods would you, you sod, two feet right now has your bod, but that may change with Widow Mange, who eats the feet of little boys, yes eats the feet of little boys. Oh Widow Mange she boils ‘em oh Widow Mange she fries ‘em, She eats the feet of little boys WHO DAWDLE IN THE WOODS WHEN THEY SHOULD BE DELIVERING THEIR FATHERS BLEEDING HOPS! AND STOP SINGING “TRA-LA-LA” YOU WORTHLESS SOD.” I never said it was a good song, Father Poppel had a rather unique view of rhyming. Poppels mother would sometimes join in the singing though usually burped the chorus. 

Young Poppel thought they were silly, and that no one would eat his feet. Especially since he had that weird blue green purple fuzzy fungus from walking barefoot through the twisty marshy wood. So off he went day after day, tra la la la la ,and sometimes  he would sometimes sing to himself his fathers song; “oh widow Mange she boils ‘em oh Widow Mange she fries ‘em!” 

One day while he was skipping through the woods (well this is a fairy story, I should know, I'm English) a strange figure appeared in his path. It was a woman, or at least it looked like it could have been a woman at one time, her face had the shape and coloring of a withered prune that had been pickled in beet juice. Young Poppel stopped in his tracks, tripping over his feet. 

The old woman then hit him with a shovel and when he awoke he was nailed by his ears to a tree and could smell the sweet scent of burning apple wood. The old woman appeared before him and said: “Young Poppel, young Poppel you have two feet, a foot, two feet for me to eat! “ She was better at rhyming then young Poppels father. “Please don’t eat my feet! I can bring you beer lots of beer, just please don’t eat my feet.” Cried Young Poppel. Said the widow Mange: “A foot, two feet for me to eat, a treat to eat two nice flat feet….besides I can’t abide beer, it give me terrible wind.” At which point she took a very large axe and chopped off young Poppels feet and roasted them on the fire. 

He awoke days later in the village with bloody stumps where feet had been. His father made him new feet out of beer steins but it was not the same. He had to hop  around the village on his little beer stein feet as this was before good prosthetics universal health care and the ADA.

So from this time on all the mean villagers called him Hoppel Poppel, and this made young Poppel sad. Then one day everyone in the village got smallpox and died and ravens grew fat feasting on their remains. The end. 

Ok, so I am not that good at making up Fairy Stories. On with the recipe. 

For four marshmallow peeps:

4 Medium red potatoes diced boiled until just tender

One small onion chopped

3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil or butter

1 Cup of sliced mushrooms

½  Red pepper chopped

½  Green Pepper Chopped

2-3 Green onions sliced

1 Cup of diced cooked ham (I guess in the Great Lakes area they tend to use salami, I just remember ham oh well)

8 Eggs

1 Tablespoon of milk

Pinch of salt and fresh cracked black pepper

¼ Cup of mozzarella or Monterrey jack cheese

Method to the madness:

I like to brown it a little so I use a cast iron skillet,  that is well seasoned so that it doesn’t stick, and shove it under the broiler for a minute or two once the eggs are set.

Cooke the onions in the olive oil or butter over medium heat until translucent, add the mushrooms and potatoes and cook stiring carefully so as nto to break up the potatoes until the mushrooms are softened about two to three minutes. Then add the peppers and  the ham, cook one minute more. Meanwhile beat the eggs lightly in a bowl with the milk and a pinch of salt and cracked black pepper.  Pour this mixture into the skillet and cook till lightly set, lower the heat, sprinkle with the cheese and cover. Continue cooking for 5-8 minutes until lightly puffed up.

If desired place under a broiler (Only if you have an oven proof skillet, no plastic or wood handles thank you very much) for a minute till lightly browned.

A slice of toast or a short stack of pancakes makes this a filling weekend breakfast or brunch dish.