Toad in the Hole
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Plain Flour
- 1 Egg
- 3 fluid ounce Milk
- 2 ounces Water
- Salt & Peper
- 2 tablespoons Oil or Fat
- Package of Sausages (4 big ‘uns or lots of thin ‘uns – in The States, use bratwurst)
How to do it…
- Okay, turn up your oven, high. As high as it’ll go.
- Now, get out a tin pan. A TIN pan. This pan has to conduct heat, baby. Put the oil in the pan and put it in the oven, a middle rack will do and make sure there is plenty of clearance to the rack above and the top of the oven.
- Now get out a bowl. Sift the flour into the bowl. At this point, you are making the batter for another exquisite, yet simple, British culinary masterpiece, Yorkshire Pudding*. The recipe I have for this says make a well in the center, break egg into flour and beat, gradually incorporating the flour, milk, water and seasoning. I do not do that. I dump it all in, use a whisk and beat it up. Then, set it aside and let it “rest." I do not know what this resting business does but Nigella says to let it rest and I did that once and it was so much better! So, with your oil in the oven and your batter in your bowl, go off and do something for 15 minutes.
- Come back to put this together. This is where you have to be cautious and you have to be fast. MM (my ex) and I used to tag team this. He’s, no pun intended, the sausage man. I’m the batter babe.
- Using oven gloves, pull the pan out and put it on a hot plate or the like. The oil will be hot, it might even be cracklin’ hot. So be careful.
- Immediately pour the batter in. Obviously, it will also immediately start cooking. Once the batter is in, be ready with your sausages. Line them side by side down the middle of the pan so they aren’t touching. Now put that baby in the oven and cook for 20-30 minutes, until the pudding has risen around the sausages and is nutty brown. You want your sausages cooked but your pudding not over cooked. We have an fan assisted oven so this doesn’t take but 20 minutes, but for you, it might take longer.
- Pull it out, cut it up, serve it with mash, peas, edamame, boiled carrot, green beans, Brussel sprouts or whatever. This will be yummy, crispy Yorkshire Pud around the edges that is delicious bread goo around those succulent sausages. Not to be beat.
Notes
My dirty secret: My ex, Mark and I used to double the Yorkshire Pudding recipe and we'd eat this with nothing else. Try it. Pure yum!
*Another reason I feel the British are geniuses is that the Brits call everything “pudding”. Yorkshire Pudding is bread. Dessert, the course of the meal, is called, generically, “pudding” (as in, “Mummy, what’s for pudding?”). Steak and Kidney Pudding is another meat/gravy/bread masterpiece with wet, sticky suet bread around the meat and it's steamed. If in doubt of what to eat on the British Isles, anything with the word “pudding” in it is an excellent choice. Though, you may be having dessert for your main course. Or a meat dish for dessert. Go with it! You won’t be disappointed.
Recipe URL: https://www.kristenashley.net/recipe-archive/toad-in-the-hole/