Toad in the hole is a very traditional English dish. A quick explanation if you haven’t come across it before – it is sausages baked into Yorkshire pudding batter and yes, I know it’s confusing that it’s called pudding. Yorkshire pudding is a baked batter that’s similar to popovers. It is often served with gravy. I ate Toad in the Hole growing up as it was a regular feature of our school dinners but it wasn’t something that appeared often on the menu at home, and I’m not sure if I have ever made it myself.
As you may have noticed, I haven’t had much opportunity to cook recently, but I was inspired by the Bluescreek sausages left over from our camping breakfast at the Flying J Farm and I had a friend coming over for dinner. It’s a simple dish, so I had all the ingredients and I liked the fact that I could make this traditional British food using my local Ohio eggs, milk, mustard and meat.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp cooking oil
12 good quality pork sausages
3 tbsp mustard or 4 tbsp ketchup
2 small eggs
100g all purpose flour
100ml milk
salt and pepper
3tbsp bacon fat
Preheat the oven to 425ºF
Heat the oil in the frying pan over a medium heat and fry the sausages until browned all over. Drain on a paper towel and then smear generously with ketchup or mustard.
Put the eggs in a mixing bowl and whisk until thick. Add a little flour and a little milk and keep alternating until you have added all of them. Season, then mix in 75ml water and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Take a roasting pan that can accommodate all of the sausages in a single layer. Put the bacon fat in the pan and put it in the oven until the fat is smoking.
Pour in the batter all in one go, and immediately arrange the sausages into it. Put the dish into the center of the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until it is puffed, crispy and a rich golden brown.
[Recipe is taken from the appropriately named ‘A Wolf in the Kitchen‘ by Lindsey Bareham]
