Recipe corner: my perfect Toad in the Hole

I'm finding it particularly difficult to edit Blogger posts at the moment which is most annoying and is what led to the original version of this post sitting in drafts for a couple of weeks before I ended up deleting it in disgust.  They have changed the layout which is supposed to make it easier to post from a phone or a tablet (it doesn't) and seemingly done away with the ability to poke around at the HTML version of the post which was what I used to do to de-wonk it when nothing else would work.  Or perhaps I'm missing something?  That seems quite likely. 

Anyway. Toad in the Hole. Isn't it a glorious concoction?  Plump sausages nestled in a cloud of golden batter - I can think of few things more comforting.  I mean, you could melt some cheese on top for that extra layer of indulgence (Diana Henry has a lovely, cheesy version in her book From the Oven to the Table which also features baby leeks) but here, we're going nice and simple and classic.

I've struggled with getting the Yorkshire Pudding element of my Toad right for years but recently saw Nigella making it on TV and she suggested using Jane Grigson's method which involves adding solids to liquids rather than the other way round and that seemed to work a treat. The result had a bit of crispiness at the edges but was wonderfully soft and gooey in the middle.  This may not be to everyone's taste - some people prefer their batter to be crisp throughout, in which case this may not be the recipe for you.

Notes:  there is no need to start the sausages off in the frying pan as I have suggested below - but it helps to give them a bit of colour.

In the (as usual somewhat crappy) picture, you will see that I have made the Toad in a rectangular Pyrex dish, but I have since tried it in a 20cm round silicon cake tin and this worked even better - no sticking of batter to silicon and, also, for some reason I feel it is more appropriate that this dish be round, although for the life of me I couldn't explain why.  

Side dishes - gravy is a must (and there is no shame in just making up some good old Bisto as far as I'm concerned) but then I think all you need is something along the lines of some roasted roots, perhaps some peas.  You could serve it with a scoop of mash, but I think it is unnecessary and I say that as a greedy person.

Ingredients

6 pork sausages - go simple and classic here

1/2 onion (red for preference) - thinly sliced

2-3 sprigs of thyme

2 eggs

160ml milk

125g plain flour

1/2 tsp mustard powder (optional)

2tbsp vegetable oil

Serves 2

First, make your batter - and you need to allow a bit of time for the liquids to stand, so factor that in.  Whisk together the eggs and milk and set aside for at least 15 minutes.  Then add the flour, mustard powder and seasoning and whisk again. Some people swear blind that batter needs to rest properly before using - I'll be honest, I've tried resting it for a good half hour and cooking with it straight away and didn't notice a great deal of difference.  Just be aware that you have some flexibility.

Incidentally, unless you're planning to have the batter sit around indefinitely, I would suggest pre-heating the oven at the point at which you add the solids - to 200 degrees - you want it to get nice and hot.

Put a tablespoon of oil in the dish you are using for the Toad and place in the oven for around 10-15 minutes.  Meanwhile, if you are cooking the sausages separately, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and cook them for 5-10 mins, turning regularly to get a decent colour on all sides (if not, just put all of of the oil and the sausages in at the beginning and start off in the oven).

Once the oil in the oven is hot, remove the dish, add the sausages and any oil remaining in the frying pan, and pour over the batter.  You need to work quickly here to make sure the batter hits the oil while it is still nice and hot.  Sprinkle the sliced onion and the thyme leaves over the top and return to the oven.

Bake for around 40 minutes by which time the pudding should be puffed and golden, just beginning to catch at the edges, and the sausages should be cooked through.  

Meal planning: veggie (or is it cheese?) week

We decided to have a meat free this week.  It is something we do from time to time just for fun.  I'm sure all of us are aware of the importance of eating fewer animal products from an environmental point of view and, in general, I don't think we're too bad but there is always room for improvement and a week of veggie dishes always acts as a salutary reminder of how possible it is to eat well without the inclusion of meat or fish. The thing is that we've definitely ended up quite cheese heavy!  

Monday: root vegetable and pearl barley soup with bread (and cheese)

Tuesday: Cacio (cheese) e pepe

Wednesday: Mushroom risotto (finely grated cheese stirred through at the end)

Thursday: Saag paneer (cheese), Punjabi dum aloo and rice

Friday: "Fish" finger sandwich...with halloumi (cheese)

Saturday: Vada pav and Punjabi Kadhi with onion bhajis (wot, no cheese..?  But wait...)

Sunday: Aubergine CHEESEcake

Now, I am all for cheese in all its forms but...maybe next time we need to aim for vegan week?  Or, at the very least, get a few vegan options in there?

Back to skool

Ah, is there anything sadder than a little blog with no recent posts, left to fester by a careless owner?  Given we still find ourselves in 2020 (aka the worst year of the twenty first century so far and that is in the face of some fairly stiff competition) the answer to that is, probably, an emphatic yes.  But it is a vaguely tragic sight nonetheless.  Especially if the last post is innocuous and cheerful and doesn't refer to a planner period of absence.  There are many of these Last Posts scattered around the internet and I always wonder what happened to the writers.

Of course, blogging is not really the done thing anymore, so probably all that happened is they wandered off and did something else.  Someone whose own blog I used to quite enjoy tweeted as much recently.  So there you go, they're Tweeting and Instagram Story-ing and...Tik-Tok-ing?  I have no experience of this latter medium and think it best that it stays that way.  Of stories and tweets...all very well, but when did everything get so short?  Does no one want to luxuriate in proper sentences anymore?  Are our opinions and innermost thoughts of such levels of profundity that they can so easily be distilled into a slightly gormless selfie and ten word caption?  Or is it just that we're all becoming more banal?  As someone who has always favoured fifty words when only one will do, I mourn the passing of the full length blog post in favour of such ephemera.  Although note, too, that the older I get the more banal I seem to become.  Sigh.

Anyway, what's new with you?  Everyone thoroughly confused as to whether we're still in lockdown or not?  Everyone completely lost track of the rules (that didn't make sense in the first place)?  Excellent!  Here chez Seren we went to my parents' house at the weekend which was lovely and the first time I've spent more than five minutes in the company of someone other than my husband in nearly six months (the cat doesn't really count). And we've booked a night in Whitby in a couple of week's time but we're not sure whether or not we will do anything beyond sit in the courtyard outside our little room and drink wine.  But at least we'll be drinking wine somewhere different, so that's good.  I think we two definitely err on the nervous end of caution, but heigh ho.  

We've kept up with plenty of cooking so I will definitely share some food posts as part of my homework for September.  I also had Thoughts when I passed a new NHS poster about making diet swaps the other day and considered a ranty post about how extremely patronising it is to overweight people to assume that they don't know that they should eat carrots rather than crisps, as if they've lost IQ points in inverse proportion to gaining pounds.  In this day and age, the day and age of Information, we all know exactly what we should be doing.  But some can't afford to do it and some do not possess the mental fortitude to make life more bloody miserable than it already is.  Then I decided that the world does not need more keyboard warriors spouting their Thoughts, so decided not to bother.