For those of you people unlucky enough never to have encountered this delightful English dish, it consists of pork sausages baked in a thick batter (like Yorkshire pudding), usually served with onion gravy and assorted wintry vegetables.
A recipe for Toad in the Hole
Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 7. Whisk together 2 eggs and 300ml of full-fat milk. Add a good pinch of salt, then beat in 125g plain flour. Heat 3 tablespoons of lard or dripping in a small roasting tin or baking dish until it starts to smoke. Add 6 fat pork sausages and let them colour on all sides then, while the oil and sausages are smoking hot, pour in the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes until puffed and golden.
Like making Yorkshire pudding, get the fat in the roasting tin (literally) smoking hot before adding the batter.
Apparently it is only relatively recently that a sausage has been used for the toad: traditionally, toads consisted of small scraps of the Sunday roast or bits of cooked ham, or pretty much anything that could be eked out with a bit of batter. Nowadays it's bangers or nothing. The recipe stands or falls by the quality of the sausage you use.
Can I just say that my mouth is now literally watering.
I need me some toads.
6 comments:
Don't you mean you need you some sausage in the hole?
I've always found the sound of baked toad totally repulsive! The reality is much nicer though.
I don't know if you ever caught any of the comedy series "Posh Nosh," if not you might find this ammusing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scPT7n5s4nY
You can come and cook one for me any time you like - and try out the Wxm & Shrops if you've got time on your hands!
My American friends find this dish thoroughly confusing. BUt it is wonderful.
Agreed this is a delectable dish!
I believe the 18th century recipe (?Hannah Glasse) specified "butterfly" lamb chops, which do have something of the appearance of a toad in outline, as the meat.
I like the pork sausage, though, with the extra fat (wonderfully unhealthy: I'm against Health).
I should have included in the recipe a temperature conversion for my US readers -- 220C/Gas Mark 7 is, in American currency, 430F.
And, if you really want to go for it:
300ml = 10 fluid ounces
125g = 4.5 ounces
30 minutes = half an hour (or, roughly, a single episode of a sitcom)
Hope that helps. You'll thank me for it when you're scoffing the toads.
Oh my god, I'm now FAMISHED! Probably my favourite ever food and mouth-watering pictures.
Mack
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