Day 3: Toad in the hole with beer batter
I went to slow food market at the a Abbotford Convent to buy sausages, but it was more than that. As an ‘adopted’ English person I have grown to love the English sausages with high meat quality. I know it’s a matter of taste but the Australian sausages just have fallen short to fill that hole that English sausages filled. It’s one of those annoying random things you never thought you’d miss when emigrating. You never eat them often but when you can’t have them…wow you WANT it! I’d finally found a butcher that sold ‘proper’ English sausages and that’s why I was at the market. I’d finally found one that specialisted in fitting this market: http://www.pacdon.com.au
However, having bought sausage left me with a problem. I wanted to eat them but the traditional “bangers and mash” wasn’t a new dish. So what could I do? Then it struck me, a dish I’d not had for 10 years: “Toad in the hole”! This is basically sausage baked in batter.
The result wasn’t quite as successfully looking as I’d liked due to our oven which is way too efficient…
The recipe:
- 50g of butter (this was way too much)
- 6 (awesome) Pork & Leek sausages
- 2 eggs
- 100g plain flour
- 85ml skimmed milk
- 85ml IPA beer
- 1tbsp dijon mustard
The how to:
1. Preheat the oven to 220C.
2) Melt half of the butter in a frying pan over a low/medium heat and brown the sausages on all sides, this takes time but is worth it.
3. At the same time put the eggs in a large bowl and beat, ideally with an electric whisk, until thick. Then beat in the flour and milk alternately until smooth, finally mix in the ale and mustard and leave to sit for 15 minutes.
3*. Put the remaining butter in a roasting tin (about 26cm x 21cm) and put in the oven to heat. Once the sausages are browned all over, and the batter has rested, take it out of the oven and put over a medium flame. Pour in the fat from the sausage pan, followed by the batter, which should sizzle as it hits the tin. Add the sausages and return to the oven.
4. Bake for about 35 minutes until well risen and golden, then serve immediately, preferably with good onion gravy.
* The things I will change the next time is in step 3. The sausage is already cooked, there is no need to cook more. Instead I would heat up the roasting tin, pour some of the butter from the frying pan in to it, then put the sausages in. Finally pour the batter mix over the sausages.
However, most importantly, make sure you understand your oven. Mine is fan assisted and came with no instructions. Instead of 35 minutes, I took it out after 20 and it was starting to burn.
I was just thinking about toad-in the hole today! I wonder if there’d be a way to Macguyver a version that would work with my diet?
In theory it should work fine if you replace the flour with what you use for other dishes and obviously use veggie sausage. However the taste would be a different matter as it’s the sausage that gives it the distinct flavour.