I made a banging toad in the hole today. That’s all that really needs to be said.
Well obviously I did more than that, I spent the day writing, cleaning and looking after Del (my mum’s partner who has just got out of hospital). But I am ridiculously pleased with how well my toad in the hole went, so much so that I am going to dedicate this whole post to it.
I’ll start with the peas. I do love my peas, as I do all veg, but often the humble British garden pea gets overlooked. If you know what you’re doing, and I like to think I do, you can even make Sainsburys’ value peas into a gourmet tasting side. The trick is to add a teeny bit of sugar and a sprinkle of salt and then accidentally drop half a jar of dried mint into the saucepan. It may have seemed like an accident, but like myself, it was a happy one.
Then you get the mash. One of the best was to serve potatoes is to boil it, then mash it (and then stick it in a stew). However, I haven’t mashed my potatoes often enough and often go for the conventional chip or jacket potato. I was worried that my mash wouldn’t turn out too well, I was missing eggs and butter, with all the eggs going into my batter. I usually ad a splash of milk, a dollop of batter and egg to my mash to make it the cream delight it is but I was having to make do, and make do I did. With a healthy splash of milk and a liberal amount of pepper it was kooshty.
The main event was spectacular with the Quorn sausages (I’m a veggie) acting a great place holder for their meaty counterpart. The batter interacted well with the less oily veggie sausages keeping it all together and in one place. It was crispy on top and chewy in the middle with a nice oozing of flavour from the sausage helping it all. Delicious.
I was worried though, we didn’t have any onion gravy and I had used the last of the vegetable gravy for the roast I cooked last Sunday. I thought I was without until my mum realised that Bisto Gravy is indeed vegetarian. A turn-up for the books and the perfect topping to a brilliant meal.
Give it a go yourself! It’s a true English classic.
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