FLOWER POT KITCHEN: TRADITIONAL TOAD IN THE HOLE

1 Jan 2017

TRADITIONAL TOAD IN THE HOLE

One of the best winter dinners ever!!! Gorgeous Yorkshire pudding stuffed with our homemade Oscar's Acres Henley's Down Herb sausages, served just with garden peas and a pork stock and maderia gravy, this is a fabulous family and friends favourite in our home.

Prep time 5 minutes / Resting time 1-4hrs (optional) / Cooking time 45 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4-6)

The Yorkshire Batter

200g plain flour

200g eggs

200g milk

1 large pinch of sea salt and white pepper

Toads in the Hole

12 excellent animal welfare sausages

3 tbsp of lard or dipping

Gravy

1 ltr pork or chicken stock

300ml Maderia

50g butter

1 tbsp heaped corn flour

3 tbsp water

Make the batter first, I like to leave my batter to rest on the side at room temperature for at least half an hour and up to 4 hours. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C, place you sausages in a roasting tin with the lard and pop in the oven for 20 minutes, at this point turn up the heat to 220 degrees C for five minutes, then really quickly open the oven door and pour the batter in to the roasting tin around the sausages, do this as fast as you can and pop back in the oven, I have got this down to 20 seconds, but don't rush and burn yourself!

Leave the oven at 220 for five more minutes then turn back to 200 degrees C, for the last 15 minutes of cooking time. This is not totally neccessary and if you are not in the kitchen during the cook or have to divide your time with the family, then just keep the oven at 200 degrees at all time. The reason I pop the heat up is I find I can get a better rise in the batter.

Under no circumstances, well apart from burning the house down, do NOT open the oven door until the final cooking time is up.

Meanwhile to make a speedy fabulous gravy, bring the stock up to a rolling boil and reduce by half, add the Maderia and reduce by 1/3, now whisk in the butter on a lower heat. If you want to thicken the stock gravy further add the water to the cornflour and start by adding half the cornflour mixture, whisk and cook for a few minutes before deciding to thicken further or not. Taste and season with salt and pepper or more butter to taste.

Serve with creamy buttery mashed potatoes, peas and gravy, a winner family dinner, enjoy...

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.