Toad in the Hole with Gonzalo's lamb sausages, a sensational red wine and red onion reduction, minty buttery peas + kosher options
I made my first toad in the hole this evening, the exceedingly British dish of sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter. Jamie Oliver's recipe appealed to me because of the rosemary sprigs he also inserts, so I based it on this but used lard as rather than sunflower oil, which is more stable at high temperatures. You can read more about why lard is back in vogue as a cooking fat here. I used Gonzalo's lamb sausages and served it with minty, buttery peas, and adapted Jamie's red onion gravy a little, like this:
Finely slice 1 red onion and 1 clove of garlic. Fry them gently in knob of butter for around 10 minutes until soft (but not brown) and caramelised.
Add 3 tablespoon of balsamic of vinegar and reduce for a couple of mins.
Add one large glass of wine and bring to boil, then reduce the heat.
Crumble in 1/2 a beef oxo cube and add another glass of water and a bay leave.
Add one teaspoon of cranberry or redcurrant sauce.
Add 1 teaspoon of sugar and reduce for around 5 minutes.
The Toad in the Hole was at its most magnificent in terms of height when it had just come out of oven, but by the time I had fannied around buttering the peas and reheating my gravy, it lost a little posture, which was annoyingly before I had taken any photo - lesson learnt!
It then dawned upon me that since Gonzalo is HK's finest Glatt kosher butcher, a lot of of his clients may also be kosher, but toad in the hole is certainly not! So, if you are reading this and kosher, here is a kosher recipe for toad in the hole I found which uses water instead of milk in the batter.