Toad in the hole

Having seen this being made on some show on the Good Food Channel, when Rachel Allen visited Galton Blackiston at his home, I knew that I wanted to give this a go when I had some decent pork sausages to make it with.

I logged on to the Good Food Channel website and found his recipe very quickly. It looked very easy to make and I only needed to buy a couple of extra ingredients – the nutmeg and dripping. The caption along with the recipe is: ‘Galton Blackiston’s version of this traditional dish bears no resemblance to soggy school dinners – your family will love it’ and i completely agree. It tastes fantastic with an Onion gravy too!

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
225g Plain flour
Pinch Sugar
Pinch freshly grated Nutmeg
3 Eggs
275ml Milk
25g Dripping
8 best-quality, locally sourced pork Sausages, pricked with a fork

Serve with salad or steamed green vegetables.

1 Sieve the flour, sugar and grated nutmeg into a bowl and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Make a well in the centre and break in the eggs.

2 Using a hand-held whisk, start to slowly incorporate the eggs. Then, while continuing to whisk slowly, add the milk. You may need a little extra milk – the batter should be the consistency of double cream. Whisk thoroughly to ensure there are no lumps of flour in the mixture.

3 Put the batter in the fridge to rest for at least 1 hour.

4 Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Put a 30 x 20 x 6cm roasting tin in the oven to get really hot.

5 Add the dripping and the sausages to the hot tin and return to the oven. Shake the roasting tin frequently to keep the sausages moving, till they are coloured all over and the fat in the tin is really hot.

6 Remove the batter from the fridge, give it a quick whisk and, when the sausages are evenly coloured, remove the tin from the oven and immediately pour the batter over the hot sausages in the tin – the batter should really sizzle.

7 Return the tin to the oven immediately and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until the batter is well risen and golden.

8 Serve immediately with onion gravy and either a salad or a green vegetable.

Enjoy!

Venison Steaks with Redcurrant Sauce

I really wanted to have something a bit special and different for supper one night this week, so ended up driving out to Sunnyfields Organic Farm to see what they had on offer and to have a look at all their local produce as well – all I can say is wow – the food looked so good that I could have spent a small fortune!

As soon as I saw the Organic Venison Steaks, I had to bring them home along with an assortment of organic vegetables.

Having never cooked Vension Steaks before, I then set about asking people for ideas and trawling recipe sites for ideas. Someone suggested to me a Redcurrent and Red Wine Sauce, so I set about to find a tasty one online. On the Good Food Channel website I found this recipe by Mary Cadogan and it sounded fairly easy to make and delicious too!

Luckily I had all the ingredients in the fridge or cupboards, so didn’t need to pop out again for anything else. Cooking the meat and the sauce was as easy as the recipe suggested and the proof was in the eating – it tasted fantastic. I served it all up with an assortment of the vegetables, roasting the sweet pototoes in the oven – I even ended up making my carrots looking fancy too!

My girlfriend had never eaten Vension before and was unsure whether she was going to like it or not, until she had her first mouthful and her reaction was “Wow”! She thought it was so soft and tasty and perfectly pink in the middle. We both thought it was richer and tastier than normal steak and it was the something ‘special and different’ that I had been looking for. While it is still in season, we will be going back next week for some more steaks to have again!

This is one recipe I highly recommend to anyone who loves, or wants to try, Venison.

300ml Beef consommé
150ml Red wine
350g Venison steaks, (2-4 depending on size)
Salt, and freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs Thyme
1-2 tbsp Olive oil
2 Shallots, finely chopped
1 tbsp Redcurrant jelly
Knob of Butter
Flat leaf Parsley, to garnish

1 Boil the consommé and red wine until reduced by half. This will take about 10 minutes.

2 Season the venison with salt and pepper and scatter over thyme leaves.

3 Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan; add the venison and fry quickly on both sides until browned. Remove to a plate.

4 Add the knob of butter to the pan and then add the shallots and fry gently until softened.

5 Add the reduced stock and red wine and redcurrant jelly and stir to dissolve the jelly.

6 Return the venison to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning until it is cooked to your liking. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Garnish each portion with a small sprig of flat-leafed parsley.

Serve with seasonal vegetables or vegetables of your choice.