Mudpuddler's gourmet guide, Toad in the Hole

A treat today if you are peckish, the full on belly busting, diet denying, tum-expansion inducing carb and fat fest that is the good old English Toad in the Hole. Get in mah belly!!!!

Batter for the pudding
100g plain flour, 2 medium (always free range) eggs, third of a pint of milk, salt and pepper. Sift the flour into a bowl (air, darling, air) and crack in the 2 eggs and add the milk and seasoning. Whisk briskly and combine into a thickish emulsion. Leave to rest for at least an hour before use.

Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 200c (450f). Cut a selection of seasonal vegetables into equal sized chunks - I would suggest carrot, potato and parsnip for a winter treat, alongside perhaps turnip or sweet potato and red onion and place these in a roasting tray in the oven to roast off for 45 mins. Once cooked, remove to serve and deglaze the roasting tn with beef stock, a glass of red wine and a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly to make the gravy.

For the toad
When you begin roasting the vegetables, put a round pyrex dish in the oven with some lard or odourless fat to become smoking hot and brown the outsides of 3 quality butcher's sausages (Powters or similar are very good)
then with 40 mins cooking time remaining, transfer to the pyrex dish and pour in the batter mix to cover the sausages (do this immediately and return quickly to the oven). The sausages will be the 'toads' hidden in the yorkshire pudding.

To serve
If the fat was nice and hot, the pudding should come out whole and sit nicely on a dinner plate. Place the roasted veg inside the pudding and smother the lot with the gravy you have prepared. Eat and save the regret for hotter, more whimsical days. This is all about feeling well-fed and contented!

Variations on a theme
Try italian sausage and/or Chorizo instead of pork sausages. A small amount of English mustard powder in the pudding mix adds a kick to a Yorkshire pudding as well.

Enjoy!

The Mudpuddler's guide to food, Sea Bass Supper

Thought I would share another of my favourite recipes with you, this one is perfect for a supper dish, or a light evening meal or luncheon, and is pan fried Sea Bass fillets with a chunky salsa side.

For the Salsa side (serves 2 good portions)

Put 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a mixing bowl and dice a red onion and add. Dice a red pepper into the same size of dice and the same with a half cucumber (cut the cucmber lengthways and scrape out the watery seeds first leaving just the outer flesh). Add to this mixture a half teaspoon of dried chilli flakes and a chopped chilli of your preferred heat and the juice of half a lemon (or the whole lemon to taste) and mix well, seasoning with sea salt and black pepper until the flavour is balanced to your liking. Serve as a side with halved cherry or plum tomatos added.

For the Sea Bass Fillets (2 per portion)

Heat a non-stick pan on high and ensure that you oil the fish and NOT the pan, fry the fillets skin side down for 3 minutes until the skin is crispy (crispy skin is delicious, if you prefer not to eat the skin, 2 minutes here will suffice). Remove the pan from the heat and flip the fillets over, squeezing the juice of half a lime into the pan and allowing the flesh to cook off in the residual heat for 2 minutes (3 if thicker fillets and on the hob for the first minute).

Serve with the remaining half of lime as garnish/condiment.

For a more substantial early summer meal, delicious served with Jersey royal potatos and butter.