The ultimate comfort food

With simple ingredients, this recipe is seriously impressive and deliciously comforting. You can be creative with your sausage choices; I used a mixture of various pork sausages. One year, I also added some chunks of leftover Christmas stuffing, which made this dish insanely good.

I recommend serving the Toad in the Hole as soon as it comes out of the oven. With the Yorkshire Pudding base, it will deflate once it’s been sat outside.

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RECIPE: Toad in the Hole with Stout Gravy

MAKES: serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 SAUSAGES – choose your favourites
• 1 tbsp. OIL
• 2 sprigs ROSEMARY
• 100g FLOUR
• 3 EGGS
• 2 tsp. WHOLEGRAIN MUSTARD
• Pinch SALT
• 250g MILK
• 25g BUTTER & glug of OIL

For the Stout Gravy:

• 1 large RED ONION, sliced
• Knob of BUTTER & glug OIL
• 2 tsp. FLOUR
• ^_3/4 tsp. SUGAR
• 120ml STOUT
• 2 heaped tsp. CHERRY JAM
• Approx. 150ml STOCK (mine was from a cube)
• SALT & PEPPER

METHOD:

1.  The night before: make your Yorkshire Pudding mixture. Put the FLOUR into a mixing bowl with a pinch of SALT. Add the EGGS, and whisk. Then, with the whisk running on a low speed, add the WHOLEGRAIN MUSTARD and gradually add the MILK. Cover, and leave in the fridge overnight. (The mixture should be smooth, but don’t worry – as any lumps will work themselves out overnight.)
2. The next day: preheat your oven to 180c. Heat the OIL in a frying pan. Add the ROSEMARY to flavour the oil. Then add the SAUSAGES and cook until they are browned on the outside. They do not need to be cooked all the way through at this stage; this is just to give them a bit of colour.
3. Remove the Yorkshire Pudding mixture from the fridge and give it a quick stir. Take your casserole dish and add the BUTTER & OIL. Put it in the preheated oven for 5 minutes to get hot. Carefully slide out halfway, use a brush to coat the oil/butter all around and up the sides of the dish.
4. Pour the Yorkshire Pudding mixture into the dish, sit the sausages evenly spaced apart. Cook for 40 minutes @ 180c. Serve immediately.
5. While the Toad in the Hole is cooking, make the gravy: In a deep-sided frying pan, heat the BUTTER & OIL, add the RED ONIONS and cook on a medium-low heat for 15 minutes. You want the onions to caramelise and get sticky, but stir the mixture occasionally so they don’t catch.
6. Stir the FLOUR and SUGAR into the ONIONS. Add the STOUT. Cook for a minute or two on medium-heat. Stir in the CHERRY JAM. Then, gradually add the STOCK. The flour will thicken the mixture, so it’s important that you add the stock slowly, give it a stir, and cook for a minute before adding anymore stock. Keep going until you reach your perfect gravy-consistency. Season to taste with SALT & PEPPER.