Mustard Toad in the Hole

Moving away from dishes that are a little bit fancy, here is one that anyone would be happy to come home to after a Monday spent hard at work. Surprisingly easy to make as long as you follow a few basic rules: 

1) Heat the fat to smoking temperature - and it really must be shimmering and smoking like its gonna burn or catch fire. 

2) Don't weigh or measure the batter ingredients, just use a small cup and fill it first with eggs, then flour, then milk - to the same level each time.

3) Allow your batter to stand for half an hour before you use it. A night in the fridge will do it no harm either.

4) Good quality sausages......come on........no 'Tesco Value' horse scrotum sausages please!

5) Any liquid tight tin will work as the cooking vessel for this dish as long as it will hold the batter to a depth of approx 2cm. I used a 20cm paella pan in which I cook all my yorkshire puds etc.

Ingredients:

Plain Flour - a cup full

Free range eggs - a cup full

Full fat milk - a cup full

Sausages - 6 fat ones

Fat - lard, dripping or if you must, veg oil - 50g

Salt & Pepper

Dijon - as much as you can get on a tsp

Wholegrain mustard - same as above

English Mustard - same as the above

Method:

Beat together the flour, eggs, milk, mustards and a good seasoning. Leave for 30 mins. Turn your oven on to 250c and put your tin in the oven to heat up. When hot add your fat to the tin and all that to heat up to smoking temperature. Place your sausages in the batter bowl and with the screaming hot tray of smoking fat still in the oven, carefully pour the batter and sausages into the tray. This is not as dangerous as it sounds, just pull the oven tray out a bit and pour the batter into the tray using one hand covered with a tea towel. 

Make sure the sausages are well spaced out. Close the oven door and allow to cook for 5 mins before dropping the temperature to 220c.  Try not to open the oven door if you can and bake until cooked through, risen and dark brown in colour - mine took approx 35 mins but it depends on your oven.  Serve with whatever you like but the omission of onion gravy would be a travesty.