Royalty

A beautifully perched Monarch at the Kankakee River State Park from this summer. Every time I stop to take on the wildflowers, I'm amazed at how delicate these amazing floating creatures are.

Sweet Landing

This busy little fella was checking out the gorgeous purple blooms along the bank of the Kankakee River this summer.

Watchful Gaze

This photo was an exercise in patience. He was definitely watching as I spent fifteen minutes creeping closer and closer along the bank of the pond. A few seconds after this shot, he chirped at me and vanished under the water. So long green sir.

Leave a comment

We unfortunately had to leave Ireland behind on our global food trip, but we have made just a quick hop over the Irish Sea to arrive in England. Once again, I started off where others had already done research and I looked up some compilation lists of food that are thought of as uniquely English. I pulled out a couple things that I thought would be a bit of a challenge and wouldn't be completely cliche. A few things do come to mind when thinking of English food, but since I said we want to steer away from cliche, at least a little bit, we won't be doing fish n' chips.

Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole to a lot of people, mostly American people, is simply toast with the center cut out and a cooked egg inside. However, it seems that Toad in the Hole is very different to our friends across the pond. When it comes to having things the English way, it turns out to be a two-for-one deal. It is basically a Yorkshire pudding that has a bunch of bangers that are nestled into the middle of it. If you saw my last post on Ireland, you'd know that a banger is a very specific kind of sausage that I sought out for Dublin Coddle, so I decided to use them again here. I'm not sure if I'll offend anyone using Irish branded bangers in an English dish, but I'm sure that I'm not the first to do so!

I looked up a few recipes on this dish specifically, and on Yorkshire pudding in general. There seemed to be a lot of options for seasoning, but there are very definite ideas about how to get the pudding to behave correctly. I picked one recipe to follow for the methods, and did a mashup of ideas for the seasoning. I always seem to find recipes, and then don't follow them. So here is mine for you not to follow!

6 bangers
I cup of all purpose flour
1 cup (just shy) of milk, with a few Tbsp of cream to make 1 cup
3 eggs beaten
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp ground mustard
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
1 Tbsp beef Better than Bouillon - straight out of the jar 

Notes

• Sources of inspiration: Simply Recipes, Great British Chefs, The BBC, and The Daring Gourmet, 

• Same thoughts as a previous recipe about the bangers. You can use other sausage, but to be traditional, you should use sausages with rusk in them.

• Rising of the pudding is super important, so get a deep dish.

• The pot I used was deep, but wasn't really very wide, so my proportion was a bit off. Adjust the number of sausages to fit the pan

• I'm sure there are lots of things I did wrong if I wanted a perfect Yorkshire pudding, so follow those better instructions from someone with experience!

Process

• Make the batter

  • Whisk flour, sugar, mustard, nutmeg, thyme and rosemary

  • Add beaten eggs, milk/cream, and Better Than Bouillon

  • Whisk until smooth

  • Leave batter to set for at least 30 minutes

• Brown bangers in buttered or oiled pan

• Prep baking dish

  • Casserole or deep baking dish

  • Oil the inside to let the pudding rise easily - I used safflower

  • Preheat oiled dish at 425

• Add bangers to dish and put back in the oven for 5 minutes

• Add batter

  • Pull hot dish from oven

  • Pour batter in hot dish around the bangers. It should almost cover the sausages.

    

    

• Put the dish back in the oven for 20-30 minutes

  • The pudding should start rising in a few minutes

  • Watch til the top of the puddings gets a nice golden brown

• The pudding will settle as it cools, but it is best served hot

  

Adjustments

So, if I am making this again, what would I do differently? I don't know that I would change too much. I was honestly a bit surprised I was able to get the pudding to rise so nicely on my first try. The spices and bouillon I added made the color of the batter darker, and I think it would be prettier if it were a light batter...however, that means less flavor. I think I would have increased most of the spices a bit if I were going to try something different. But honestly, it seemed quite good as is.

One thing that I totally forgot to do was add fresh rosemary sprinkled on top of the pudding. It would have made added a nice fresh flavor, and I as kinda annoyed that I missed it. I would try a wider pan, like a baking dish that wasn't as deep, but would allow me to spread out the bangers a bit more. But flavor-wise, it was awesome.

As I was investigating this dish, it seemed like it wasn't something that you had just by itself. If you have Toad in the Hole, you need to have it with onion gravy. So, now we need to find a good onion gravy!

Onion Gravy

I didn't have to go very far to find some recipes for onion gravy since it seems to be one of the more popular things to eat with it. one of them even had a recipe attached to the Toad in the Hole recipe.

1 onion 
1 clove of garlic
A couple Tbsp butter for saute
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cooking sherry
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups beef broth (Better than Bouillon made to instructions)\
Fresh ground black pepper

Notes

• Sources of inspiration: The Daring Gourmet and Allrecipes

• Use white onions. I used a red one, and it was way too big and the slices didn't disappear into the gravy. Flavor was good though.

• Worcestershire sauce is fantastic in this.

• Don't use broth that is too salty...taste it as you go!

Process

• Slice garlic and onion thinly

  • Saute in saucepan with butter until translucent

• Add sherry, Worcestershire and flour to the pan and stir until mixed evenly

• Add beef broth

• Increase heat

• Stir until thickened

• Add pepper

• Bring heat to low and simmer for 3-4 minutes

  

Results and Adjustments

Overall, I think the dish was a big success. The onion gravy goes great with the Toad in the Hole and when we sat down to eat, I scarfed it down. Definitely would add the rosemary, and use white onions in the gravy, other than that...I approve!

So, what's next? More England!
Another popular English thing is a meat pie, so, we have to give that a shot!