Everybody has favourite recipes: today’s is one of my favourites.

Toad in the Hole nowadays is traditionally seen as sausages in essentially a Yorkshire Pudding batter and baked until crispy, but as recently as Mrs Beeton it was customary to use whatever bits of meat you could find. Felicity Cloake has a wonderful article on the history of the dish here. I really couldn’t do better myself,  so do read it later.

I love sausages, and batter so the two together make for heaven on a plate. What this recipe does is take the basic recipe (genius enough by itself) and play with it, so that the whole concept is taken up a notch. Adding bacon, onions and mushrooms is a simple idea, but it has a big impact in terms of flavour. Served with some peas and a jug of gravy, the recipe hits all the right spots on a chilly spring day. It’s also one of my oldest family recipes. I know, because the index card it’s written on is labelled M2. In other words, it’s my second oldest recipe. A real favourite, then.

Lincolnshire Toady (serves 6)

Ingredients

8oz plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

10fl oz skimmed milk

10 fl oz cold water

16 lincolnshire sausages

1 onion, sliced

6oz mushrooms, sliced

8 rasher of bacon, diced.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to GM7. Put in a baking tin (approx 25cm by 30cm) with 3 tbsp oil to heat up.
2. Mix up the flour, salt, eggs, milk and water to make a batter.
3. Grill the sausages until browned and cooked
4. Fry the onions, mushrooms and bacon until cooked but not burned.
5. Put into the preheated tin. Pour over the batter.
6. Place the sausages on top of the mixture.
7. Bake for 35-40min until the batter has risen, become crusty and browned nicely.
8. Serve with gravy, and peas or beans according to preference.

My recipe box has been through a few incarnations. This one is a photograph storage box from W H Smiths, and I’ve had it for years. It’s such a useful thing, though, since it fits absolutely loads of recipes. I used to be better at trying new recipes, and at writing out those we liked.

I’ve been time starved recently, so my menu hasn’t been stretching me recently. I think I need to start cooking ahead and only having the reheating to do at night time.  Thinking smarter, not harder, yes?

And an apology for yesterday: I wasn’t here to post as we attended a family funeral of a 92 year old lady. I will write about it sometime.  I know they’re sad occasions, but often they have the most hyggely moments in them.

And a reminder that my book, 50 Ways to Hygge the British Way  is available in Paperback and Kindle version from Amazon. The contents of the blog are entirely different from the blog, so don’t worry that it’s just posts rehashed. Not yet, anyway. If you purchase through the links on this page, I get a couple of pence extra per copy.

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