English classic - Toad in the Hole

Okay so it's time to confess that I regularly watch the long-running English soap opera, Coronation Street. Luckily they now show all of the week's episodes at once, early on Sunday mornings. In the sixties, I remember my mom watching it in the afternoons while she did the ironing, the mixture of steam, speed starch and almost incomprehensible accents creating a comforting memory for me.

In the show they often refer to local dishes, like "hot pot" (stew), "bacon butties" (bacon sandwiches) and "Toad in the Hole" (sausages baked in a Yorkshire pudding batter). I've always wanted to try the "toad" dish, and so I recently went to one of my favourite cookbook authors, Jamie Oliver and found this recipe on his website, http://www.jamieoliver.com/. It turned out really well, everyone in the family liked it and this photo is the result of my second attempt. It was as well received by the boys the second time as it was the first.

As an aside, my son, my husband and I were recently watching a DVD of the sixties power trio Cream (with Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker). The drummer, Ginger Baker, was famous at the time for an 16 minute song that was basically a long drum solo. The song was called "Toad" and we surmised perhaps, not having a better name, they named the song after what they ate for lunch. (Okay so that's my theory - when I googled that question there does not seem to be an answer...)

This recipe takes about one hour to make, but the amount of active time is low and the ingredients are very basic. Serve it with the fried onions and steamed vegetables and you have a delicious easy meal.

Toad in the Hole (with fried onions) (based on a recipe from http://www.jamieoliver.com/)

6 large honey and garlic sausages

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

115 g flour

285 ml milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs (the original recipe uses 3 eggs but we found it a bit too rich)

3 onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

*Preheat ove to 425F. In a large, deep casserole dish, put the sunflower oil and heat in the oven for 5 minutes. Add the sausages and cook for 20 minutes, turning them over halfway through.

Mix the batter by whisking together the milk and eggs. Stir in the flour and salt until just combined. When the sausages have cooked for 20 minutes, pour the batter over them and bake for a further 35 - 40 minutes.

For the fried onions, saute the onions in the olive oil on medium heat until translucent. Add the salt and balsamic vinegar and a few splashes of water and cook for 2-3 minutes then turn the heat to low until the "toad" has finished baking.