The 1-3-5 Rule

Toad-in-the-Hole

Toad in the hole with honey & mustard turkey sausage

This is me stealing yet another recipe from my partner's childhood. Toad-in-the-hole may be a very common British dish, bu it's usually made with pork sausage so I'd never tried it until yesterday. Wandering through Godalming last weekend we came across a farmer's market in town, and a stall by Harvey's Poultry Farm selling chicken and turkey sausages. At the end of the day they were going 2 packs for £5, so we decided to pick up a couple. It's not often I get to eat sausage - my local supermarkets only do pork or at best rubber chicken.

Harvey's Poultry Farm turkey sausages. As I couldn't
find them online I thought I'd at least upload this

I am going to digress slightly and talk about Harvey's sausages because they were quite special. They came in various guises: honey and mustard, curry, garlic and chilli, British herbs and so on. Even without a sale on I would recommend buying from them - they have samples for customers to try, so you can be sure of picking out something you like. It's a pity they don't seem to have an online presence I can link to. I assume the recipe I'm sharing below is to a well-known local standard, but for me it's the honey and mustard sausages we used that really made the dish stand out. The 1:3:5 egg, flour and milk ratio was originally given to me in ounces, and I've left the figures in for easy recall. Conversions to SI units are alongside the ounce measurements, of course, for civilised people. The amounts below should make enough for a light two person dinner. 

Ingredients:

• 1.00 egg
• 3.00 oz plain flour (approximately 85.00 g)
• 5.00 oz milk (approximately 140.00 ml)
• 5.00 honey and mustard turkey sausages (approximately 300.00 g)
• Butter, for lining an oven proof dish

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
• Line an oven proof dish with butter before placing the sausages inside, spaced out evenly
• Roast for 10 minutes
• While the sausages are roasting, beat the egg gently and mix in with the milk
• Slowly incorporate the flour in batches, whisking to avoid clumps

Ready for the oven

• Take the sausages out of the oven and pour the liquid batter around them, before returning to the oven for a further 35 minutes
• Serve hot with vegetables and gravy (frozen and instant respectively if feeling lazy!)

Yup, that's frozen veg and instant gravy 

Additional Info:

The ingredients for the batter allegedly make a Yorkshire pudding, but don't quote me on this as British cuisine isn't my field. In case you want to experiment, pour the batter into special trays (similar to cupcake trays) with a bit of oil to weight the middle down. Apparently this will result in the fluffy puddings served as part of Sunday lunches here in the UK.