Toad in the Hole, Japanese broth and Soda Bread

Apologies for being away for a few days, I spent last weekend with friends in Nottingham and have been rather hectic with work in the meantime however this does mean you're getting a bumper pack of cooking action in one post.

Toad in the Hole

A classic, not healthy but my god its damn good.  I'll let the recipe talk for itself on this one....plus this post is taking me an age to put together and my dinner is nearly ready!

2 Eggs

150g Plain Flour

300ml Milk

2.5 tsp smooth Dijon Mustard

6 sausages (hickory smoked from my butcher)

Rosemary leaves

Groundnut oil

Gravy

2 Red Onions

Butter

500ml Rich beef stock

Cook the onions and butter with some salt for 30 mins or so until they take on a dark brown colour then add the beef stock and leave on a medium heat for 20 minutes.  This is then ready and can be reheated as and when its needed.

Put the sausages in the oven in the dish you plan to serve in with some oil at around 200C and cook until brown (20-30mins).  Whilst they cook make the batter by whisking the flour, eggs and a little milk.  Once smooth slowly add the rest of the milk and mustard and to finish add in the rosemary leaves and some salt and pepper.

Take the sausages out of the oven, give them a quick turn and then pour the batter into the gaps between the sausages and put back into the oven for 30-40 minutes then remove and it should look something like below.

Japanese Broth

After the excesses of the weekend in Notts there's only one thing I want to eat and that it Ramen.  Rich, spicy Asian flavours warming you up and restoring you ready for the week ahead.  I'll run through how I did this one but I can't recommend Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan as a far better port of call than my good self for this style of cuisine, it's definitely the first book that I turn to.

So anyway here it is, rough quantities to your taste;

Finely chop the holy trinity that is ginger (a thumbs worth), two green chillies and three gloves of garlic and put into a bowl.  Take a dried red chilli and pierce it with a knife a few times, you just want the contrast of flavour between the dry and fresh chilli here, and chuck this in the bowl along with some szechuan pepper corns and some coriander seeds that have been bashed up in a pestle and mortar. At this point I also rehydrated some dried chinese mushrooms.

Pop all this in a warm pan with some groundnut oil and sweat down then add some halved chestnut mushrooms and the now rehydrated chinese mushrooms, chopped before adding.  Once the mushrooms have started to cook down add the meat of your choice, I used boneless chicken thighs cut into chunks.  When the meat is sealed pour in some mirin (2 dessertspoons)  and cook off a bit then add in about 1.5 litres of chicken stock and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce.

Once this comes to the boil, reduce the temperature and skim any scum from the surface from the chicken cooking.  Leave it to slowly cook for 45 mins or so on this low heat and when you are ready to eat add in some quartered Pak Choi and edamame beans and peas and noodles of your choice.  When serving dress with a little sesame oil then slurp down and start feeling ready for the week...

Soda Bread

My first ventures into baking bread have been through the guidance of Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly and soda bread is perfect if you're a novice, impatient or think that making your own bread will take too long.

As its the science of baking the ingredients are as follows;

140g Wholemeal Self Raising Flour

140g Strong White Flour

5g Sea salt

10g Caster Sugar

5g Baking Powder

125ml Water

125ml Buttermilk

Get the oven to 200C then put the above list into a bowl and mix together by hand until combined then leave to rest for 5 minutes.  Flour a baking tray and shape the dough into a ball and place on the tray, don't worry if it seems quite wet this is right.  Shake a bit more flour over it and cut a cross in the top and leave to rest another 10 minutes then put it in the oven for 40 minutes.  

Take it out and if you can resist leave it to cool on a wire rack and it should look like the pic below. I varied the recipe myself this time and used some natural yoghurt instead of buttermilk and also have used stout instead of water so go try it and experiment yourself.

Hope there's something for you to try there - next week the duck ham is ready and my next batch of beer is being started so see you then.