Toad in the Hole

Tonight my In-laws are coming for dinner.

My father in law is a man of discerning tastes. As long as he can't discern any taste- of garlic, or chilli, or spices, or most vegetables. Just meat and white bread and tomato sauce.

It was too cold to fall back on a BBQ, not in the mood for a roast; I needed something that would balance the need to feed him while satisfying my need to sneak in some decent food.

I decided on Toad In The Hole. It combines sausages (meat), with batter (bread), and gravy (sauce substitute) Of course it won't end there, but what he doesn't know, won't hurt him.

I start off with some yummy gfree sausages. The ones I chose were Beef, Red Wine and Black Pepper. I cooked them off on the cooktop to brown and so they will cook evenly under the batter.

I placed them in a big dish and tossed in some fresh thyme for extra flavour.

Next came the batter, made up of:

2 cups SR gfree flour,
a couple of eggs,
3 cups lfree milk,
a splash of oil,
salt and pepper.

I think next time I would throw in a couple of handfuls of spinach leaves as well for colour and flavour.

Now pour lovingly over the sausages, and nestle some more thyme, slices of onion, and cherry truss tomatoes into the blanket of batter.

Bake in the oven at about 200* until set and nicely browned.

Also on offer this evening were some caramelised Red Tuscan Onions slow cooked for about 3 hours with a splash of vinegar and a tbs of sugar. And some baked Swiss Brown Mushrooms with a bit more butter and thyme.

I enjoyed this with some yummy gfree gravy and a fresh salad. My father-in-law tolerated his covered in tomato sauce.

You win some, you lose some I guess!

So Readers, what do you think of tomato sauce?