I have always considered myself quite a nice person. I like food of all shapes, flavours and colours. From every country and continent. I don’t discriminate, I am an equal opportunity eater. It’s only the doctors who say I’m intolerant. And certain foods who refuse to tolerate me. They certainly refuse to recognise and respect my right to eat them without major physical discomfort and distress.


Gluten and lactose are not my friends.


Despite the negative attitudes surrounding me from many of those I love best, (cakes, ice cream, hot toast) I decided to become a chef. Not always easy when you live in a bread and milk filled world. I like to think that this has helped me become a better person as I embrace my differences and refuse to let the gluten get me down. I believe InTolerance. I am the InTolerant Chef.

Food should not be about what you can’t eat, but what you can and what you enjoy eating. This blog is about my journey of cooking and eating and discovery. It’s not a definitive guide to allergy awareness nor do my intolerances make me an expert. Your body is your responsibility, not mine. I only know what works for me.


I can tell you this..... No glutens were harmed in the making of this website.

August 10, 2010

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?

13 comments:

  1. This looks divine!! I love that you used the whole sprigs of thyme and the cheery truss tomatoes! I must give this a try sometime soon! Thankyou :)

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  2. Gorgeous! This is far beyond my toad-in-a-hole - a fried egg in the middle of a piece of toast. ;)

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  3. I love how you left the truss tomatoes on their stems.. the look gorgeous! As for tomato sauce (Ketchup), I hate it! I either have hot chilli, mustard, anything but tomato sauce.

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  4. I made a very similar Toad in the Hole (down to the truss cherry tomatoes laid on top) and it went down a hit. As for tomato sauce, love the stuff, I don't care what anyone says! :P

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  5. Hi Readers, Aren't cherry truss tomatoes a thing of beauty? I have used them to make a tomato tarte tatin and they looked so pretty I just had get the look again.

    Honey, I love mustard too, and Lorraine, my littlej has tomato sauce on toast for a treat! Ps. your Mr Toad in a hole looked so lovely! I guess great minds really do think alike!

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  6. Your toad in the hole is a thing of beauty, love the cherry tomatoes a great addition. Its unAustralian not to love tomato sauce. Chef or no chef..., it has its place on some foods like meat pies and big breakfasts...., but I'm not sure I would have been able to hold back the cringe factor with anyone debauching a meal like yours, but then..... sadly..... we chefs have seen worse huh.
    Great post again and love the recipe...,

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  7. I love tomato sauce, it my favourite of the condiments!

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  8. That is a really beautiful dish. It's hard to please meat and potatoes folks sometimes.

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  9. Hi Jess and Recipe for Delicious, nice to see you , hope you enjoy my blog and have some fun!

    Anna, there's a place for everything I guess... but when I have my restraunt, there will be a surcharge of $15 for sauce unless I think the dish will be better off with it! That will teach the people who use sauce as a masking agent instead of a flavour enhancer to try and live without it! What do you think?lol..

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  10. "tolerated"?? That's a bit harsh, I thought your dish looked fit for a king! :)

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  11. Yeah I thought i looked great too. I am curious to know what it would taste like...never tried something like this before. Does the batter bit set pretty hard (bread like) or is it more souffle/pancake like?

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  12. Hello lovely ladies! Thanks for all the lovely comments, they are very encouraging.
    The batter is soft and fluffyish more like a pancake batter then anything else I guess. There are some versions that are more like yorkshire pudding, but this is a bit softer.
    Happy Blogging!

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  13. This looks delicious, can't wait to try making it!!

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