Toad in the hole

Another trip to England! This is actually my second attempt at 'Toad in the Hole' which I first had in England when my mates cooked it up for us. What? You ate toads? What is this? Basically, it's yorkshire pudding baked up with sausages peeking out. My first attempt was made with too much oil and too much time in the oven which resulted in a bit of a burnt mess. In the meat version, I used Irish bangers from Whole Foods which turned out to be too salty and not authentic tasting enough. The vegetarian version were made with some veg sausages that were ehhh. I forget the brand now. For the batter from Jamie Oliver, I had split the mixture between the two using only half the amount of sausages for each version.

On this try, I got me some Cumberland sausages from Myers of Keswick in Greenwich Village, NYC. Now those puppies are authentic! For the vegetarian version, I used some German style (not bratwurst) Smart Dogs. After a chat with really nice guy behind the counter at Myers about my fiasco last time, he suggested I try Goldenfry's brand of Yorkshire Pudding mix which was quite popular. Ok, why not since the last one came out so beautifully black. So the prepackaged mixed was used with the Cumberland sausages while the veg sausages got the 'from scratch' treatment. I decided to try the recipe in my British cookbook: Great British Cooking.

The verdict? Ahhh...the verdict. The box mix of Yorkshire pudding was incredibly salty. Unbelievably salty! The sausages were excellent though and infused with herbs. It smelled mouth-wateringly good as it fried up in the pan, and then while baking in the oven. The pudding puffed up beautifully (unlike the previous attempt) but was still slightly on the oily side which was my fault. I was afraid the oil (fat really) that oozed out from the sausages would not be enough so I added some olive oil to compensate. Oops! The vegetarian version was a reversed version of the meat one where the sausages were horribly salty but the pudding was better tasting (than the last time that is) and there wasn't enough oil. =P The pudding wasn't fabulous, but way better. It was quite eggy in taste and puffed up great on the sides, but not quite in the middle. So far, none of the pudding versions have recreated what I had taste in England. =( And how to uniformly puff the pudding up? Interestinly enough, both versions did not have the sausages "hiding" in the pudding whereas the first attempt, they did as they should.

Perhaps the next attempt will be the winner. =D The strategy to make that happen? Use those sausages from Myer's again! Make yorkshire pudding on it's own (maybe make the typical roast to go with it) to get that down pat. Find better vegetarian sausages or use marinated tofu or even marinate my own. I'm tired of how all the vegetarian 'soy-based' meatless meats are vessels for sodium. Yuck. If not for this dish, I don't even touch the stuff anymore.

As for my experience at Myer's, it was a long awaited trip to check them out. Previously, I'd gone to a Brit shop in Montclair (London Food Company) which was fun, but I'd heard rave reviews of authenticity for Myer's sausages and other pre-made goods like Cornish Pasties (yum!!!), sausage rolls (mmm!), Scotch eggs (must haves!) and various pies. All very yum and found in a nice little shop with friendly folk and pretty good variety in the dry goods department. =9~ It was most definitely well worth the trudge into the city on a very sleet-peling, slushy (unplowed streets!!), windy and bitterly cold day. It's also very easy to get to by subway. This place is highly recommended! The Montclair shop will tide me over for the most part though until my next visit to Myers. =) I really don't understand why British food gets such a bad rap. I did not encounter any bad food while there. On the contrary, all the native food was delicious and the international food was phenomenal!

Meat version

Vegetarian version