It's Fusion*! It's Metaphor! It's Toad in the Hole con Curry!

Like anyone else, I’m kinda given to cooking ruts.  My inclination is to slap steaks, chops, pasta, and variations of green beans and tomato salad in front of peeps, and nobody complains, so I rarely deviate.  But it makes for FN boring cooking (and FN boring reading about cooking, natch).

So when I blew up my router vacuuming (don’t ask), and a trusted friend of mine popped in remotely and fixed it lickety-split, I figured I owed the man some eats, and told him to name his dish.

We were chatting online, so I couldn’t see him, but I could practically hear the smile spread across his face.  “Toad in the Hole,” he said. “Con Curry.”

A little background on this guy--Japanese-style curry is his lube/eats-cornerstone of choice.  For Curry Fiend, there is no food that can’t be improved with a cloak of spicy brown, and there is no meal he’d prefer over a steaming plate of katsu curry.

His request was not as strangely fusion-disastrous as it sounds...Toad in the Hole is browned sausages enveloped in Yorkshire pudding, generally served with squishy peas, mashed potatoes and onion gravy.  Topping it with curry and pairing it with rice seemed a bare half-step from its Brit comfort food origins, and given the rapidly apparent fall chill, it felt totally seasonally appropo.

Why is called Toad in the Hole?  Well, a theory is, the sausages (or scraps of cheap meat, in oldsy-timesy days) poking out of the popover-like Yorkshire pudding mimics a toad peeking out of a hole in the ground.  Nummers.

Unappetizing name aside, this is one of those clever dishes meant to stretch the resources of working folk, the way so many comfort foods are. 

Doing the requisite recipe homework (and a whole bunch of UK to US unit conversions), I found there was a pretty wide margin of egg-to flour ratios, and huge cooking temperature discrepancies (400-475 degrees F), but the key ingredients and principles were simple and consistent.  

I leaned pretty hard on Jamie Oliver’s recipe as the foundation, but worked in a couple of additions that I liked from UK-based food bloggers, like spiking the batter with a little mustard, and sauteing onions alongside the destined-to-be-encapsulated-sausages.

Notta lotta English sausage eaters/makers in my hood, so I went with 5 hot Italian links and 5 organic chicken apple links.  I noticed that some of the accompanying “traditional” onion gravy recipes weren’t so much brown gravy as jam-accented reductions; rather like eating Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam.  

As a nod to that idea, once my gravy onions were caramelized, I thinned the packaged S&B Curry cubes (YAY packaged convenience foods!!!) with Magners for a bit of dry-sweet boost.

I have a bit of apprehension with all things that require rising in general (I’m a confessed fluff FAILURE!!!), and cooking new things for company in particular--after all, Yorkshire pudding (like most traditional Brit recipes) carries big ol’ connotations of mystery and difficulty.  But I was happy with the poppin' fresh results, and it was way harder to think about than it was to toss together.

Besides, watching the Curry Fiend happily con curry his toads made it totally worthwhile.  I (and he!) only wish I’d made two pans, to up the hole-to-toad ratio and produce leftovers (which we were sorely lacking!).

Title Footnote*: I HATE the term "fusion", too, but as the Curry Fiend pointed out, that's just plain what it is.  You can't get mad at me until I start overcharging people and pretending I'm Jeezus.

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Toad in the Hole con Onion Curry

Adapted by An Effing Foodie

Cobbled together from:

• JamieOliver.com
• 101 Things Every Cook Should Cook
• Food, Glorious Food!

Feeds 4 peeps w/ the assumption of 1 side, or 6 peeps with the assumption of 2+ sides

Ingredients:

For the batter:

• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 TBSP mustard (I used whole-grain; in retrospect, Coleman's Mustard powder would be totally appropo.)
• Salt and pepper to taste 

For the toads & curry:  

• light olive oil (higher smoke point than virgin or extra-virgin)
• 6-10 large, good-quality sausages
• 2 large onions, sliced thin
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 portions/"cubes" S&B Curry Mix
• 1 (12-oz) bottle Magners Hard Cider
• 4 1/2 cups water (or 6 cups water, no cider, if you're not feeling flush)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine all batter ingredients with a large whisk/mixer until uniformly creamy, seasoning to taste. (Don't forget to scrape the bowl if you're using a mixer). Allow the batter to rest for a 1/2 hour, so that the flour better absorbs the moisture and the batter comes to room temperature.

While the batter rests, coat the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan with olive oil.  (Don't be shy, think at least 1/4-inch; sausages and onions have to brown in this, and eventually the batter, too!) Place the pan in the oven to allow the oil to get wicked hot, with a baking sheet positioned on the rack just below it, to catch any spillage/splatters. This'll take 10 minutes or so.

CAREFULLY pull the pan of hot oil and place on stovetop.  Add ONE of the two sliced onions to the oil, as well as the sausages, and slide the pan back into the oven to allow the them to brown, about 15 minutes.

Once the sausages are browned, pull the pan and place on stovetop. Eyeball the oil level; if there isn't enough to make batter sizzle effectively, pour on a lil more and poke it back into the oven.

If/when your oil level is sufficient and crazy hot, go ahead and carefully pour the batter on/around the sausages and onions. If all is as it should be, it WILL spit a bit. (This is a key point that all the Brits make; no sizzle = no rise!)  Place the sprigs of rosemary between the sausages and slide the pan back into the oven.

Let that puppy go for at least 30 minutes--DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN FOR ANY REASON (consistently emphatic Brit-cookery point #2). Peek through your oven window to check for puffy golden brownness.  

While the TintheH is rising, saute the remaining sliced onion with a bit of butter or olive oil in a large saucepan.  Sprinkle on a bit of salt to encourage softening.  When they have caramelized a bit, deglaze the pan with the bottle of Magners and add the 2 portions of curry, breaking up the bricks into smaller pieces.  Add the water and allow to simmer to the desired consistency (think gravy!).

Once your golden brown peaks are achieved, remove from oven and serve immediately, with onion curry for spooning.

 

Serving Suggestions: I went with white (short grain!) rice and garlicky spinach, with a Magners-spiked apple crisp a la mode for dessert. (Don't judge! Cider works in mysterious ways!)  

Mashed potatoes, green beans, Brussels sprouts, sauteed cabbage or even green salad would be good, too.

(Many thanks to Soft-Spoken Fiesty Lady, for your kitchen help and for taking the pictures!)