Flaming Toad in the Hole

We normally go on day trips every Wednesday, but this Wednesday was different. We stayed in London and actually had an assignment to do. We were supposed to go shopping at a specific shop and then follow a recipe for Toad in the Hole. Our professor for British Life and Culture and his wife were coming to our flats that evening to try everyone’s rendition of it and give an award for the best one.

The shop we were assigned to go to this time was more like a flea market and the exact opposite of our previous shops, La Fromagerie and The Ginger Pig. Chapel Street Market was definitely more for people in the lower-working social classes. We were able to find some sausages we needed for the recipe and then a discount grocery store for the rest of the items.

After that, my roommates and I came back to our flat and prepared to make dinner for our professor. For some reason Mel and I thought it would be fun to “trash talk” some of the other flats, so we went and did that for a while. It probably wasn’t the best idea ever because there was no guarantee our Toad in the Hole was going to be good, but it just made the assignment a little more fun. Toad in the Hole is very similar to Pigs in a Blanket, except we use sausages instead of hot dogs and make our own batter instead of using crescent rolls. At first everything was going good – we had our batter done, we were frying our sausages, and had more than enough time to finish everything. Then as we were putting our mixture in the oven, we noticed our oven knobs didn’t have numbers on them. They apparently had gotten worn off over the years. Fantastic.

We tried to estimate how hot the oven was by putting our hands in, but none of us really knew so we just stuck our raw Toad in the Hole in and hoped for the best. After seriously two minutes, we checked on it and the top was black. NOT GOOD! So we turned the heat down and kept poking it, until we thought it was done about 30 minutes later. In retrospect, I think the oven was a little too toasty to begin with and just burnt all the grease that was there from the sausages.

We salvaged what we could from the pan and tried to make it look like we hadn’t caught the meal on fire. The plates ended up looking quite lovely – we wrote the letters of their first names in spicy tomato ketchup and put red and yellow pepper strips on the plate. We referred to it as “Flaming Toad in the Hole.” Very original I think. :)

When Lyndon and Erica came to try ours, they seemed to be impressed. They thought it was interesting that we had chosen to go with beef sausages over pork (which was definitely not my choice!). They gave us pretty good reviews, and we had a good conversation with them so that was fun. Now we just had to wait one hour until they were done taste testing everyone else’s.

It turns out that we didn’t win, despite all the fabulous trash talking. I think we got fourth or fifth because they weren’t fans of the beef sausage. But considering we burnt the heck out of our Toad in the Hole, I’d say our place was pretty good. And our prize was the best one as far as I’m concerned. We got tea biscuits (which are what we would call cookies) and Cadbury chocolate. How could anyone be upset about that?

But the worst part about the whole thing was that the two groups made entirely of boys got first and second. Seriously?! Of course they think that they’re just fabulous, but I think they just got lucky. And Lyndon’s wife’s explanation of why they won was the best – “It all has to do with how much you beat the batter. And of course we know guys are excellent at beating things.” And then she made some interesting hand gestures… and then came the roar of laughter. Hey, she’s the one who said it!

Until next time,
Rachel