Herby Toad in the Hole

I’ll never know why this dish is called toad in the hole. It’s a bit like American corn dogs, except, instead of the sausage being dipped and fried in batter, the batter is poured over the sausage and baked. But no matter what it’s called, this is one of my husband’s favourite meals. It feels very relaxed and pub-grubby to me, so I think it suits Saturday night suppers very well. I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and pinned it a while ago and actually managed to include it on my menu for the 1st week of 2013 (which you can find here if you’re interested), but I had forgotten just how social New Year’s week was, so due to lots of braais (bbqs) and parties, this ended up being actually the only thing I made off my carefully planned menu!

Due to lots of Christmas and New Year baking I had actually run out of cake flour for the batter, so I quickly substituted maize meal (corn meal)and just hoped it would turn out ok! The maize meal actually added an interesting density to the batter, and I might well use it again. My husband could smell the rosemary even while I was stripping the stalks and loved the herby aroma the dish was wafting about while it was baking :) 

This was quite a winner with my family and I decided to make it again this past Saturday, only this time I had cake flour and so was able to follow the recipe a bit more faithfully! However, I didn't have prepared mustard, so substituted a spicy mustard grind that I had instead, which was A-MAY-ZING! So below is the 2nd attempt. I used a metal cake pan this time round, and it made the edges lovely and brown and crisp.

Toad in the hole made with cake flour

Served with steamed vegetables

Creamy, low fat, extra protein mince (ground beef)

I came across a fantastic one-pot recipe that I totally love from this website. I was so surprised at how lovely and creamy the cottage cheese makes the recipe, without tasting anything like cottage cheese!
I decided to vary the recipe slightly by turning it into a type of spaghetti bolognese, with with the benefit of the creamy tatse and extra protein provided by the cottage cheese (I'm trying to up my protein and eat less carbs).

What I used:
500g mince (ground beef)
1 finely chopped onion
1 250g tub plan fat free cottage cheese
1 tin tomato puree
seasoning as desired

Brown the onion till soft
Add the mince and cook till no longer brown
Add the cottage cheese and combine

Add the tomato puree
Season as desired
Simmer for 10 mins

Serve over pasta, or as a sloppy joe filling or pop into a container to freeze for use at another time!