Toad in the Hole

 

When we were kids growing up in London my mum used to make Toad in the Hole all the time – I suppose it was a very economical way of cooking for a big family and ensuring bellies were full. It is very much an old traditional English dish and I don’t recall ever hearing anyone mention it here in Ireland.  I only recently starting making this for my own family and I really don’t know why it took me so long – we’re big fans of Yorkshire Puddings and sausages so what could be better than a dish made of both?  You can fancy it up a little by smearing the sausages in Dijon mustard before adding to the batter, or by using fancy sausages, or perhaps you could maybe play around by adding some herbs to the batter.  We like ours served with lashings of onion gravy – the more mopping up the better! [Read more…]

Chicken curry with yoghurt and tomatoes

 

Recipe from Bill’s Basics by Bill Granger

I have wanted to blog this recipe for some time – it is one of the first things I tried from Bill’s Basics and it has since become one of our favourite curries.  I have tried so many curry recipes over the years, most of which involve lists of ingredients as long as your arm and lots of toasting and grinding spices so I was rather intrigued by this recipe’s simplicity and to be honest a little suspicious that the end result would have enough depth of flavour thanks to the concise list of ingredients.  As it turns out this is a great little curry that is fresh and light and bursting with flavour but it isn’t overly fragrant or spicy and that makes it perfect for the whole family – it’s certainly one of my son’s favourites. It is also so quick to put together and the only thing that will take time is cooking – so once all of the ingredients go in the pot you can leave it on a low heat to blip away with the occasional stir to keep it from sticking.  This is a perfect dish to prepare in the evening to be reheated for dinner the next day and it’s quite economical as apart from the spices, which you will get many dishes from once you buy them, there are only a handful of ingredients to buy.  Bill’s recipe used lamb which of course needs a longer cooking time than chicken so although the meat will be cooked through sooner I do still give the curry one-and-a-half/two hours cooking as the as the sauce really does benefit from that time.  This is also great made with chicken pieces on the bone.  The original recipe doesn’t use garlic or coriander but I love both in curry. [Read more…]