Toad in the hole

[Wilfrid]

Pease pudding is a traditional accompaniment to boiled bacon in any form, and you can eat it with boiled beef too. Can't say I ever liked it.

[Jinmyo]

Wilfrid, I honestly can't remember if the pease was with boiled bacon or boiled beef or boiled whatever. In fact, I don't know if I knew what the Boiled Thing was even then. My mother was Welsh/Italian so didn't cook traditional English fare. Pease was boarding school stuff. Like tapioca.

[Wilfrid]

We hardly ever ate pease at home either. I think it's day was pretty much over. But we did used to boil bacon for sandwiches. I miss that.

[Adam Balic]

I've had pease porridge (which is just mushy mushy peas with butter for those playing at home). But not with gammon hock, actually.

Very similiar to standard potage habitant (Franco-Canadien pea soup) but thick, and finishing the hock in the oven is a nice touch. I like the savoy cabbage but I'm not sure if I'd go with caraway seeds.

Caraway seeds were a mistake, but I was of slim means and didn't have any red cabbage.

Wilfrid - ah, but you haven't had my pease pudding (Hot, please pudding cold, pease pudding in the pot nine days old!).

[Wilfrid]

I never dismiss out of hand the idea I could get a version of a dish which I'd really like. I am very open-minded about food.

[Jinmyo]

That's just it, Adam. Your pease with gammon hock sounded wonderful to me. Simple, interesting textures, intense flavours.

Wilfrid, pork in all of its infinite manifestations is unparalleled in its power to bless the broken and lift up the weary. Why not make a sandwich yourself? What would you have with it?

[Wilfrid]

Warm crusty white bread, thinly spread with unsalted butter. Slices of roast pork fresh from the joint. One thin slice of sausagemeat stuffing, and a garnish of apple wedges caramelised in butter and brown sugar. Mustard on the side (not sure if it goes with the apples). A pint of Wadworth's 6X to wash it down. And a packet of crisps.

Oh well, off to Pret a Manger, then.

[Jinmyo]

No apples for me so no problem with the mustard. Happy pret.

[C Squared]

Gammon? Pease porridge/pudding?

I haven't the fogiest what you guys are talking about.

[Wilfrid]

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

[Adam Balic]

Gammon? Pease porridge/pudding?

I haven't the fogiest what you guys are talking about.

"Gammon" is a type of British ham (can also be the lower end of a joint of side of bacon), names comes from the Middle French for "Leg", as does Jambon, Ham etc. You can bake them (the joint version) or fry slices, but I like to boil, then bake so you get the lovely stickiness of the gelatin, plus a crispy skin. I like the skin.

"Pease" are a type of dried pea, which have quite a meally texture. Yellow is most common, but I sometimes use the green type as I prefer the flavour.

Pease pudding is a very old British recipe. You take the peas wrap them in cloth (loosely) and add them to the boiling joint of gammon. They take up the flavour of the ham. When they are done you take them out of the cloth and season them, add anyother ingredients (some mix in an egg to help the binding) then put them back into the cloth (tightly this time) add cook them again. In the end you have a round pudding/dumpling of pease. Pease porridge is just a more slopy version. They go very well with ham (think of pea and ham soup) and I like the slightly granular texture they have. Here is what they look like.

http://www.foodsubs.com/Peas.html

scroll down to "yellow peas'.

[Fat Guy]

Why is it called toad in the hole? Is there anything in there that looks like a toad, or a hole? By the way, what do you call the thing where you make a hole in a piece of toast and put an egg in there?

[Adam Balic]

Why is it called toad in the hole? Is there anything in there that looks like a toad, or a hole? By the way, what do you call the thing where you make a hole in a piece of toast and put an egg in there?

Buggered if I know why and a hole in a piece of toast with an egg put in there.

[C Squared]

(think of pea and ham soup)

Ahh! Now I get it. I make green split pea and ham soup every time I can get my hands on a ham bone.

[Adam Balic]

There you go, now all you have to do is to keep the meat on the bone and not make the pease so sloppy!

[Jinmyo]

I believe that Americans call an egg in a basket (egg cooked in the centre of a piece of bread) "toad in the hole".

Real toad in the hole is all disgustingly warty looking because the Yorky batter puffs up around the blistered pork sausage. Thus the provenance of the name.

[Miss J]

Jinmyo, as always I feel I've learned something. I was under the impression that the name referred to the appearence of the sausages in the pate choux-like "holes" that occure inside a light, puffed-up Yorkshire pudding.

[Fat Guy]

I say put a toad in a hole and eat him. Wilfrid, is 7:00pm okay for cocktails, 8:00pm for toad?

[Jinmyo]

Toad sashimi in a nori ring.

[mikey]

Frog a la Peche.

[Wilfrid]

I say put a toad in a hole and eat him. Wilfrid, is 7:00pm okay for cocktails, 8:00pm for toad?

Urgh. Try Nina.