Leftovers for Lunch - Toad in the Hole

My lunch main courses are (more often than not) leftover whatever I had for dinner the night before. I love this - flavours developing overnight, the guarantee of a tasty aromatic home-cooked meal for lunch, and my colleagues poking their noses in my lunchbox to see what I've bought with me today. Leftovers for lunch has more benefits than I can name, but off the top of my head, I give you:

• It's cheap - ever totted up how much you spend at Pret a Manger per week?
• It's healthy - I guarantee that your homemade lasagne will be less calorific, less fatty and less salty than Marks and Spencers
• It's quick - no separate preparation or cooking
• Saves time at lunchtime - you'll save the 15 mins its takes to walk to the shop and buy your lunch

Friday's lunch was (Thursday's dinner) leftover Toad in the Hole. It was actually the first time in my life I'd attempted Toad in the Hole. Generally I'm not a huge fan of classic British dishes (and it doesn't help that my other half doesn't like potatoes, pretty much an essential ingredient in all British fare) but I happened to have a pack of sausages in the fridge that needed to find a good home, and so I decided it was about time I had a go a the Toad. This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe from Prue Leiths Cooking Bible - which you'll soon learn is my holy grail in the kitchen.

Toad in the Hole FOR THE TOAD 1 pack of sausages Olive oil 5 or 6 cherry tomatoes, halved FOR THE HOLE 110g plain flour Generous pinch of salt 2 eggs 150ml water added to 150ml milk FOR THE GRAVY Half an onion, thinly sliced 2tbsp balsamic vinegar 1tbsp red onion chutney Squeeze of HP sauce 100ml water 1 tbsp plain flour

Start by prepping the batter for the 'hole'. For best results, Leith's Cookery Bible suggests leaving the batter to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. Letting it rest, Prue says, allows the gluten to develop, resulting in a less doughy final product. Unfortunately I didn't have 30 minutes to play with, so I left mine to sit for 10 minutes, and my final product was not at all stodgy.

To make the batter, you should sift the flour and salt into a bowl, and make a little well in the top. Break the eggs into the well, and start mixing the eggs into the flour gradually to make a paste (I used a whisk). Bit by bit, add the liquid, and keep mixing until combined, but be careful not to over beat it, or it will not rise properly. Pop the bowl into the fridge to rest, and go and have a sit down and a cup of tea while you wait.

5 minutes before your batter is ready, oil the dish you will be using (I used a ceramic lasagne dish, but you could use a pyrex dish, a casserole dish, or any dish that has a large enough surface area to allow you to arrange your sausages with a 1cm(ish) gap between them, and high enough sides to contain the batter (a couple of inches).

Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the sausages until they a are sealed (don't wash up the pan - you will be using it later). Arrange the sausages in the bottom of the lasagne dish, and pour the batter into the gaps.
Pop it in the oven. After 20 minutes, take the dish out of the oven and arrange your chopped tomatoes skin side up on the top, and place back in the oven for the remaining 20 minutes (by which time they'll have got all delicious and roasted).

Meanwhile, start the gravy. I made a bit of a makeshift gravy by frying up sliced onions in the frying pan I used for the sausages, until the onions were soft and golden. Then I added a tablespoon of red onion chutney, a squeeze of HP sauce, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 100ml of water. I let it simmer, adding a bit of plain flour, till it was slightly thickened and syrupy. However, you could use Bisto granules, if you have them, or anything else you fancy.

Once cooked, I served up 2 portions for dinner, with boiled peas, carrots and sweetcorn, reserving some  extra veg and popping it into the tupperware tubs with the remaining portions for lunch the next day.

I was a little concerned that reheating the Toad in the Hole in the microwave for lunch might dry the batter out and make it chewy, but I was wrong, after 3.5 mins at 800W, it was prefect!