Toad-in-the-Hole

Though I try to keep the holiday craziness to a minimum, I do undertake some serious culinary preparation for having a wonderful celebration.   Therefore it's nice to be able to whip up something fast and simple during this rushed time.  The Calm One having grown up in Yorkshire appreciates as well as I do, a simple but satisfying British classic, Toad-in-the-Hole--an enticing soufflé-like Yorkshire pudding studded with succulent sausages.  It's a homey dish that helps one appreciate being cosily ensconced at home while gazing through frosted windows at the sleeping garden. 

Ingredients (Count 'em.  Only five. That's simple!)
Two generous servings or 4 skimpier ones

• Flour, all purpose, 150 grams
• Salt, 1/4 tsp
• Milk, 450 ml
• Eggs, large, 3
• Sausages, either British bangers, Toulouse, or Italian Sweet, 4

Bangers, a smooth-textured British sausage, filled with meat and breadcrumbs/rusk, are traditionally used.  However, chez nous, we add a French touch by using Toulouse sausage, made with pork, garlic, and red wine.

Turn on oven to 400 degrees F/205 degrees C.  Put a small, metal roasting pan (18 cm by 25 cm by 4 cm deep) in the preheating oven. Sift flour and salt from up high--this increases baked puffiness--and make a well.

Crack the eggs into the well.  Slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs by beating them in a circular motion with a fork, encroaching gradually onto the flour until mixture is smooth and sticky.

Gradually add milk, incorporating it first with a fork.  Then continue blending with a whisk. Beat until airy and full of bubbles.

Reserve the batter while occasionally whisking it as you saute the sausages.  The main purpose of this step is not to cook the sausages, but to get them to release some of their fat.  Add a tablespoon of oil, then the sausages, pricking them on all sides as they lightly brown over medium flame.  When about 4 to 5 tablespoons of fat has collected in the pan--I tip the pan to the side, roughly approximating the amount--turn off the heat.

Take out carefully the hot roasting pan and place on open oven door.  Empty the contents of the fry pan into the roasting pan. Make sure you get all the fat to follow the sausages!

Pour batter over the sausages, arranging them evenly spaced via tongs.  Put back into oven.

Bake for about 40 minutes, turning after 20 minutes, till very puffy and deeply browned.  The pudding's top should be fairly hard and inflexible to the touch.  Deeper down there will be some soft but firm spots.  Loosen the edges and bottom of the pudding from the pan with a narrow spatula.  Cut into four squares and serve immediately as it will lose height quickly.

Though brown gravy is traditionally served, we enjoy a side of stewed tomatoes made with our potager's Romas.

Bon appétit!

In the potager, the carrots sowed in August are beginning to be harvested in all their earthy, golden goodness.  I carefully dig with a trowel all around the carrot and gently heave it out of the soil.  If the soil is lightly moist, pulling them out is easier with less chance of leaving carrot pieces in the soil.

With diminished daylight, the roots will not fill out much more, but will resume their growth in early spring.  As light frosts are possible not only at night but also during the day, I leave horticultural fleece tucked around the carrot bed which turns it into a storage area.  Keep in mind carrot tops are wonderful additions to the soup stock pot as they are not bitter as I once thought as long as just a few are used.

In the wicker basket, are some fixings for chicken stock

The broccoli plants need to be dug up and put on the compost pile as their harvest is finished.

In the background, there's a yellow flowering broccoli!

The Brussels sprouts will keep producing into the new year so we should be able to have fresh ones for roasting with our holiday dinners.  Yay!  There are already quite a lot frozen.

Dayo thrives on the fresh, cold air and gets very perky and playful.  He will jump up at my hands while I take some close-ups as he intermittently swats the camera.

What's that object in your hand?  Can I nom it?

Besides a few intrepid rose buds, pink heather, and white and purple alyssum, the flower garden has a low profile presently.  Though I am a zealous proponent of dead heading flowers, I do make some notable exceptions as in sparing these silver skeletons of Hydrangea flowers as they are lovely in a lacy, ghostly way. 

And these hips on the Rugosa roses warm up the garden with their hot crimson.

What are your plans for holiday eating chez vous?  Is there something new you would like to give a try?  Something you would love not to prepare comme d'habitude (as usual)?  Or perhaps, just not doing much except going to friends/family/restaurants?  Regardless, leave time for yourself to unwind and turn inward, for a break from all the external distractions. Refreshed and in tune with yourself, you will be able to enjoy more fully all the agreeable aspects of this season! 

RELATED POSTS

Sowing Carrots & Making Velouté de carottes
Harvesting, freezing, roasting Brussels Sprouts
Preparation for fall/winter harvests
How to Make Roasted Broccoli Parmesan Béchamel Soup

How to Make Roasted Broccoli Parmesan Béchamel Soup

This comforting, earthy soup with its warming, full-bodied cayenne pepper/garlic-infused Béchamel sauce will lessen the gloom of shortened days and chase away autumnal chills.

When harvesting broccoli, I cut the stalks on the diagonal so rain can run off the remaining stalk to prevent rotting.  Smaller heads of broccoli will continue to form lower down on the stalk for a continued harvest.

After the broccoli was sowed and transplanted into a bed, I applied an organic, balanced fertiliser (NPK of 10-10-10) when the plants were about six inches high.  I could really see the difference in the size of the heads from last season.

Fertiliser is scratched into the soil around the plants with a cultivator

An important aspect of growing broccoli is checking routinely underneath leaves for egg deposits placed by white butterflies.  Three years ago, when I planted my first broccoli crop, I did not realise that the cloud of pretty, white butterflies hovering over the broccoli bed were carriers of eggs that would develop into devouring pests.  As with all crucifers, their growth can't be checked, that is, they need to be transplanted before they get cramped in their pots, get enough sunlight, to be fertilized, and to be watered or else they remain stunted.  Other veggies, like leeks, are more forgiving.

A clutch of yellow eggs

The main source of flowers in my autumn garden are these vivid, red chrysanthemums.

Dayo is spending more and more time indoors, but he still stays close to me.  When I am working in the kitchen, he hangs out in his box at one end of the long, food preparation table.

Is that butter for me?

OK, fine, be that way, I didn't really want any butter.

Are you sure that butter isn't for me?

Roasted Broccoli Parmesan Béchamel Soup
serves six

• Broccoli, chopped, 4-5 heads, about 8 cups*
• garlic, 3 fat cloves, lightly smashed, with skin mostly intact
• Vegetable broth, preferably homemade, 2 cups*
• Parmesan, a small rind
• Potatoes, two medium
• Olive Oil, extra virgin, several tbsps
• Red pepper flakes, just a few
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Parmesan, grated, 1 cup*
• Flour, white, 5 tbsps
• Butter, 4 tbsps
• milk, 1 1/2 cup* 

* American cup, 8 oz

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.  Wash the broccoli well, and if home grown, hunt out little pests hidden in the florets.  Chop into large chunks.  The earthiness of this soup is accentuated by first oven roasting the broccoli.   This was my first time roasting broccoli.  I was encouraged to so by a friend who said roasting was the way to go when cooking cauliflower and broccoli.  She is so right.  I doubt I will ever boil broccoli again.

Place broccoli pieces on a shallow roasting pan and dribble the olive oil over them, mixing well while ensuring all the pieces are evenly coated.  Put into the oven and roast for about twenty minutes or until they are bright green and browned on their edges.  They do not need to be tender.

While they are roasting and filling up the kitchen with their robust fragrance, peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks and put them and the cheese rind along with the veggie broth into a pot.  Add the roasted broccoli when ready and cook until the veggies are very tender, about 15 minutes.  Remove the rind if desired--it can be cut into small pieces and eaten-- or it can be left in to be eventually blended.  I had forgotten to take mine out and was amazed that it became soft enough to get completely blended, imparting a wonderful depth of flavour.

Meanwhile make the Parmesan Béchamel infused with red pepper and garlic.  If this is your first time making this basic white sauce, be rest assured it is very doable.  I prefer using this sauce rather than just adding milk and cheese, because the binding of flour and butter ensures a stable mixture that will keep its integrity even when frozen or reheated, while the fat content of the Béchamel allows for the flavour of garlic and red pepper to be more fully absorbed than if it was just added to the soup pot. 

Béchamel sauce is a base for many dishes, so it is a good technique to master allowing many variations on a theme, like I have done with adding Parmesan, red pepper flakes, and garlic.   Have all the sauce ingredients prepared and near the stove:  butter, milk, flour, Parmesan, garlic, red pepper flakes.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a medium low flame and gradually stir in the flour to make a roux.

Let the roux cook for a minute or so until smooth and to get rid of the taste of raw flour.  Slowly add the milk, pepper flakes, and garlic, all the while stirring.  Cook for about ten minutes until thickened.  Remove the garlic cloves.  If sufficiently softened and made mellow by cooking, mashed garlic is delicious on crackers/toast/bread.  A wire whisk will beat out any lumps.

Gradually add the grated cheese.

Let it melt completely while stirring. 

Blend the broccoli right in the pot with an immersion mixer or transfer to a standing blender.   Alternatively, you could also use a potato masher or large fork, but the texture will not be as smooth.

In order to ensure a smooth combination, add some of the broccoli soup into the Béchamel ladle by ladle, stirring well after each addition.

The Béchamel gradually will become much less thick.

Add the thinned Béchamel back into the soup pot and stir until well mixed.

Being a substantial soup, it does stand on its own, but of course it can be served with a good bread or croutons and crumbled bacon.

Bon appétit!

Preparing for Fall/Winter harvests...and an apéro dinatoire

Blackberries have made their welcomed appearance in our daily berry harvest.  They are the first fruits I harvested out in the wild when I was a kid, and they bring back my wonderful childhood summers in a way that nothing else can.

Raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries

I usually reserve my working in the front garden in the evening so as to avoid the enthusiastic representatives of various companies who want to improve our less than pristine dwelling--concerned insect killers, mowers of imaginary lawns (that's a prairie, Monsieur), insulators against Arctic weather, earnest eaves painters, facade cosmeticians, cladding pushers, and distinguished proponents of fire extinguishers.  Though Dayo likes to hang out with me wherever I go, he seems to stay particularly close to me at twilight.

Dayo is thinking:  Our house is pretty enough, no?

Recently we were invited over for an apéritif  held to celebrate the high school graduation of a young woman whom I had tutored in English for several months.  On the morning of the apéro, she gifted me with a large potted bougainvillea to my great delight as I always wanted one.  It will need to be carefully overwintered however because of our short but cold winters.

I did not bring my camera because we understood an apéro as meaning a few snacks and some drinks lasting the most an hour.  Well, this turned out to be an apéro dinatoire, that is, essentially a banquet lasting hours though no cutlery was needed as all the food was in mouth-sized bites.  Toothpicks sufficed. The superb food was so plentiful I can't see why I ever need to eat again.  Platters just kept being placed on the table for nearly forty people:  foie gras on herb-speckled brioche, warm creamy quiches and tantalising frittatas, carmelised plantains, salmon mousse gracing small circles of the softest imaginable bread, and sizzling pizza squares smothered with  Gruyère cheese.  We won't mention the wine, the punch, the chouquettes, and assorted delights like olives, peanuts, spicy tortilla chips, cherry tomatoes, and the biggest and fattest seedless green grapes I have ever seen.  Madame M told me the younger guests were singing and having great fun till the early morning.

Another guest's garden flanks my host's garden and we were all gaping at his tomatoes, some of which were red, not many, but still red tomatoes in a neighbourhood filled with green ones were quite an attention getter.  He said that it is an old wise French saying, that in order for tomatoes to blush, one needs to drop their pants.  So, does that mean...?  Next morning, both Madame M and I rushed over to our tomato beds expecting a miracle--perhaps some nice person did the necessaries?  Alas green tomatoes greeted us, but with encouraging signs of yellowing.  Often it is yellowing, as in peaches, and not necessarily reddening, that gives the earliest indication of ripening.

Fall and winter harvests are as important for us as the summer one.  In our climate with short, cold winters, I harvest beets, broccoli, and peas before frost sets in and the more resistant-to-cold leeks, turnips, mache, escarole, Brussels sprouts, and certain carrot varieties throughout the winter until early spring, providing cold protection via horticultural fleece if necessary.  As these crops will mostly be fully grown as frost sets in, I am using the soil as storage.

Preparation started six weeks ago by my sowing broccoli and Brussels sprouts in flats.  About a month ago, the seedlings were transplanted into separate pots and are now ready to go into their prepared beds.  These beds were recently harvested of their onions and garlic.  I don't call my garden souped-up for no reason!

Brussels Sprouts seedlings

Broccoli transplants in their bed, awaiting mulching

Thankfully I had broccoli seedlings to spare because some caterpillars went by unnoticed and chomped away on a few.  If you look carefully you will see a green caterpillar on the plant in the photo below.  It has since been well squished along with other members of its family via my gloved hand. I never use pesticides on my crops, relying instead on hand removal and mechanical barriers.

Leeks which were seeded mid May are close to being pencil size and ready to be transplanted into their regular bed. 

Because our frost date is usually around mid December, I will hold off sowing the crops with shorter maturation times like carrots, mache, beets, turnips, lettuce, spinach, escarole, and peas till mid August or until beds become free as summer harvesting is completed.  If your frost date is earlier, then sowing can begin sooner.  If the weather is hot, water the soil well and cool it down by covering it with burlap, shading cloth, or boards before sowing.

Though I tend to focus on annual flowers sparingly, preferring the more environmentally friendly choice of perennials, I choose those that will give a long blooming period. Pansies sowed in their flats six weeks ago are ready to be transplanted into bigger pots for eventual setting out for autumn through next spring blooming.

The zinnias sowed around end of May are ready to be transplanted for summer-through-autumn bloom.

If you keep your eyes out for cool-weather vegetable seeds/transplants, you too can harvest good food throughout autumn and/or get an early start for next spring, for example, by sowing and overwintering cold-resistant lettuce.  The shorter days will make it impossible for lettuce to mature outdoors during the winter, but they will have formed good roots and sturdy little plants ready to burst into growth when the days become longer in early spring.  Working the soil in late summer/autumn is usually easier than doing it early spring, a time that can be too hectic in the garden.  Choosing the right varieties and sheltering overwintered plants under the appropriate layers of horticultural fleece will keep them in most cases cosy.