So me and my family try and eat meat-free at
least 2 or 3 times a week and look, I love it, it's really great. We can have this adventure with
veggies, and these beautiful portobello mushrooms if you give them a bit of love and care, the
depth of flavour you get from these is incredible. So let's do it. A great little family favorite
dish, toad in the hole, right? Yorkie puddings, with the sausage with the onion gravy, but how
about we do one with mushrooms? Mushroom toad in the hole with the gravy, it's amazing. So first
things first let's get the batter going, so 4 big free-range eggs. And give the eggs a good beat,
really get the air in there. Nice pinch of salt. And then go in with 175 grams of plain flour
and 175 millilitres of good whole milk. Then, 2 tablespoons of water. And actually that water is
a little bit more important than you might think because it's a reaction between the water and the
hot tray and oil that gives you that lift. So... one. Two. Give that a nice little whisk-up and
put that to the side. So next job, the mushrooms. 4 portobello mushrooms right? You can get these
everywhere. But how can we make these incredibly delicious? Just take the skin off, so just peel
it. And by doing this you're just opening up the mushroom to take on more flavour. And also these
lovely bits of skin here, these help make the best gravy they're full of flavour right? So we'll
just put them to the side. And while you're doing it just enjoy it it's weirdly therapeutic, it's
like a stress ball. When I was a little kid I used to have a BMX and it used to have mushroom grips
that looked just like that and they were so comfy. And I always think of that when I do this. So get
yourself a nice big tray, high sides. Put these mushrooms in. Give them a basic seasoning with
olive oil. A little salt and pepper. Rub that around the cap of the mushroom and we're going to
keep it cap side down, and then when I roast that in the oven basically it's going to intensify
and concentrate the mushroom flavour and then on the inside you'll get a little pool of like
little stock which is going to make it really juicy as well in the middle. So half an hour
at 200 degrees Celsius which is 400 Fahrenheit. And just let a little bit of time do a lot of the
flavour work for you. Let me just wash my hands. Right next, gravy. So 2 onions, just take
the end off and then finely slice it. This is going to be a really nice chunky onion
gravy, and onion gravy it's just one of those brilliant sauces that you can have with your pie,
a steak, and of course for toad in the hole - or mushroom in the hole - amazing. Now if you think
back to the old Yorkshire puddings they would have always given you a big old Yorkshire pudding with
gravy first, you know you could have had it in the pub, at home. And the idea I'm told is that they
fill you up and then when the meat comes out you don't need too much of it because the meat,
of course still is, expensive it's the most expensive part of the meal. So if you're wanting
something comforting, beautiful, something that makes people happy, fills you up, then you're
gonna want to have a go at this. So in the pan on a medium heat go in with two tablespoons
of oil. Grab a couple of sprigs of rosemary, now rosemary is one of my favourite herbs, it
has the incredible ability to give you a feeling of meat, savouriness. It's so connected
with things like steak, beef, lamb y'know, when you do it with the mushrooms it just
kind of works. So by putting the rosemary in the oil first you get that crispiness
you get that fragrance and the natural oils coming out of the rosemary. Then in with the
onions, smells great already. Don't forget now these little skins, delicious things don't always
come in beautiful packages, a bit of old mushroom skin that's big flavour. So I'm just going
to slice it up and then in we go, you will not regret putting that in there. You don't want
to waste anything either so that's good vibes. At this stage I'm going to let that cook for about
15 minutes or so on a medium-low heat stirring it every now and again. Don't rush it get that
sweet, soft, and get that caramelisation going. Okay so the mushrooms they're nearly there, the
onions have cooked down beautifully. So I'm going to just turn it up a little bit now and then I'm
going to introduce a little bit of booze. Now for me, gravy. You know it can go a few different
directions you could put red wine in there, but I'm putting some porter which is a beautiful
dark ale, smooth, chocolatey, and that's going to be amazing with the sweet onions. I'm going to
use about 250 millilitres. So half of it for that, half of this for me, and two tablespoons of
red wine vinegar and that's going to give it the ability to really cut through the richness
of the Yorkshire pudding batter. Beautiful. Boil that up and really reduce that porter. The
great thing about that is you kind of take away any sense of alcohol and what's going to be
left is just deep, sweet, and really smooth, we want that in a gravy. Now I'm going to do a
little dressing for the mushrooms to make them really really tasty, so 2 more sprigs of rosemary.
Pull the rosemary off the stalk and I'm doing it now because I want to have lighter more fragrant
flavours than if I put it in at the beginning. Then two cloves of garlic now just do the
best you can to do some nice thin slices and we're going to scatter that over the beautiful
open cup of those portobello mushrooms. A little bit of olive oil and that will send those
slices of garlic really beautifully even golden, and those lovely bits of rosemary will go crispy
like little crisps, fantastic. So look that's our little sprinkle, what I want to do now is get in
there and get the yorkie going. I've got my lovely batter that's ready and raring to go, so let's
get these out. It smells incredible. Now what's really nice to do with these mushrooms is you can
just take them out one by one and pour that stock into our gravy, you will not regret doing that,
really really nice. So that's what I mean you know you start concentrating on one ingredient
like a mushroom, how can I drag out the best of flavour and the best of texture? And here we are
getting all kinds of flavours out the mushroom, now back in here we're going to go in with our
batter and then place our mushrooms back on top, and sprinkle over our rosemary and our garlic
and if it goes in to the batter that's fine. Back in the oven for 25 minutes at the same
temperature, close the door, and don't even look again don't look again it's too stressful.
We want it to go lifty and light and gorgeous. Now if you look in the pan can you see how already
this has reduced? So add a little bit of flour, about a heaped tablespoon, and stir it in. And then about 700
millilitres of water. Check the seasoning. And you can reduce this to the consistency that
you so love, a bit thinner fine, bit thicker fine. But that my friends will be an amazing gravy. Okay, so we're nearly there. The gravy is just
blipping away looking thick and delicious. I've got some lovely sprouting broccoli. And I am going
to feed my boy Buddy because Jools and the girls are out. Okay Buds, are you ready for dinner?
Yeah. Are you hungry? Yes. Here's a knife and fork, there you go so you excited? Yeah. This
my friend is mushroom in the hole. It's a big mushroom. What's the stuff holding the mushroom?
That my friend is Yorkshire pudding. Ooh! Should we do this? Yes. I am looking forward
to the Yorkshire pudding. I just love the way it just tears off. Let's go in with your
gravy. It's a lot of gravy. Shall we have a go? Ow. Blow it. That's really good. What do you think Buds?
It's really nice. The mushrooms are really meaty aren't they? Gravy's just got like loads of
flavour. It's just a joyful thing. Don't tell mum that we're standing up here having dinner.
I feel like I should pick it up and have a little mop-up. I agree. Permission to use
hands Buddy. Thank you! Have a little mop-up.
