The perfect Yorkshire puddings. Let's do it. First up, big bowl, whisk, and I need four eggs. I'm using beautiful fresh free-range eggs, and we're going to whisk those up. I'm using a big bowl so we can get some nice air in there. Then I'm going to go in with 200 ml of whole milk, 200 g of plain flour. And now you can sift it. You know, when you sift it, it just makes it nice and light and no lumps. We don't want lumps in there. So, just whisk up your batter. As you can see now, it's nicely whipped up. I'm just going to add a little pinch of salt and nothing else. That's basically it. Now, we want it to just coat the back of a spoon. It should just stick nicely to it. That's the batter made. What I do want to do is get it from a bowl, which is perfect for making it, into a jug because that's perfect for pouring it quickly, because that is another important part that I'll talk about in a minute.
We are using a sunflower oil. You can use a groundnut oil or a sunflower oil. Absolutely. These are oils that can handle high heat. We want 1 cm in each mould. So, I'm going to fill up these three. And what I like to do is then just gently but evenly pour the oil all the way along. And by the time you hit the bottom, you'll have absolutely perfect exact measurement across every single one. And I know what you're thinking. Mhm. I know. I invented it. Or at least I think I did. Now, we are going to preheat our oven to 190°C. I've got one in there already. Okay. It's been in there for about 15 minutes. So, my preheated oil comes out. This is very hot. I'm going to go in with my batter here. I'm going to use a spoon. What you don't want is loads of batter touching the side. If you have batter in between, what's going to happen is that will drag your Yorkshire pudding down and it will stop it rising as efficiently. And what's happening now, you can see the hot oil is starting to cook the batter on the outside. And as we put this in the oven, the heat of the oil is going to push the batter up the side to create that lift. Okay, we're going to go straight back into the oven and we're going to close the door and we're going to leave it. They're going to cook for about 20 to 25 minutes until golden and crispy and gorgeous. You're going to love it.
Ah, come on, baby. Yeah. So for me, guys, this really is the perfect Yorkshire pudding. You can go bigger. You can put more batter in, but then I think it goes too crispy and too dry. I like this kind of size. I like the kind of balance of crispiness around here and the chewiness from inside. Look what you got there. Absolutely gorgeous. I want to show you guys something even more incredible to go with the Yorkshire puddings that's not the usual thing. So I've got some nice smoked salmon. I'm going to put it down onto a beautiful board or platter. To complement that, I want a little simple sauce. Now, you could use sour cream, yogurt, or crème fraîche. Just beat it up. And I'm going to add just the juice of one lemon. Here's fresh horseradish. So, we're going to peel the horseradish, a little grating over the salmon, just like snow. What I like about this is its contrast, fire, and lightness. It's beautiful. Just mix it up. Just going to take some of this dill and from a height just pick it. And then freshly cooked hot Yorkshire puddings, loading it with that hot sour cream and horseradish sauce. A nice bit of smoked salmon. And then just find a quiet little moment where you and that beautiful combination can just tuck in.
So me and my family try and eat meat-free at least two or three 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 favourite 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, four 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 g of plain flour and 175 ml of good whole milk. Then 2 tbsp 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. Four 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°C, which is 400°F. 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, two 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 is just one of those brilliant sauces that you can have with your pie, a steak, and of course, 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 or 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 going to want to have a go at this. So, in the pan on a medium heat, go in with 2 tbsp 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, you 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. 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 ml. 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 two 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 of 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 into 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 ml of water. Check the seasoning. And you can reduce this to the consistency that you so love. 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 Jules and the girls are out. Okay, buds. Are you ready for dinner?
