Donald Russell Toad in the Hole
Donald Russell who have done a good job before in simplifying standard dishes and delivering quality meat to the doorstep, haven’t let themselves down with their Toad in the Hole offering. Two double sausage servings in trays for £8 is £4 a meal for two, which is a bit pricey but not that expensive when you consider the sausage quality and the time saved.
We were dubious that they could possibly cook all that well from frozen but were proved wrong. The batter rose to the occasion perfectly, cushioning the sausages (which are apparently sous-vide precooked so only needed to be browned) and becoming airy and crispy at the top and puddingy and comforting at the bottom in around 40 minutes.
The sausages were pure pork, so no nasty residues polluted the batter, and they were well seasoned and flavoured too. All in all, just as good as home-made and when it comes to Toad, that’s about as good as it gets.
Donald Russell Mini Lamb Leg
A leg of lamb is still a wonderful thing of course, but you need a crowd to eat it all up; lambs aren’t as small as we suppose from watching Countryfile, so these Mini Lamb Legs (boneless) are handy for couples and small families. At this size, overcooking is all too easy but the meat comes with a clear and accurate guide to temperature and time. In our case we chose the slow method – around eight minutes searing on the stove and then about 90 minutes at 80C in the oven. This produced a nice pink colour throughout, which is how lamb has to be served of course or else thrown away.
Flavour, despite the absence of bone, was very good and sweet, with the texture unaffected by the freezing. We ate it for Sunday lunch stacked in slices against a pile of golden, garlicky Dauphinoise potatoes and plenty of simple frozen peas. Not a scrap of lamb was left, indeed one child was quite upset that there was no more, so make that two adults and just one small child for optimum family satisfaction and less strife.
You can find all Mr Russell’s massive range of meat at