How to feed a bumper crop of novices

Albert Robertson OP, our Dominican answer to Delia Smith, on how to prepare to feed a bumper crop of novices.

Our house in Cambridge is the noviciate house of the English Province, so as the mind turns towards the start of the new academic year in October, late August and early September sees the arrival of the new crop of novices.

For the last few years we have had relatively small groups of novices – twos and threes and, for a couple of years, just one. This year, however, we have something of a bumper crop. The numbers are always somewhat elastic until the postulants finally arrive, but this year we are looking at an intake of at least seven.

Sometimes men come straight from university, and although we have had a few of these in recent years, it is not all that uncommon for people to come to us later in life, having had some experience living out in the world, or indeed in other religious institutes. Some can cook quite happily, while others have not graduated much beyond boiling an egg.

My own recollections of my first days in the noviciate in 2015 (where exactly has that decade gone?) was being instructed to cook toad-in-the-hole together. There were six of us; the kitchen is not that large, and most of us were perfectly happy cooking without the aid (I think I probably mean hindrance) of a load of other people.

Still, every year has something of the sense of back to basics. Novices are taught that it does indeed take a lot longer to peel and chop ingredients for 16, and that cooking that amount of food will indeed take a little longer than a recipe for four. In Cambridge we are lucky that we are never all that far from the countryside with decent hedgerow offerings.

Usually during the handover between noviciates there's a long afternoon walk and it's best to go out with plenty of bags. Whatever we can't find in the hedgerows can be supplemented with produce from one of our excellent market stalls. Damsons are a great late-summer fruit, which are easy enough to find in the Cambridge market in September and probably elsewhere, too.

Toad in the hole

Serves 3 or 4

In the priory I usually allow four sausages per person, but I would lower that for normal people, so for three or four people you would need between six and eight sausages. You will also need 75g plain flour, 2 large eggs, 75ml milk, 55ml water and 40g lard.

Heat the lard in a high-sided metal oven tray at 220C, and fry the sausages in a pan to get them slightly brown. You could add some roughly chopped red onion to the pan at this point, if you like.

Sift the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and whisk, gradually incorporating the flour. Then beat in the milk and water.

You might notice that the egg ratio is a bit high, and I do this mainly to make sure that the batter rises (a perennial fear). Another trick for the batter is to use sparkling water rather than plain tap, which sounds ridiculous but really does work.

Use a spatula to make sure everything is incorporated. Place the sausages into the tin and pour over the batter. Place the tray back in the oven as quickly as possible and cook for 30-35 minutes, until the batter is brown and risen.

Serve with buttery, well-seasoned mashed potato and thick onion gravy.

Damson cobbler

Serves six to eight

This recipe calls for 1kg damsons, washed and prepared, 100g caster sugar, 225g self-raising flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 75g chilled butter, 100g caster sugar, salt, 1 medium egg, 100ml buttermilk, and flaked almonds to decorate.

Spread the damsons over a decent-sized oven dish and sprinkle with sugar. Preheat the oven to 190C. Sift the flour and baking powder, and add the caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Using a food processor, mix the ingredients to the consistency of breadcrumbs.

Crack the egg and add it to the buttermilk, beating it in. Then add this to the food processor containing the dry ingredients. Mix it all well until it makes a sticky dough.

Drop walnut-sized balls of dough onto the damsons, then sprinkle on a little more caster sugar and the flaked almonds. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

If the cobbler is browning too quickly and threatening to burn, cover it with some foil, making sure to form a tent in the middle so that the dough doesn't stick. Serve with custard after it's had a little chance to cool.

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Fr Albert Robertson is assistant chaplain at Fisher House

This article appears in the September 2025 edition of the Catholic Herald. To subscribe to our thought-provoking magazine and have independent, high-calibre and counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door any where in the world click HERE.

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