britishfood

Today’s ingredient is oats and although I know everyone is familiar with them, they form such a staple in Scottish cookery that it is important to know the different types.

Most of us think of oats and we think of porridge. I have particularly nasty memories of trying to scrub porridge pots in a Scottish hotel. The most common oats used in porridge are rolled oats. The finer the oat, the quicker the cooking time so instant oatmeal uses crushed oats which are almost powdery in their form. Then you have Scotch oats, also known as pinhead or steel cut oats. They are the least processed but also need the longest cooking time to create your morning porridge. They all have the same nutritional value but the resulting porridge will have a different consistency, depending on what type of oats you have used.

So what else can you use them in? I am a big fan of oatcakes, a dry oat-based cracker. They’re hard to find in the US but have a low-GI value, are low in fat, and are great with cheese and pickle.

Oats are also a key ingredient in haggis and some sausages, acting as a filler. Then of course you have desserts - oat cookies, flapjacks,  crumble, and so on. There’s a lot more to the humble oat than porridge. How about this scrummy sounding recipe for Cranachan, courtesy of the BBC :

250 ml fresh double cream

1 tbs thick heather honey

1 tbs Scottish whisky

1 tbs toasted oatmeal

2 punnets of fresh raspberries

Whisk the cream with the honey and whisky. Fold in the oatmeal and serve on top of fresh raspberries. Serves 4, no cooking required, but some good Scottish ingredients.

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