Food & Drink
Return to a simpler age with dishes using oats, which are full of flavour and slow-releasing energy
Recipes from Neil Forbes, plus Rose Murray Brown on Argentina’s best reds
Ienjoy flicking through old cookery books as a way of understanding how we used to both live and eat so simply. Technology and smart phones result in people not talking to each other, and massproduced food lacks individuality and character. Imagine a life without that great soup you always make, your gran’s roast dinner, or mum’s rice pudding (made properly with a skin on the top).
I still think fondly of the simpler life when I was growing up. Food was accompanied by chat around the table enjoying porridge, broth and home-grown veg. Pudding was always something warming and cheap; a steamed sponge, bread pudding or queen of puddings. This was proper food that stands the test of time, and food that I still want to eat now.
In the past, folk in Scotland mainly ate oats at breakfast as brose, porridge or in bannock form sometimes known as ‘breid’. For lunch oats might be served with potatoes, milk or soup and then again at dinner alongside a barley broth. A good, healthy diet where a piece of beef, salt pork or a rabbit stew were a luxury.
In the Carse of Gowrie in the 1790s, a day’s ration for a farm labourer included two pints of buttermilk and 36 ounces of oatmeal, along with salt or 1 shilling in lieu, which forced the workforce to eat an awful lot of oats.
Perhaps oats are more of a true taste of Scotland than we give them credit for. A slow-releasing energy source with a wonderfully nutty flavour. Maybe we all need to be eating oats more often than we currently do?
Brose with cockles and mussels
In Auchterless, Aberdeenshire, a school’s log book notes that on 1 March 1881 the children celebrated ‘brose and bannock day’ in their parish. I adore brose. I’m making it here with leeks and mussels, but the old way with oatmeal, good beef stock, beef fat and salt is also delicious. It’s easy to make, and it keeps very well. Just reheat with a little stock or water if there are any leftovers.
Serves two 100g pinhead oats, soaked overnight in cold water, just enough to cover 1 handful mussels, beards removed and washed
1 handful Barra cockles, thoroughly rinsed under running water
½ leek, small diced
½ onion, diced
2 knobs butter a pinch of fresh parsley, roughly chopped some pepper dulse seaweed as a garnish lemon juice to taste good salt and pepper
1 Place a large pot on the hob and get it quite hot. Add the mussels, put the lid on and shake the pot. The mussels should be open and be cooked in a minute or two. Remove the mussels and strain the liquid through a fine sieve. Set both aside.
2 Give the pan a quick rinse and sweat the onion and leek in half the butter until just soft. This should take 3 to 5 minutes. Drain the oats and add them to the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Stir then add the mussel stock and a little water if required. You are aiming for a thick porridge consistency. Taste the oats as you go and keep stirring, as it is prone to sticking.
3 After 10 to 15 minutes cooking and stirring, add the cockles to the pot and cover with the lid. The shellfish will open with the heat of the cooked oats.
Then add the cooked mussels and season with salt, pepper and good squeeze of lemon juice. Stir in the remaining butter.
4 Be gentle with this dish – don’t mix it too much but do be careful of sticking.
5 Spoon the brose into warm bowls and garnish with parsley and pepper dulse seaweed.
Roast chicken breast with skirlie
Think of this as a stuffing served as a side dish. Oatmeal is fried with onions and fat, and the taste alongside the roast chicken is superb. It’s a bit like a mealy puddin’ from a proper fish and chip shop made from oats and onion, then steamed, dipped in batter and fried. If you can, get your oats from a traditional watermill. A few still exist today. Try Blair Atholl or Aberfeldy.
Serves two to four 1 small crown of good quality chicken ( free-range organic is fantastic), wings and wishbone removed
2 handfuls of pinhead oats, soaked overnight in cold water, just enough to cover a small handful of oatmeal, optional ½ large onion, finely chopped
1 large tbsp beef fat, ask the butcher for this, it is integral to the dish a handful of curly kale a few shallots to roast with the chicken a bunch of thyme a couple of garlic cloves, smashed 2 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil 2 knobs butter good salt and pepper
1 Heat oven to 180C/gas Mark 4. 2 Heat the oil in an oven-proof frying pan, then sear the chicken all over and season with lots of salt and pepper. Add some thyme, garlic and shallots to the pan and roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn the chicken and add a knob of butter to the pan. Baste, then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. After roasting, remove the chicken from the pan and allow to rest. Retain the juices. Leave the oven on.
3 To make the skirlie, heat the beef fat in a frying pan (I like using old iron pans) and fry the onions with some thyme leaves. Cook until the onions are just starting to colour. Then add the drained oats and stir well. Season with salt and pepper and place the whole pan in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The texture should almost be that of haggis. Add more butter or beef fat for flavour if required and check the seasoning.
4 Remove the skirlie from the oven, pour in the roasting juices from the chicken and stir well. Allow to sit for a few minutes whilst you cook the kale
in boiling water, drain and toss in a knob of butter.
5 To serve, remove the chicken breasts from the carcass and serve with the shallots, kale and skirlie. Keep the chicken carcass for soup or a lovely stock.
Oatcakes
At Cafe St Honoré we serve oatcakes with cheese, but try them with an Arbroath Smokie or smoked mackerel pâté. Another great way of including oats in your diet is to add a tablespoon of pinhead oats to a crumble topping, giving it a wonderfully rich flavour and a little bite.
Makes 30
500g pinhead oatmeal 100g porridge oats 400g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 150g bacon fat or butter 30g sugar
15g salt
250ml water
1 Heat oven to 180C/gas Mark 4. 2 Combine the oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and give a good mix before adding the bacon fat or butter. Continue to mix and slowly trickle in the water, a little at a time, to make a soft dough.
3 Roll into sausage shapes and refrigerate for a couple of hours, before cutting into 1cm thick discs. Place these onto a greaseproof paperlined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until golden and deliciously crunchy.