Oats - the rolled kind

"a grain which in England is given to horses but in Scotland supports the people." Dr. Samuel Johnson

Once more we were reminded on television that oats are extremely good for you, particularly if you have high cholesterol. Even a relatively small amount of oats eaten every day will lower your cholesterol dramatically. i wonder if that means that all those porridge eaters out there have low cholesterol. Still I won't argue as it seems to be a generally acknowledged medical fact. So I thought I would see what you can do with oats.

Well so much that I don't think I can properly cover the subject really. I could do a whole post on porridge for example, though I don't think I will here, because I'm not a fan. Suffice to say that if you want to know about porridge go to Felicity Cloake's excellent article on the best way of making it. For myself I have very bad memories of porridge - not that we had it at home, which is possibly curious. But I went on a geography field course once on the borders of England and Wales, and every morning we had porridge for breakfast. I used to force it down, trying very hard not to be sick. It was sickly sweet and a nasty texture (to me anyway) and of course it was milky - and I do not like milk. Though I have since learnt that it is not necessarily made with milk. So I'm not a porridge fan - but I have to say Felicity Cloake's article almost tempted me to try again. And did you know that there is a Golden Spurtle World Porridge Championship every year? What is a spurtle you may ask. Well a spurtle is a special kind of implement with which to stir the porridge. Like risotto, it seems, you have to keep stirring it. And here is a sculpture of a spurtle - I thought the Australians were the only ones to make giant statues of weird things. It looks a bit like a baseball bat with a knob on the top to me.

And this is what Felicity Cloake's perfect porridge looked like - not all that tempting is it?:

"Oats, softened with water, milk or both, stirred over the heat; some berries, a trickle of amber maple syrup, honey, and occasionally a spoon of yogurt. This is my recipe for a cold, dark morning." Nigel Slater

His version looks a whole lot more tempting but then you can't really see the porridge underneath the berries and the yoghurt. Berries will make anything look good.

But back to oats as an ingredient. It's an ancient grain but until well after the middle ages it was not much eaten by the wealthy as it was more known as fodder for animals (who love it) and the very poor. No richer person would therefore eat it. The Crusaders were apparently the first to eat and to plant it because it was so easy to make a meal out of and so easy to grow.

I learnt all this from the wonderful Bert Greene in his Grains Cookbook written way back in 1988 so he was well ahead of his time, writing a whole book on grains - grains being the ingredient of the moment these days, in many ways. Though, of course even back before then there were whole food junkies who touted the virtues of oats. I have another, even older, book called The Wholefood Book, dated 1978 which also sings the praises of oats. And of course Bircher Muesli, which is based on oats was invented long before then. Bert Greene maintained that 80% of the oats grown in the US were eaten by animals. I wonder if this is still the case. My Wholefood Book maintains that you cannot make bread with oats, but Bert Greene has at least a couple of recipes for breads, albeit not exclusively made with oats.

I spent a very pleasant half an hour or so reading Bert Green's chapter on oats. He has a whole other chapter on oat bran, which I didn't read, so I won't deal with that here. What we are talking about are rolled oats, quick oats - the ones we make muesli and granola with. For the trendiness of oats, comes, not just from its health-giving properties but also from it's association with breakfast, granola type things, and smoothies too. And - bonus - it's gluten free. I checked out Jamie Oliver, and Delia and Stephanie Alexander, and they mostly talked about muesli kind of things and biscuits too, though Stephanie does not mention it at all - which is interesting in a negative sort of way.

Bert Greene does have several biscuit or cookie recipes but he also has a variety of other things - a soup, a batter for fish and vegetables, sausages, meat loaf, pancakes, a fried chicken dish, a couple of pizza kind of things and a couple of pies. So there's lots of things you can do with oats. Personally I confess I only use them in a crumble topping. One more weird use I found was again from the English - from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who makes a kind of milk from it. He makes it "by soaking 200g medium oatmeal in 600ml cold water for 30 minutes, blitzing in a blender, then passing through a muslin-lined sieve. Use the oat milk plain, sweeten it with honey or add a pinch of salt. It's a refreshing drink, or you can add it to smoothies or use in baking. And it's brilliant on your breakfast cereal instead of milk." I think this one's for the health-food freaks, rather than me.

But I cannot leave oats without giving you the recipe for Jane Grigson's tomato tart. I know I have referred to this before, but I don't think I have given you the recipe. She apparently modestly said that it was one of only two or three truly original recipes that she published. I made it once years ago and have been meaning to do it again ever since. It was so delicious, if a bit spicy.

TOMATO AND OATMEAL TART

Pastry - 125g plain flour, 125g rolled oats, a good pinch of salt, 125g butter or lard, or both mixed, 1 large egg, beaten

Filling - 1 medium to large onion, chopped, 1 large clove garlic, chopped, 60g butter, 1 medium tin (400g) tomatoes, 1 large egg, single or whipping cream, 1 heaped tablespoon grated Parmesan, 1 teaspoon harissa or chilli sauce or 1 small seeded chilli or cayenne, 60g Cheddar, grated

Make the pastry in the usual way and use it to line a 20-30cm tart tin with a removable base. Put it in the larder or fridge to rest while you make the filling.

Cook the onion and garlic until soft in the butter, without browning them. Tip in the tomatoes with their juice (and the small chilli, if used: chop it first). Boil hard until fairly thick and not at all watery. Meanwhile break the egg into a measuring jug and bring it up to 150ml with the cream, mixing them thoroughly together. At this point switch on the oven to 190ºC and put a baking sheet on to the centre shelf to heat up at the same time.

When the tomato mixture is nicely thick, remove it from the heat. Stir in the cheeses, then the egg and cream. If you have not used a chilli, stir in the harissa (which I think is the best) or chilli sauce, or cayenne; do this gradually, to taste. Add more if you think the mixture could be hotter. Add a little salt.

When the oven is at the right heat, turn the tomato mixture into the pastry case and use the trimmings of pastry to make a simple lattice. Or sprinkle the top with some grated Cheddar and breadcrumbs. Put the tart on to the heated baking sheet and leave for 30 minutes, or a little longer. Serve straight from the oven, or warm with a green salad.

I'm getting hungry reading about it but unfortunately it's a fasting day for me.