Dennis Gilliam is what one might call an oat expert. Well actually, as the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Bob’s Red Mill, he’s pretty knowledgeable about all of their 400 whole grain products. But at the last PCA event, Gilliam enthusiastically presented a cluster of oat-filled information, following his team’s win at the “Golden Spurtle” World Porridge Making Championships last October in Scotland.

 

He began with a rundown of the various forms of oats, ranging from the whole oat groat to oat flour, with steel cut oats, thick-rolled, old-fashioned, quick, instant, and Scottish oatmeal in between. We also learned that a spurtle is a carved wooden wand that the Scots use to stir their porridge.

 

With twenty PCA members in attendance, we put Uptown Billiards Club’s Chef Nathan Bates to the oat challenge when we asked him to create a menu featuring the various forms of Bob’s Red Mill’s oat products to be served in one of their dim-lit private dining spaces. For starters, he combined their Scottish-style oats into a melty Crab & Oat Cake with red pepper relish, and served their Scottish Oatcakes (recipe below) as an inventive canapé topped with foie gras-peanut butter and cherry compote—a decadent version that paired perfectly with a glass of Oregon oatmeal stout from the Oregon Brewers Guild.

 

In the salad course, Bates used oat flour and steel cut oats in a delicately crisp tuille atop an arugula, melon, and prosciutto salad. It was difficult to decide between the two entrée choices: roasted pheasant with a lamb and quick-cooking oat sausage served alongside crispy oat flour spätzle, peas, asparagus, wild mushrooms, and a deeply rich oatmeal stout demi glace, or a thick-cut pork chop encrusted with steel cut oats and stuffed with figs and pears, accompanied by Brussels sprouts and the same delicious oatmeal stout demi.

 

For a rather grand finale, Bates created a chocolate chip and oatmeal “cowboy” cookie ice cream sandwich filled with creamy honey toasted oat ice cream and served with a petite glass of “oat milk.”

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Suffice it to say that we’ve been schooled on the various cuts, grinds, and roll-thicknesses available from Bob’s Red Mill, with creative ideas from Chef Bates to use in our own oats cookery.

 

SCOTTISH OATCAKES

Recipe Courtesy of Bob’s Red Mill

 

1 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Scottish Oatmeal

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/2 cup hot water

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

 

Place all but 2 tablespoons of the Scottish Oatmeal in a bowl with flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder; stir until combined. Add butter and stir until evenly distributed. With a fork, mix in water, just until moistened. Pat dough into a ball, and then flatten slightly. Sprinkle reserved 2 tablespoons oats on a board. Roll dough out 1/4-inch thick.

 

With a 2 to 3 inch round (cookie) cutter, cut dough into rounds. Re-roll and cut scraps. Place oatcakes about 1/4 inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake in the pre-heated oven until Scottish Oatcakes are golden, approximately 25 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Enjoy plain, serve with jam or cheese, or use them to build hors d’oeuvres.

 

Makes 12 Scottish Oatcakes.

 

Nutrition Information: Using unsalted butter, each oatcake contains 110 Calories, 45 Calories from Fat, 5g Total Fat, 2.5g Saturated Fat, 10mg Cholesterol, 60mg Sodium, 15g Total Carbohydrates, 2g Dietary Fiber, 0g Sugar, 3g Protein.