Staffordshire oatcakes

Burn's night(Jan 25th) is coming up and thinking back on our success with home-made haggis last year, we thought, "Can't we make oatcakes at home?" (we really liked the Walker's oatcakes that we ate with our home-made haggis, neeps and tatties).
So, we decided to search recipes to make oatcakes on the internet, and found several recipes for oatcakes. Quite often with surfing the net, one gets distracted from the original quest and we decided to try something we could eat for a hearty winter breakfast - fuel for the furnace before hitting the slopes!

And that's how we came to try recipe for Staffordshire oatcakes from Food.com. They looked easier to make and besides, we had watched a program on TV just the other night (you can find the video in full here) that gives a bit of background into this rustic snack that originated on (surprise!) North Staffordshire and are usually eaten with savoury fillings in contrast to maple syrup and butter.

This delicious pancake requires some forward planning so, we prepared the batter the night before and left it in the fridge to rise overnight.

Oatmeal batter before rising overnight

The next morning, half expecting the fridge door to be ajar and us having to wade through gloopy batter overflowing from the fridge, we opened the bedroom door and... it was all good. The batter had risen nicely and stayed in the mixing bowl. The next step was simply to fire up the stove, stick a skillet on and fry them like any other pancake. Traditionally, these oatcakes are about 8 inches in diameter (so that you can wrap bacon, cheese, sausages and other wicked stuff in them).

pancake cooking in the skillet, note bubbles on the surface

Once the bottom is golden (about 2-3min), carefully turn them over (these oatcakes have less flour than regular pancakes and are more crumbly) and cook for another 2-3 min.

Golden Staffordshire Oatcakes

We tried them savoury (with fried Spam and cheese and ketchup) and sweet, with butter and maple syrup as well as with peanut butter and jam. All three were delicious, but I think it was best savoury. Try it! let me know which filling works best for you!

RECIPE:
Ingredients:

• 150g fine oatmeal (whiz up regular oatmeal if needed)
• 150g lb wholemeal flour
• 300ml Cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 7oz sachet dry yeast

Method:

1. Heat water and milk in saucepan to 30C
2. Mix all dry ingredients together with a whisk and then add the warm water/milk and whisk till well mixed. It will be quite runny.
3. Cover bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for at least an hour (till nice and bubbly) or overnight in the fridge.
4. When ready, give batter a good stir and cook on a lightly greased griddle or skillet. The pancakes are traditionally about 6-8inched wide and quite thin.
5. Cook for about 2-3min on one side, until golden and then flip over gently and brown the other side
6. Keep on a warm plate whilst remaining are cooking.

The recipe yields 6 large or 8 medium oatcakes

Chinese Style Steamed Fish and Oysters

Coming to the end of the week and looking forward (?) to a weekend "on call" for work, I was hankering for a good chinese seafood dinner.

With the rather poor options for eating out in our little town, the best alternative was to cook. So, popped into the local - very good - supermarket (Ferraro's Foods), I picked out the freshest bit of fish I could see. And it so happened to be sole, a lovely bit of finely textured white fish, perfect for steaming. And it was on "special" too! Yay!
Hmm... the fillet was a bit small, so quickly asked for a tub of Fanny Bay Oysters also on sale for $3.90. Yum, this would make a tasty combo.

Once home, it was a simple matter of cooking some fragrant Thai Jasmine rice in the microwave whilst the seafood was being prepared. In the time it took for the rice to cook, all the prep work plus steaming of the fish was done and all I had to do was to precisely time the frying of shallots and garlic and pour the resultant hot oil mixture over the fish with a very satisfying sizzle!

The fish was done just right, flaked beautifully, melt in mouth tenderness, the mild flavour served as a foil for the aromatic green herbs and crunchy onion and garlic bits. The oysters turned out better than expected - plump, juicy and still with a slight crunch. Again the fragrant oils and green herbs complemented the briny almost metallic taste of the bivalve.

Would have gone very well with a chilled Riesling... but next time perhaps!

Ingredients:

• 1 large fillet of sole (or similar, halibut will do nicely too)
• Fresh oysters, (shucked, optional)
• Cilatro leaves, fresh, roughly chopped
• Spring Onions, fresh, finely sliced
• dried garlic flakes
• dried onion flakes
• 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
• fresh ginger - about 1 inch - finely juliened
• peanut oil - 4 Tbsp
• sesame oil - 1 tsp
• light soy sauce - 3 Tbsp

You'll also need a large wok with cover or a steamer

Method:

1. make sure the fish has been thoroughly deboned, cut into large portions about 5x8cm
2. lay fish in a heat proof dish (e.g. Pyrex)
3. lay the shucked oysters over the fish, generously layering juliened ginger in between and over all the pieces of seafood
4. bring water to boil in the wok, and place dish with seafood onto a steaming rack, cover and steam at high heat for 5min
5. Whilst fish is cooking, heat peanut oil in a saucepan, add dried onions and garlic to brown - this will take about 2 min, so time it to coincide with the end of the 5min cooking time for the fish
6. Once fish is cooked, remove from steamer, drizzle with soy sauce, sprinkle with cilantro, spring onion and red chilli and pour the very hot oil over the whole assembly. (it was sizzle and spit!)
7. Serve immediately - Enjoy!