January 25 is the day to celebrate Scottish poet Robbie Burns, and in honor of the season, Cinda Chavich, CBC Radio’s food and cooking columnist, explores something oh-so-Scottish, and Albertan, oats.

SO WHY CONNECT OATS WITH ROBBIE BURNS?

Well, two things, I guess. For one thing, we grow a lot of oats in Alberta, and for another, oats are an integral ingredient in haggis, the classic dish that will be served at every Burns dinner this weekend around the world.

But I have a confession to make about oats - even though my grandmother was from Scotland, and loved to serve us porridge for breakfast, it’s one of the foods that I really don’t like.

My husband, on the other hand, loves his porridge, and loves to make it for breakfast. I do eat it, usually smothered with maple syrup, and sometimes a bit of cream, but even then, I can’t say I love porridge.

But, I do know that oats are very healthy, so last week at breakfast, I wondered out loud, why you couldn’t make a savoury dish with oats – something with onions and garlic or even cheese. My husband thought that sounded gross, like haggis – but I wondered if the cook who first created haggis was really searching for a way to make oatmeal more palatable. 

SO HAGGIS IS MADE WITH OATMEAL?

Yes, haggis actually sort of a sausage, made with ground lamb scraps and offal, mixed with oats and onions, and stuffed into a sheep’s stomach. The rolled oats are probably considered more of a binder, like bread crumbs might be in meat loaf, but it did get me thinking about how you might make a savoury dish using oats. So I got out my bag of Highwood Crossing steel cut oats, grown right here in southern Alberta, and started experimenting.

WHAT ARE STEEL CUT OATS?

That’s a very Scottish or Irish style of processing oats for porridge – in fact, they’re sometime sold as Scottish or Irish oats. Here in North America oats are usually rolled in a mill, basically flattened – so you get large rolled oats and quick oats, which are both sliced, steamed and flattened into flakes. These kinds of oats lose some of their nutritive value in processing, and instant oats are even less healthy.

Steel cut oats are tops when it comes to nutrition - simply whole oats that are dried and chopped, not steamed or rolled. They are processed with no heat, so they retain all of their healthy B vitamins. They also cook up into a chewier porridge with more texture, something like kasha or bulgar wheat.

Because steel cut oats are rather pilaf-like when cooked, even for your breakfast porridge, I thought they might work in savoury side dishes, too.

SO TELL ME ABOUT SOME OF THE OATMEAL DISHES YOU DEVISED

First, you need to know how to cook steel cut oats – the ratio is 1:3 or 1:4 oats to water. I like 1:3 or even 1:2.5 as the oats stay chewier. Boil water, add the oats and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, then remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes.

You can add butter or cream to steel cut oats when you’re having them for breakfast, so I started by adding some butter.

That was pretty good, and even better when I stirred in some grated cheese, salt and pepper. Simple, savoury, oats and cheese, and a good breakfast – with grain, fibre and protein. Sounds weird, I know but when you think about it, it’s a little like congee, the savoury rice porridge that people eat in China, and very similar to that southern breakfast classic, cheese grits.

It was a revelation actually – after years of choking down oatmeal with brown sugar or syrup, I found a way to eat it that I really love. So that’s my new savoury breakfast porridge.

AND DID YOU COME UP WITH ANY OTHER IDEAS?

Well, I talked with Tony Marshall at Highwood Crossing, where they grow and process certified organic oats and other grains, and he gave me a few more ideas.

They soak their steel cut oats overnight with milk, which sort of pre-hydrates them and makes them extra creamy, or they make their steel cut oats overnight in the slow cooker, combined with sweet additions like chopped dates and dried cranberries. Of course, oats go into recipes for breads, granola and granola bars, even cakes and cookies. But I was looking for savoury uses for oats.

For savoury oats, Tony Marshall suggests a steel cut oats pilaf, cooked with chicken stock, onions, celery, diced carrots and fresh herbs. In fact, some chefs have done creative pilafs with their Highwood Crossing power grain cereal – a combination of oat groats, flax and millet – combining it with stock, herbs and couscous in a savory side dish

DO YOU COOK THE OATS DIFFERENTLY FOR SAVOURY DISHES?

The trick is cooking the oats so they’re tender but not too mushy or wet. If you start with the steel cut oats – say 1 cup, and soak them in 2 cups of boiling water for about 30-45 minutes, the oats will hydrate and swell, then you can drain off any excess liquid and use them like rice in pilafs or even in salads like tabouleh. They’re even tastier if you toast the oats first in a dry pan in a 400F oven for about 5-10 minutes.

I often make kasha – which is buckwheat groats – in a kind of pilaf with mushrooms and dill, so I tried substituting steel cut oats in that recipe which worked quite nicely.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Oats also act as a good thickener in soups and stews – there’s a classic Scottish chicken and root vegetable soup with oats. Some people use rolled oats, or quick oats, to coat fish or chicken for frying.

There’s also something they call scrapple, which is sort of a hash made with pork hocks  – you use the broth from cooking the meat to cook the oats, adding flavourings like minced onions, garlic, thyme and sage. And then you let that mixture cool in a pan – it will set up like polenta – and you can slice the scrapple and sauté it in butter to serve. Real peasant food.

I even found a recipe for oat risotto – just substitute steel cut oats for the short grain rice, and use the usual onions, garlic, chicken stock and Parmesan cheese.

AND WHY EAT OATS?

Actually, oats are super healthy – they’re loaded with B Vitamins, Vitamin E and are an excellent source of fibre, about 8 g per ½ cup serving, low in fat, with higher levels of protein than other grains, and lots of calcium and iron, zinc and magnesium. It’s the soluable fibre in oats, the kind that substantially lowers cholesterol, that makes this grain so important for preventing heart disease and cancer. It also helps control blood glucose, thanks to that fibre, and helps reduce high blood pressure and aid in weight loss. Oat beta glucans also seem to speed healing so eating oats can really help your body on many levels.

It took awhile, historically speaking, for people to see oats as anything more than horse feed. But the Crusaders carried oats with them on their travels, and when they returned home to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Denmark, Germany and France, they planted fields of this grain that sustained them. The rest is history, as they say.

We grow lots of oats in Canada  – about 1/3 of the country’s production right here in Alberta.

RECIPES?

Yes, I’m including a delicious oat and onion risotto recipe, you can add mushrooms or other vegetables, too, and a Western style oat groat tabouli salad made with steel cut oats, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado and cilantro.

click here for recipes...

©Cinda Chavich

www.tastereport.com