Britain and Ireland · Volume 34, Salt, Smoke and the Land the Clearances Remade
Skirlie
Mainland Highlands
Illustration
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Researched
- 5 sources cited
Fried oatmeal and onion, the accompaniment that turns almost any plain roast into something with real texture.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 as a side. About 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 50g suet or dripping
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 175g pinhead oatmeal
- to taste salt and pepper
Method
- Melt the suet or dripping in a wide pan over medium heat, and brown the onion well, 5 minutes.
- Stir in the pinhead oatmeal, and cook, stirring often, about 8 minutes, until the oatmeal has absorbed the fat, toasted through, and still holds a little bite.
- Season generously with salt and pepper, and serve hot alongside roast meat or game.
What a modern chef changes
The fat browned properly first, and the whole dish put to a second use.
Rung 2, applied to fat rather than the oat alone.
Method
- Brown the fat itself to a nutty beurre noisette stage before adding the onion, deepening the whole dish's flavour before the oatmeal even goes in.
- Finish with a few cracked juniper berries from a dedicated spice grinder, a genuine Highland aromatic this dish rarely gets credited with using.
- Pack a portion into a game bird as stuffing rather than serving it only as a side, its dry, toasted texture holding up to roasting far better than a bread stuffing would.