Herrings in Oatmeal
Still on a breakfast theme (the Floddies, not the Pimm’s) and it’s high time I posted a dish from my current part of the world. I moved to Scotland just over a year ago and it’s been equally an education of cuisine as one of culture.
I didn’t know until my time here that jumbo sausages could be deep-fried in batter, that the Pakora was regarded (by some) as Scotland’s national dish, nor that the Scotch Pies at Ibrox could make your gums bleed for more than the duration of a Glasgow Rangers football match. Here, just as in the rest of Britain, great food doesn’t come looking for you. It has to be hunted down, which is really what this blog is all about.
Herrings in Oatmeal doesn’t take too much hunting down. A very famous Scottish breakfast, one which even I’ve known of for years,
and so simple there’s really no recipe involved. My herrings came to me filleted by my fishmonger with the skins left on, but these little blighters are über boney so a little time was taken to pluck out the worst offenders. Once boned and trimmed the fillets were well seasoned and dropped flesh side down onto a plate of pinhead oatmeal and pressed hard making sure the whole side of the fillet was firmly coated with the oats. The oiliness of the fish was all the adhesive needed for this. Finally the fillets were fried in a hot, oiled skillet on the oaty flesh side for 3 or 4 minutes until the oats were toasty and brown, then flipped onto the skin side for another couple of minutes along with a knob of butter.
Of course, your average 280 lbs Scottish bare-knuckle prize fighter might skip the sprig of parsley and lemon wedges, but this is one tasty brekkie that will set you up, well, until lunchtime at least.
GDave
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GDave,
A great dish, as you say very simple. Personally I’d rather eat it for lunch with a tomato salad but that’s just the Southerner in me!
What is it with the Scottish and oats by the way? I understand the fact that they are a slow releasing energy source for the Highland sheep farmers but not the fact they seem to have based their entire cuisine around them
Miles
Comment by Miles − on Jul 11, 2009 at 9:16 am
Miles,
Tell me about it. They slip oatmeal into just about everything up here, even black pudding which is almost tantamount to treason!
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on Jul 11, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Oats are ok. I like oats. Flapjacks, for example - great!
But oats with herrings? This sounds like a way to mess up the perfectly nice breakfasty taste of oats. Stubbornly, I’m not going to try your recipe as I am just not a fan of herring.
This combination brings to mind a movie quote from Wayne’s World: Garth says, “Benjamin is nobody’s friend. If Benjamin were an icecream flavor, he’d be…”
Oats stuffed with herring? I think I’d rather have the original. Party on.
Comment by Bowlhead_2000 − on Jul 26, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Bowlhead,
Ah, not being a herring fan is seriously going to dampen your enjoyment of this one. You’re gonna hate it when I do a post on kippers.
As Miles quite rightly said earlier, the Scots pair everything with oatmeal, but in this case I really quite enjoyed it. I’ve since found that it’s much easier (and less messy) to grill the fillets rather than fry them. Just have to figure a way of seamlessly updating the post now.
GDave
Comment by greedydave − on Jul 30, 2009 at 3:49 pm