Skirlie

1 cup Oatmeal(preferably Scottish/pinhead style, something with chunks of actual oat grain in there. NOT instant, in other words.)

1 big onion, red or yellow or sweet

Olive oil for sauteeing

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Optional: If you like you can put a small taste of butter in there to improve the flavour and help the onions brown. Just a tiny bit will do! Typically this dish is cooked in beef drippings but this is a lower fat version.

Chop the onions fine and saute them in the olive oil. Don't cook them too fast - they should be translucent, slightly brown and soft, not crunchy burnt.

Add the oatmeal and lower the heat, you can add some water if you want, just a few spoonfuls to moisten the oatmeal.

The idea here is to let the oatmeal cook slowly and absorb oil and moisture from the other ingredients until it puffs a little bit. It will not get sloppy and if it seems to be sort of sticky floury, it means you either used too fine an oatmeal or it needs more cooking.

The final product should be thick and slightly crisp on the outside like a stuffing, now add salt and pepper to taste and eat. It's very filling so even though it's typically listed as a side dish in Scottish cookbooks, it's really a meal in itself.





Number of Servings: 4

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user TENTHDOCTOR.