Ireland: Donegal Oatmeal Cream (March 2, 2009)

It's a fair complaint that, as Saint Patrick's Day comes rolling around and people start looking at the dessert options, it seems that nearly everything has either whiskey or Baileys in it. For the fan of Irish food looking for something that doesn't contain alcohol, the opportunities can sometimes feel a little limited.

With this in mind, here's a dessert based (as quite a number of Irish desserts are) on that hardiest of homegrown Irish grains, the oat. Don't try this with rolled oats! You need the cracked whole oat grain or groat, sometimes called pinhead oats, cracked oats or porage oats. Health food stores often carry them if your local grocery doesn't.

Making this dessert takes a little extra work, but it's worth it... the dulcet smoothness of the oatmeal cream and the lighter, cooler touch of the whipped cream, with the gracenote of tart fruit added, make the perfect end to a festive meal.

Click on "read more" for the recipe and the method.   

This makes about four servings.

Ingredients:

• 15 fluid ounces milk
• 1/2 cup pinhead oatmeal
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 large egg, beaten
• Grated rind and juice of 1 orange: a bitter Seville orange is best if you can get one
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 ounce gelatine
• 2 tablespoons water
• 8 ounces heavy cream, whipped
• The fruit sauce of your choice (any slightly thinned fruit jam works well)

The night before: Scald the milk (i.e., heat it to just before boiling but do not let it boil) and remove from heat. Add the oatmeal and the pinch of salt: stir, cover, and soak the oatmeal overnight in the milk.

The next day, reheat the oatmeal and milk mixture just until it boils. Simmer for another 3-4 minutes: then remove from heat.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the beaten egg, grated lemon rind, and sugar to taste. Dissolve the gelatine in the orange juice and water. Add this to the mixture when it's cooled, and then carefully fold in the whipped cream.

Pour the whole mixture into a single glass bowl, or into individual parfait glasses, and leave to set. (You may want to stir the contents gently once or twice while they're setting, to keep the oats from sinking to the bottom.) Serve with more whipped cream and 3-4 tablespoons of your chosen fruit sauce on top.

Another more parfait-like approach to this dessert: allow the whole recipe's worth of oatmeal cream to set in a single bowl. Stir gently as above, so that the oatmeal is evenly distributed through the mixture when it's set. Then spoon it into parfait glasses, alternating layers of oatmeal cream with more whipped cream and drizzles of fruit sauce. If you want to cut back on the calories a little, you could also substitute creme fraiche or beaten low-fat sour cream for the whipped cream.