Winter well-and-truly struck Melbourne last week.  It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a “proper” winter, cold and drizzly, requiring stew and stodge to keep the inner fires burning.

Last Sunday I wanted a cup of tea and a pikelet or  two.  Warm liquid, a delicious stodge! While I was mixing up a batch, I noticed the organic oats I’d bought a few weeks ago.  Hmm.. Oaten Pikelets?  yes please.

I cooked the whole batch, and froze the extras which became my “toaster porridge” during the week, toasted, served with some poached quince and yogurt.

So good, I made a batch today purely for breakfast purposes!  I also added some spelt flakes.  for extra wholegrain goodness.

Makes about 10 toaster-sized ovals.

1½ cups rolled oats

1 cup spelt flakes (or use all oats)

¾ cup SR flour

½ teaspoon baking power

¼ cup caster sugar

¾ cup milk

2 eggs lightly beaten

90g butter, melted

splash of vanilla extract

pinch of salt.

In a food processor, whiz 2 cups of oats &/or spelt flakes until they are fine.  Add them to a bowl, with the unprocessed oats, the flour, baking powder and sugar.  Stir together. Melt butter gently.  Add eggs and butter and half the milk, stir to combine, adding extra milk as you go.  You want a thick consistency like cream.  It’s hard to tell how much milk the oats will soak up, so you may need to add more/less to make a good pouring consistency.   Add vanilla and salt to taste.

Stand at least 20 mins, adjust consistency.  Heat a heavy bottomed frypan over a medium heat.  Swirl some butter in a cook the pikelets until golden brown.

Freeze between pieces of freezer wrap and toast to serve!

Feels like Lamb Shank night, and it was. Some lovely (but my aren’t they expensive now!) lamb shanks, two onions, half a bottle of decent cab and water to simmer with a muslin bag including tangerine peel, peppercorns, juniper berries, a cinnamon stick and three bay leaves. After an hour I tipped in a tin of tomatoes and a tin of chickpeas. 30 more mins then I added two chopped carrots, 3 sticks celery (chopped) and a diced onion.

30 more mins and a gentle simmer then test for thickness (add a bit of flour mixed with water to thicken if desired) and seasoning. I take the bones out and shred the meat and return them to the stew. Cook some parsnips in cream, pepper and water then puree them. Serve! Delish!

We followed with Lemon Delicious pudding actually.