Here's one of those north Staffs oatcakes I bang on about. Not my home-made ones this time but some I picked up from Morrison's in Burton-on-Trent.There are actually two in the picture, sandwiching some crisp smoked bacon and a thin omelette, then folded over.
If you buy a filled oatcake ready to eat from many oatcake bakeries in Staffs or Cheshire they tend to be filled then re-heated in the micro-wave. Hot but floppy (and no-one likes to see that..). Serving them like this misses out the key textural pleasure which only comes when you crisp up the outsides of the warmed, folded oatcake. I warm them through and make them pliable with a short burst in the microwave. Then I fill them, roll them and crisp them on both sides under the grill or in a hot pan - as in my picture. The miraculous thing about these ancient English griddle breads is that when you do crisp the exterior, the main body of the oatcake doesn't dry out but retains its delightful sponginess. Only then do you have the pleasure of biting through a crisp outside, then the soft inner oatcake, and on into the filling proper. Like most of the little touches, it's a bit of a faff doing them this way but it's worth it. Trust me.
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