Life’s a gas as Nadiya samples Derbyshire oatcakes in the High Peak
Former Great British Bake Off winner turned author and TV presenter Nadiya Hussain’s flourishing career has reached a new peak – the ‘capital of the Peak’, in fact, as she came to Derbyshire to sample Ian Barratt’s authentic Derbyshire oatcakes for her new BBC2 series, Nadiya’s British Food Adventure.
The eight-part series takes her all over Britain to find local specialities. The Derbyshire episode which aired on July 24, saw Nadiya sampling Ian’s traditional fare and finding out how the oatcakes are made before devising her own improvised speciality – Derbyshire oatcake samosas!
Nadiya was certainly cooking with gas on the day – literally so, as Ian’s farmhouse and bakehouse at Owlgreave Farm in Combs, just outside Chapel-en-le-Frith, uses LPG from Chesterfield based AvantiGas for cooking and heating.
LPG fires up Ian’s gargantuan, vintage, 18-foot hotplate with its gas jets underneath which cooks up to five dozen oatcakes at a time, totalling 200-300 dozen oatcakes or thicker pikelets per shift.
Ian Barratt comments:-
“Gas has a nice moist heat which is what you need for the oatcakes. Electric hotplates dry them out too much.”
Ian showed Nadiya how he and his mother, Eileen, and assistant Sheila make the batter then griddle the oatcakes, ready for them to be delivered to shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants across three counties.
Then Nadiya came up with her own special twist on tradition:-
“She made vegetable samosas out of the oatcakes – and they were brilliant! She used flour and water to seal the edges and deep fried them, so they crisped up on the outside and had the moist and slightly spicy vegetables on the inside. I can see them becoming a whole new product line. They were absolutely delicious!”
Andrew Mann, Head of Marketing at AvantiGas, said:-
“We’re delighted that Ian is cooking his unique products with gas and finds it produces the best results, and equally delighted that Nadiya has sampled them and enjoyed them. We’ve been Ian’s supplier for many years now – and long may it continue.”
Ian has just had a third LPG tank installed too, because as well as his farmhouse and bakery, he fuels a holiday cottage with LPG and heats the toilet block on his campsite.
