Oats, the simple wholegrain grown throughout the South, are getting a modern makeover thanks to a group of culinary students.
Oat ice cream, fermented sauce, bulking agents, gluten-free macarons and breakfast bars are among the ideas students have come up with.
Course lecturer Tim Lynch says in the past the course has looked at ways to use waste products, such as waste potatoes from Heartlands chips, as the base product for the paper.
‘‘This time around it’s quite unusual in that we’re using an already refined product.’’
Oats were selected as the base for creating value-added products as they are produced in farms across the lower South Island and milled in Dunedin at Harraways.
Harraways began milling in 1857 and is the sole remaining oat mill in the country.
‘‘If we look at all those issues surrounding food sovereignty and food security, local food systems in New Zealand, Harraway’s are embedded and engaged in each one of those and have been for 150-odd years. So they’re a really good company to demonstrate what these systems look like and how they work.’’
The paper aims to get the students looking at how they can intervene positively in local food systems.
‘‘So far Watties has gone, Greggs has gone. We’ve just had a procession of food producers all going broke, because it’s becoming progressively more difficult to be a viable food producer in New Zealand in the domestic economy.’’
‘‘So the product itself is something that falls out of a whole lot of learning, around a whole lot of quite subtle and sophisticated mechanisms that they need to sort of start understanding.’’
As well as creating the product, the students have to market and sell it at the Otago Farmers Market and present it to a panel at the end.
Student Jo Li, from China, and his team made an oat ice cream stack mixing oats with chocolate and cream cheese in flavours of blueberry, strawberry and matcha-chocolate kunafa.
‘‘Our goal is to connect oats with a more premium image, rather than letting people continue to see oats as just a cheap or old-fashioned food.’’
They have also created an oat garum, a fermented oat sauce that is rich and umami filled.
‘‘Our goal for this project is to create a locally made and sustainable alternative to imported seasonings while promoting the use of accessible local ingredients. We also want to provide a more inclusive option for people with certain dietary restrictions or allergies related to common fermented products like soy-based sauces.’’
The group also tried their hands at making an oat soap after discovering oats have beneficial properties for soothing the skin.
Selling the products at the market they found people were curious.
‘‘To some extent, we believe the experience may have changed the way they view oats.
‘‘Oats should no longer be seen as just a boring breakfast cereal, but as a versatile ingredient that can play different roles across multiple industries.’’
‘‘I envision my baking mix being an accessible way for anyone to start baking; a fun activity to do with kids or a shared flat experience to feel closer to home.’’
Bailey Kelynack, from Wellington, says her team wanted to introduce oats to consumers in a format different from porridge to show their versatility.
‘‘To do this, our product needed to be something comforting and nostalgic. That took us all the way back to the familiar feeling of sausage rolls at kids’ parties, at the local dairy during school.’’
William Parks came up with the idea of using oats as a meat substitute. He mixed the oats with Marmite, another New Zealand staple.
‘‘By introducing a vege alternative through our sausage rolls, we managed to reach a wider audience than we may have by doing the usual burger patties,’’ Kelynack says.
‘‘We were mostly surprised by how good it tasted on the first go after Will had come to us with the recipe.’’
The response from market-goers was positive with one who used to be a vegetarian saying he had started eating meat again as there were not great options available like this one.
‘‘This is obviously something we were looking for, as the value from our product comes from people willing to adapt their lifestyle to suit it, while keeping the taste great.’’
The experience had really highlighted the theory of sustainability in a practical way, Kelynack says.
