More fun with Oatmeal

[pecunium]

I made breakfast for CG this morning.

It was an excise to use the spurtle I picked up for CG while I was buying kilt hose for Ian.

I don't think what I made this morning is the sort of thing to enter in The Golden Spurtle but it wasn't bad.

The usual recipe for, "rich man's porridge" (1 part oats/1 part water/1 part milk/1 part cream: if it's too dry, add a bit more cream/milk/water, as suits your preference, and a bit of sweetening. I used maple syrup, but honey or sugar are just fine).

While stirring that, CG sliced some apples and I put some sugar and water on to boil. When the skillet was bubbling, the apples went in. Let it reduce, add some more water (to cook the apples more) and reduce again to the fine-thread stage of caramel.

Put those in the bottom of the bowl, cover with oatmeal and serve with coffee.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Oooooh!

Alright, quit making me drool.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

I love the word spurtle. It sounds so dirty.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Does a spurtle do a better job than a spoon or spatula? If so, why?

[redbird]

I get about the same results; maybe someone who'd been making porridge all her life would see a difference. [I have a spurtle because my mother picked it up as a random amusing souvenir from a couple of days in Scotland, years before I'd started eating porridge--it wasn't part of my upbringing--and used it the first time when all the wooden spoons were dirty.]

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I find that a round tool (spoon handle is my usual) makes a better porridge. I think this is because I can get to the corners of the pan.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

The recent passion for spurtles (of various styles) is amusing, but I've always found that long wooden utensils -- the kind currently sometimes available in a package containing a spoon, spatula, & fork (the former two being applicable for stiring oatmeal) in 99-cent stores (though smoothing them with 00 sandpaper and soaking for a few days in vegetable oil may be a good idea) -- are excellent for the purpose. Somehow, I have a sneaking suspicion that the spurtles sold in upscale culinary equipment stores cost more than 50 cents apiece, and aren't significantly better.

Okay, yes, I'd spring for a bit more if the wood were, say, a nicely-grained rock maple, hornbeam, or some other smooth-surface hardwood -- but not much more, because these tools can be made from scraps so small that they'd go into a woodshop's firewood pile.

You don't mention what kind of oats you used -- the American-style rolled oats make quite a good hot breakfast dish (especially in cold weather), but it's significantly different from steel-cut oat corn (which is best soaked overnight before cooking for a ridiculously long time) and hardly qualifies as oat porridge.

Mind you, for the past decade or so I've done nothing more ambitious along that line than to zap some Quaker Oats & low-fat milk in the microwave, stir in a little honey with an ordinary tablespoon, add some cold milk atop, and devour, and have found that more complex rituals have lost most of their Power.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Rolled oats are a different beast, and don't work the same way. These were cut. I've never soaked them overnight. 30-45 minutes of stirring and they are done. I use the handle of a wooden spoon at home. The spurtle as nice (and cost about 5 bucks), a piece of maple.

But cut oats are what one gets for porridge in Ireland and Scotland.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes -- I should have realized that if you were going to use a spurtle you'd select the proper kind of oats.

Mind you, I'm heretical enough to consider (and plan on doing it Real Soon Now) cooking steel-cut oats in the microwave, where only a few stirrings might be needed to prevent sticking&burning (though I'm not certain about creating the right sticky texture & mouthfeel without nearly-constant stirring) -- I am, to put it bluntly, more than a little impatient (or lacking in assiduousness) early in the mornings.

[fiddleteacher.livejournal.com]

I usually put milk in my oatmeal. Did it taste good with coffee?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Do you put the milk in while cooking, or after? Because I used the cream/milk as part of the cooking liquid.

I find that coffee makes a splendid drink to go with oatmeal. I like it better than tea for that purpose.

[fiddleteacher.livejournal.com]

I put the milk in after cooking; I have to get ready too early in the morning to wait for it to cool. It sounded as if you put the coffee into the oatmeal after it was cooked. Interesting thought....

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I'm in the camp of those who like cold milk atop the cooked (also in/with milk) porridge -- not that the milk stays cold for long, but the temperature contrasts make the first few spoonfuls more interesting. Same goes for cornmeal/maize mush/porridge, and even frewmentry (sp?) -- the porridge made from whole wheat grains & milk.

And yes, Terry's phrasing did make the placement of the coffee possibly ambiguous.