How Do YOU Make Oatmeal?

[teagal]

In the micro, with frozen blueberries or cherries on top. They defrost as the oatmeal cooks and are so good.

Has anyone had homemade muesli-that's my favorite, esp. with half and half!

[pax]

anybody ever use barley in these same ways.......

hulled barley, pearled barley, rolled barley............

then any arrangement of aforementioned "condiments".......

i have, and there is such a wonderful chewiness.....amazing

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Yes, I do, often. When I moved last fall the label on my jars of dried grains all fell off. Some I could identify easily, some were complete mysteries.

Anyway, I just treated them all the same and got some very nice breakfasts out of it.

[BarbaraY]

This topic got me thinking about steel cut oats that Dad liked. I bought a package of Bob's Red Mill and had them for breakfast this morning. I added a handful of raisins and a sprinkle of raw sugar. Very good.

I now remember Mom used to soak them overnight similar to Melissa's method so will try that next time.

My grandfather ate oatmeal almost every morning rather as a first course before eggs or whatever else my grandma made. She just used Mother's oats but somehow I've never been able to get mine to taste the same.

Something I used to make when my kids were little was Savory Add-A-Crunch from a Quaker Oat booklet. Made a nice salad topping as I recall.

Quaker Add-A-Crunch.

[Misa]

I love steel-cut oats, but normally just buy "regular" oats from the store.

I boil one cup of water on highest setting, stir in half a cup of oats (usually with cinnamon mixed in), when oats are completely wet (aka 30 or so seconds later), add a cut up piece of fruit (or dried fruit cut into small-ish bits). Stir. Put a lid on (or, in my case, a plate since NONE of my stovetop pots appear to have lids anymore - and I don't know that they ever did). Let sit for one minute. Turn off heat. Go distract yourself for half an hour - I usually do this by fixing the oats right as I get up, often even before I hit the restroom, so I can shower and all that while waiting for my oatmeal - and then eat. Add sugar/sugar substitute as needed.

[azurite]

Organic oat groats or steel cut oats, both from bulk bins at a food co-op. I used to eat Bob's Red Mill steel cut oats until I discovered the co-op had steel cut oats in bulk for less and they taste just as good to me.

Lately I've been eating the oat groats more often. Boil water (3:1 ratio), put in 1/3 cup oat groats, wait until simmers, cover, find something else to do for 50 minutes or so (I eat this most often on weekends or when I can work at home in the morning). Last year, a friend had a big crop of prune plums, so big she decided to dry some of it. Because I helped her pick the plums, I got several sandwich sized plastic bags of dried plums (or prunes). For awhile I didn't know what to do with them besides eat them as a snack--and then I happened to have some extra apple cider, and I decided to see how the dried plums would taste if hydrated in the apple cider--answer: very good. Tried stirring them into cooked oats --yum! Topped with plain Nancy's yogurt--extra yum.

Unfortunately, I eventually ate all the dried plums. But I remembered I had some dried apple slices, and bought some dried mango slices, and when I ran out of apple cider, I've tried a variety of other juices (often whatever's on sale) to hydrate the dried fruit.

So far, pretty much everything has tasted good and it was another good year for plums so now I've got more dried prune plums.

I've never tried cooking the oat groats or steel cuts oats in a liquid other than water--definitely seems like something to try next.

azurite

[BarbaraY]

This thread inspired me to get some steel cut oats (Bob's Red Mill) which I haven't had in years.

I had forgotten how truly good they are. I eat them almost every morning.

I recently noticed that Quaker is getting on the bandwagon and packaging them.

[jsmeeker]

I use McCann' steel cut oats. Sometimes I get the can, sometimes in get them in a box. Just depends on where I happen to be shopping when I need them and what that partiuclar store carries.

To cook, I heat up a sauce pan, toss in a pat of butter. Let it foam. Then add in the oats. Toast them for a bit. Add boiling water. Pinch of saly. Reduce to a slow simmer. Simmer maybe 20 minutes. Most of the water will be absorbed or evaporated. I add a little bit of milk (butter milk if I have it) and simmer some more until I get the right texture.

I'll typically add in brwon sugar and/or maple syrup. I need to try out some dried fruit in there. I've got some dried cherries kicking around that I could use up.

[iguana]

My rice cooker has both a timer and a porridge setting-- perfect for steel-cut oats ready first thing in the AM. If I forget to use the porridge setting it will boil over, though. We eat them with milk and brown sugar, although the egg and fish sauce version sounds yummy.

Jen

[Knicke]

I grew up thinking that I HATED oatmeal because all I ever had were quick oats. Started making the real stuff last year - really one of the cheapest breakfasts around (important for a poor grad student) - and found out I LOVED it. The standard way was rolled oats from the natural foods co-op bin, with raisins and tons of cinnamon cooked in, and then mixed with walnuts and chopped apples and brown sugar or Succanat. Delish.

Then I read somewhere (can't remember where) about savory versions, and I've never looked back. Also finally got around to using steel cut oats this season. Now my standard way is steel cut oats started the night before, warmed up and mixed with chopped scallions and a small amount of miso, and topped with a lightly fried or poached egg. Really really good.

[natter]

I usually use a 1:1:1 oat to barley flake to rye flake, with a bit of cracked wheat and flax seed mixed in. stir in a little brown sugar and milk at the end, and then throw in raisins or bananas or nuts, or whatever else I have on hand that goes well.

[CKatCook]

I use the real old fashioned oats, and put a couple Tablespoons of cherry pie fillling in it. (but only on days I am feeling decandant) other days its toast dope..

[broadway]

The Golden Spurtle, the World Porridge MAking Championship was held last week in Carrbridge, Inverness-shire, Scotland. Incidently one of the sponsors is Hamlyn's of Scotland, even though the winner didn't use their oatmeal.

I do a decidely plain version, 1 cup of porage oats to 3.5 cups of water, no salt, soaked, and slowly bought to the boil and stirred until a smooth consistency. Then poured into the bowl, a dessertspoon of golden syrup and a thin ring of milk poured around the edge so the porridge sets into a fine gelatinous disc floating in a shallow film of milk.

Off to to Edinburgh next week, so I will be getting some Hamlyn's pinhead.

[Shel_B]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. Some great ideas for making oatmeal here ....

shel

[Chris Hennes]

This should probably go in some sort of "food shame" thread, but Quaker's got a new instant product out that I tried for the first time yesterday: not strictly oatmeal, they call it "Simple Harvest Instant Multigrain Hot Cereal." It's oatmeal based, but with a bunch of other grains in it. Way, way better than their regular instant stuff (mostly due to it's texture, IMO). Maybe I'm just a sucker for anything with pecans in it...

[suzilightning]

I like a knob of butter and Johnny Bird's Toast Dope, which lives in a jar on my kitchen table. Thank you, Johnny Bird.

What is Johnny Bird's Toast Dope?

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jaymes

here is a link to the thread Susan in FL started. there is no recipe on recipegullet because of how john thinks about the dope. one of these days i'll probably publish the Toast Dope Manifesto he has written.

suzi

found this while looking for a recipe for overnight oatmeal NOT with a slow cooker.

[Naftal]

Another vote for Trader Joe's steel cut oatmeal (with a box of TJ's old-fashioned oats on hand for other uses). I've been making them every few days using the 30-minute method with water and a little salt. I will be trying Melissa's method tonight, though.

Daily portions get nuked with milk and stirred until creamy (1 minute + 10 seconds, which is about all I'm ready for in the a.m.). Every bowl gets some banana and grade B maple syrup. 

Except for the occasional substitution of Sriracha. Hey, some mornings are like that.

eta: I will try it your way, achevres. Oooh.

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Thanks! Now I cook Sriracha with my oatmeal on a regular basis

[maxmillan]

I've been eating oatmeal porridge for breakfast due to health.

However, I'm getting bored and would like some jazzy recipe to dance on my tongue.

My porridge consists of water, honey, cinnamon and blueberries.

Can anyone offer a healthy porridge recipe or any other recipes that uses oatmeal? Is there a thread that discusses oatmeal?

Thanks.

[Shel_B]

anybody ever use barley in these same ways.......

hulled barley, pearled barley, rolled barley............

then any arrangement of aforementioned "condiments".......

i have, and there is such a wonderful chewiness.....amazing

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I'll sometimes mix barley and oatmeal together ... that's a nice combo. Slice some ripe banana thin and add it to the mixture while it's cooking. The banana melts and adds a nice sweetness and flavor to the porridge. Some good butter added in is also nice.

scb