Friday, December 2, 2011

Please Porridge in the Pot, Nine Days Old!

Anyone else like porridge?  I love it on a cold morning.  Nothing fills me up quite like it and it tastes so yummy.




I've recently started using steel cut oats for porridge.  They have a slightly nutty taste and have that lovely hard-soft combination that you either love or hate - and I'm on the love side.




The best part about porridge is all the things you can add to it - like raisins, or apples.  I've recently read about cooking pumpkin in your oatmeal and I have to say I'm intrigued and want to give it a try.  My favourite thing to add to porridge is maple sugar.   In Ontario maple sugar is difficult to find.  Maple syrup and maple candies are readily available, but maple sugar is something you have to really search for.  I love the taste of it on my porridge though, so I try and keep some on hand.




One of the problems I have with any porridge, and steel cut oats in particular, is that it takes so long to cook.  Steel cut oats take about 25 minutes of cooking time, which means I don't have time to make it on a workday morning.   


However, a friend let me in on a fantastic porridge secret!  You can make a pot full of porridge and then put it in a sealed container in the fridge.  To reheat it, you put an appropriate sized blop in a microwavable bowl, add a bit of water or milk, smush it a bit, and microwave on HIGH for two minutes.  Then you stir, add milk and sugar, and enjoy!  I love that I can now have porridge on weekday mornings.  


Thank heavens for microwave ovens and friends who tell you their wonderful secrets! 

5 comments:

  1. Lovely photos, waiting for tomorrow morning already - we are a porridge family, too, Oat is my favourite, we use organic flakes from a local mill, it is like cooked in cream, I don't know why. The children love the semolina pudding...

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  2. Yummy! Now I hankering for breakfast ands it's almost 3pm! I LOVE Craisins and dried apricots in my oatmeal ( and always a drizzle of real maple syrup!)

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  3. I adore porridge! If I have it on weekdays when I work, I will put it and the water in a pot the night before. Then I heat it in the morning. It's a little more oatmeal-like as opposed to just oats (which I prefer); but it's a great quick way to do it. Yum, yum!

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  4. I love steel cut oatmeal. You can also soak it overnight and it cooks much more quickly.

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  5. We grew up with a wonderful mom who had hot oatmeal, among other things, ready for us each morning. I love love oatmeal and eat it several mornings a week. And yes, I do the heat up thing on weekdays sometimes too. The maple sugar sounds lovely. I use raisins or blueberries and a sprinkle of brown sugar. YUM!

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