Toasted Oat & Honey Porridge
I crave porridge for breakfast on cold winter days. Growing up, my sister and I ate porridge for breakfast most mornings. At some point along the way, things got a little creative, with my sisters’ addition of chocolate chips to her bowl, and my own garish sprinkle of mouth puckering vitamin C powder to mine. I think you could say that these add-ins remain a fairly accurate representation of our adult taste preferences. When I saw the title ‘very best oatmeal’ in Whole Grain Mornings, I couldn't resist. Our slightly adapted version, Toasted Oat & Honey Porridge, is fantastic and speedy, and I have been obsessively making it on weekdays and weekends for the past month. The texture is incredible, no more gummy, thick porridge. Instead, the technique preserves the shape and texture of the individual oats through a two-step toasting and steaming process that leaves you with a surprisingly soft and chewy texture. We liked that addition of honey for just a hint of sweetness, and a flurry of crunchy almonds and pomegranate seeds to make this into a quick, beautiful, and delicious bowl of porridge.
Yield: Serves 2 in smallish portions
Ingredients:
Toasted Oats:
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon butter
Cooking Liquid:
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup milk (substitute soy, rice milk or almond milk)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch (1/16 teaspoon) of cinnamon
Optional Toppings:
- 2 tablespoons slivered almonds
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
- A few glugs milk or cream
- Maple syrup/honey/brown sugar
Steps:
- For the cooking liquid: In a medium pot, bring water and milk to a low boil over medium heat, add the vanilla, cinnamon and honey.
- For the toasted oats: While the cooking liquid is heating, prepare the oats. In a small skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the oats and stir to coat. Continue stirring until the oats smell nutty and become golden colored, 3 minutes. Since you are cooking at a pretty high heat, keep an eye on the oats so they don’t burn.
- Once the oats are toasted and smell nutty, add them to the gently boiling cooking liquid, cover and immediately remove from heat. Let the oats sit covered for 7 minutes without disturbing.
- After 7 minutes, your porridge will be done. Note that the porridge will be textured, and you will see individual oat grains clearly. Serve immediately garnished with almonds, pomegranate, cream or milk, and a sweetener, if you are inclined.
Notes:
- Use a wide pot for this (especially if you are doubling the batch). This allows the grains space to steam and fluff up, creating this texture of porridge.
- This porridge reheats well for a few days with the addition of milk or cream to loosen it slightly.
Chewy Coconut Honey Granola
Madeline's grandparents from Indiana arrived for a visit this week. It was lovely support to have in the midst of our coordination and response to Hurricane Mathew. With grandparents here to watch Madeline in the early morning hours, we made a big batch of Chewy Coconut Honey Granola to feed the early risers. This Chewy Coconut Honey Granola is our favorite here in Haiti. It is dead simple to make, and a fantastic balance between sweet and salty with a satisfying chew.
Paul's Honey Oat Bread
It is election weekend here in Haiti, which means comfort food is definitely in order. While elections anywhere can cause unease, unrest, and extreme emotions, in a country with few peaceful democratic precedents, a mood of wary watchfulness prevails. Back from travels and faced with an empty cupboard and blaring radio, I opted for one of my favorite comfort foods -- fresh baked Honey Oat Bread. This bread is easy to make, and the results are sublime. If you haven't made bread before, this a great place to start. Honey Oat Bread is fantastic as a sandwich base, as french toast, made into bread pudding, dolloped with fresh guava jam, or my personal favorite, smothered with honey and butter.
Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal
Mornings around our house typically involve a lot of bleary-eyed animal wrangling with infrequent interludes of serene calm involving both breakfast and the news. Last week, Paul upped the ante when he started classes for his second Masters degree, this one in Public Health. Between full time work, a 2 hour commute each day and now evening classes, we needed a new weekday breakfast strategy. Enter Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal in jars. In this smartly conceived dish, Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal is cleverly baked up in small canning jars, which, when cooled, can be lidded and refrigerated for up to a week for later reheating. This is a winner breakfast that we warm-up in the morning with a dash of milk, perfect for eating on the go. For those of you who are unfamiliar with baked oatmeal, it is somewhere between a less sweet fruit crisp and porridge (oatmeal) and thanks to being chock full of whole grains and nuts, it makes for a substantial breakfast. We found the addition of strawberry and rhubarb at the bottom of the jar to be a good incentive to keep digging into our baked oatmeal. Warmly spiced with cinnamon and orange, Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal is a filling, healthy, and make-ahead way to tackle morning meals for busy week-days.
Chocolate Maple Granola with Quinoa and Cranberries
This week I took a stand against the breakfast industrial complex. Sunday for breakfast, I thought I’d go carnivorous, and ate a plate heaped high with Amish summer sausage. In honor of meatless Monday, I thought I’d swing vegetarian, and polished off a bowl of leftover garlicky lentil salad with goat cheese. Tuesday at 6am, I started to worry that I might not be getting my daily serving of fruits and vegetables, and munched away on snow peas, carrots, and bell peppers while I was getting ready for work. Don’t worry, I also ate string cheese for protein! This morning I was out of time and thinking that I might want to dip towards the sweet side, unfortunately things got a bit sticky when I tried to juggle spoonful’s of Nutella while driving. Paul, no stranger to my breakfast rebellions, calmly continued eating his grape nuts. Now that I’ve gotten that all out of system, I am ready for a spiffed-up breakfast classic. So when I got home from work today, I made a big batch of Chocolate Maple Granola with Quinoa and Cranberries. This chocolaty, crunchy granola is somewhere between breakfast and dessert, a good place to be in my mind, and with the combination of nuts, oats, and quinoa, provides a complete protein rich meal that keeps me energized through the whole day.
Easy Coconut Baked Oatmeal
We have been in Honduras this past week for work meetings with our regional colleagues. One thing that makes our organization unique, is an emphasis on cultivating relationships and being a good host. In this spirit, our Honduras-based supervisors welcomed us into their home with delicious home cooked meals, among them a scrumptious breakfast of baked oatmeal with fresh strawberries. Not only did we stuff ourselves, but coincidentally, we had been experimenting with our own baked oatmeal recipe over the past month. Our version of Easy Coconut Baked Oatmeal is a hearty, crunchy, warm and filling breakfast. This simple to make breakfast dish will perfume your house with cinnamon and oats and is best hot out of the oven, doused in cold milk, a perfect meal to share with guests.
If you want to try out a spring-ish baked oatmeal recipe, check out our Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal.
