Irish Oatmeal

To continue the breakfast theme around here... I've had a request for the slow cooker steel cut oats that are a feature in our breakfast rotation. As it's getting colder around here, it's perfect timing. The recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks of late Slow Cooker Revolution, from my heroes at ATK/Cook's Illustrated.

As a very oaty household, we typically have a few types of oats about - jumbo rolled oat (our standard porridge oat), quick rolled oats (for mixing in raw to yoghurt) and pinhead, also called steel cut (for a different type of porridge).

I need to preface this with the fact that in my mind, oatmeal porridge ought to be a mostly savoury dish. I don't normally like anything sweet in mine, bar dried fruit. Although I do like cold evaporated milk. So this recipe is a bit off the norm for me.

Steel cut oats are delicious and have a great texture, but are a bit of a pain to prepare, compared to rolled oats. This slow-cooker method makes it a snap and the leftovers are easily reheated. Since we have a very basic slow cooker (sans timer) I just plug ours into one of those timer socket thingies to get the right cooking time for it to be ready at breakfast. If you leave it cook too long, it's all ballooned out.

Irish Oatmeal

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (I've used salted and just back on the salt)
2 cups steel-cut oats
8 cups water
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, add the oats in and toast. You need to make sure to stir this well as they can get dark quickly. You want them to be a golden colour and smell quite nice. Transfer over to the slow cooker and add the water and salt, cook on LOW setting for 4-6 hours. Our slow cooker tends to run hot, so they're done in 4, easily. Stir the porridge well and let it sit for about 10 min before serving, it just evens out a bit and is less hot.

The book provides a few options to this recipe - Cinnamon & Raisins, Bananas & Walnuts and Apples & Raisins. We've tried the first option, in which you simply add 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 cup of raisins. I love it! I'm hoping to try the banana one soon... For it you reduce the water to 7.5 cups and add 4 mashed bananas, 1 cup of toasted walnuts, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon.

The real efficiency from this recipe is the leftover factor. It makes quite a lot and reheats as new. Just need to add a bit of water to get the right texture, although I prefer it solid.

pregnancy pancakes

It's been a busy few months since the last post - hence the lack of posts. We've sold the old house, moved into a tiny flat and downsized our belongings in anticipation of moving back to Canada. And, of course, the thesis (which is what I've been doing every day since the beginning of July).

As anyone who reads this and knows us knows, MBC is pregnant with our first baby, which I'm reiterating here as this post is related to that very condition. In the first few months of her pregnancy MBC was off just about every kind of food I would call 'delicious'. The main exception was pancakes - which were on the menu in a big way. I soon got sick of the 'standard fare' and we experimented with a few new-to-us options.

I've decided to present a few of the best recipes here. Both for sharing and so they can be accessed on the internet any time I might need them. Rather than make one massive post, I'll break them up - which should also make for easier searching. Some day I may even append photos, but... that's not too likely.

breakfast

Since getting married last year (yes, it was last year now), I've been enjoying breakfast a lot more. I've always been a staunch breakfast eater, but often forfeited quality for time. My wife has re-introduced porridge to our routine and through several tweaks I've now converted to eating it without sugar. One small change which makes a big overall difference. A good theme for the new year I think.

Here are a few hacks for 'regular' breakfast items that push them over the top:

Porridge

We are big oatmeal fans of whatever type (rolled, ground or steel cut) but I must say it's well worth paying a little extra for a good quality brand. My favourite in the UK is the Oatmeal of Alford, which has a lovely nutty flavour. Cheap oatmeal tends to have a slightly 'off' taste and it's worth paying a bit more considering even the expensive type is extremely cheap by comparison to other breakfast options.

We follow the old Scottish tradition of soaking the oats overnight (as we usually cook them in our Remoska). It reduces cooking time and I think it keeps the porridge from turning to complete goo.

We add dry fruit (raisins, dates, figs, apricots) for flavour and a bit of milk to cool. I've adopted the Cox tradition of using evaporated milk, which is nice and creamy without being too fatty or sweet.

We usually eat oatmeal at least four days a week, depending on the season and because it is a low GI food it gives you a good dose of energy to get you through until lunch. We might periodically sub in Cream of Wheat or when available Waitrose Four Grain Porridge. The latter being one of the best hot breakfast cereals known to man.

Eggs

I've recently discovered the Mr Breakfast method for scrambling eggs. It's nothing particularly fancy, but it works - perfect fluffy eggs each time that aren't runny, watery or rubbery. It's all in the method really, click on the link and read. Delicious if served over toast.

Runner up is poached eggs on toast.

French Toast

MBC isn't a big French Toast fan, sadly. In fact, early on in our marriage she won't eat it at all. After some intense parallel research into steamed puddings, I discovered one of the reasons why French Toast often fails - incorrect egg to milk ratio! Most recipes assume that all eggs are the same size and some, I believe, assume incorrectly that people enjoy soggy bread. The secret ratio is.... 1:1! Yep, just crack as many eggs as you want in to a bowl on your kitchen scale and note the weight. Then pour that same weight of milk in. Done... perfect French Toast every time.

Yoghurt

Store bought yoghurt is the yuck! It is full of starch, sweeteners and non-dairy-gum-based nonsense. There are a few brands that are alright, but nothing beats home made... which is easier than making French Toast (that is unless you live in Sweden and have access to A-Fil). Serve with home made compote/fresh fruit and/or dry cereal.

So, those are our breakfasts of choice... now a word about cereals. Cereals, as in that food product that you buy from the long aisle at the grocery store with the brightly coloured boxes. I happen to kinda love breakfast cereals. They are the easiest food to prepare and have such dashing spokesmonsters as Count Chocula. How could you resist?

Well, cereal is pretty much entirely highly processed carbs. Probably the worst thing to start your day off with. However, as a snack they are pretty awesome, considering they are FAR better for you than just about any other thing you'd be tempted to eat during the mid afternoon or just before bed. In fact the journal of the American College of Nutrition says this exact thing.

I'm allowed to have Chocolatey Checkers, which is pretty amazing because it's filled with chocolate hazelnut spread (aka Nutella) and has more fibre than raisin bran and few calories.

So anyway, how's that for a New Year's blog post! So remember kids, it's best to enjoy your cereal as part of a complete bed time snack and enjoy a low-GI protein rich breakfast.

hi, is english your first language?

Then I don't want to eat your bread.

Well, okay there are a few exceptions, but as a general rule our bread is awful. Bread in the UK is awful, bread in Canada is awful, bread in the USA is awful. I don't really think it's a big stretch to say Aussie and Kiwi bread is terrible either.

Coming from the world's greatest wheat growing nation, you'd think I'd be a bit of a bread buff. Sadly, it's just not the case. There are small exceptions, I'm thinking specifically of Winnipeg -where the standard bread is rye. Canadians haven't exactly led the charge when it comes to baking, although we do control a massive bit of the industry - not just on the supply side. I'm talking to you members of the Weston family (who I'm sure are['t] frequent readers of this blog). I will not be too harsh because I do love the almost all the PC products, especially the Memories Of sauces, and Wagon Wheels (but only really because I had to trade my home made lunch things for them, which in retrospect seems idiotic).

This little tirade has been brought to you because of my trip to the local Russian shop. Dundee has a Russian Shop, yes - who knew? They have all sorts of odd things and a lot of vodka, but they also have Russian bread. Lovely Russian bread that is probably a month old and smuggled via mafia connections in sea containers full of feau-lex watches and trafficked persons. Each bite has so much flavour. I ate it today for lunch with some herring - fantastic.

Now a little dip back in to history tells me that us Britons were once making such bread, simply because we didn't have the climate to grow wheat. All we could grow was oats, barley and rye. It took many years of selective breeding to develop a wheat variety suitable for our cool and damp climate.

I should have really written this a while back after I went to Andrew Whitley's seminar. I shall now plug Mr Whitley and his website which is far more interesting than my rant:

http://www.breadmatters.com/

Also, does anyone know what is up with the large eared bear cub that seems to proliferate Russian stuff? I just drank some juice with him on it. The shop lady tells me he's the bear who likes kindness and drinking milk.

USA-miable

I've always had a pleasant ambivalence with respect to the nuts-and-bolts details of American politics. That is except when their system generates something interesting to me, the past eight years offering a notable gap.

Given my chronic scepticism toward spin-related politicking, I find myself being mildly impressed on at least a fortnightly basis with the new President. Even on issues where his decisions may not be in line with my views, it seems that there is surprisingly fresh level of thoughtfulness exhibited.

Anyway, on to what matters: food. This blog has details Mr Obama's interactions with food on many levels. It even has recipes!!

http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/