Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Steel Cut Oats: Our Daily Breakfast

Several months ago, my partner David and I decided to forgo our rolled oats for steel-cut. We had been enjoying oatmeal as our first meal of the day for years, and all of a sudden we wanted more out of our dish. Maybe it had been roiling in our minds for a while, but it really just got to the point where we Had to make a change.

I went to the supermarket intending to buy
McCann's as those were the ones I was used to seeing. And I also like the pretty gold and white tin, so call me a sucker for packaging. Much to my surprise, when I perused the cereal aisle, there were many to choose from. The McCann's were there, but so were Quaker Oats brand, Arrowhead Mills and Stop & Shop's organic line. I decided to go cheap and try the house Stop & Shop Nature's Promise Irish Style Oatmeal Steel Cut.Simply prepare as described on the package (of whatever brand you are using). If you want to try them the way our household does, add a sliced, ripe banana during cooking. Add a handful of blueberries and a healthy dollop of canned pure pumpkin right before they are finished cooking. The oats themselves should be soft, but still chewy - a bit al dente. Dish out into a bowl, add a scattering of nuts (we use walnuts, but pecans are great). Then, David adds a dollop of nonfat yogurt and enough soy milk to make it soupy. I prefer mine a bit thicker and just add plain soy yogurt. If there are seasonal fruits around - additional ones - I like to embellish. A bit of sliced apple cooked along in the fall, some stewed sweetened rhubarb stirred in at the end in the spring, you get the idea. Now some very delicious and very healthy foods are not so pretty, and this is in the category, but here ya go anyway:

When my July 1, 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated arrived and I saw that they had a steel-cut oats brand review, I knew the cereal had become ubiquitous and that I had been connected to the culinary zeitgeist without even knowing it. Sometimes being in vogue is the best place to be.

1 comment:

Rockie and Sax said...

We've been enjoying McCann's oatmeal for at least 10 years now and prefer cooking a BIG batch in the double boiler. The extra oatmeal goes in a covered container in the 'fridge so that when we're ready for something good and wholesome its waiting for us.

I'll be sure that we have some waiting for you during your next visit!