Savor the flavor

How do you like your porridge? Rich and creamy with honey on top? Mixed with berries and nuts? From a paper pouch, or in a Macadee tub with hot water revivifying (you hope) the dried milk powder within?

YEUCH!

I like my porridge salty, savory, bursting with wild punchy, grown-up flavor. Funny thing, to me at least, is that I don't know anyone else who does. This is despite the Scottish epithet that the only thing you should add to porridge is a pinch of salt. Milky porridge? Forget it. I make a much creamier textured porridge with just oats and water. I will then often add things like mushrooms, onions, even chili peppers if I feel like a real boost to my morning meal.

Having already noted that I do not have recipes that mean a great deal to me and my 'culture' (previous foody piece) it occurs to me that the one I will outline here is, for all practical purposes, unique to me. Want to try it? Skip to the end of this article for the recipe, or read through if you want to know all about the background to this dish and why I created it.

I have eaten porridge, on and off, since I was a wee laddie. I say 'wee laddie’ (small boy) despite being from South East England, because the oatmeal porridge breakfast is often associated with Scotland. Why? I am only guessing, but oats are a cereal that is hardy and well suited to the cold, northern climate, unlike wheat for instance. Oat crops in Scotland's fertile land produce a high yield, they are an efficient cereal to produce. Porridge provides a healthy, slow-release energy-packed start to the day, not to mention the fibre, vitamin and mineral content. Warming on a cold winter morn too.

Some years ago, porridge became a fashionable food fad for many in the UK, possibly elsewhere. This left the breakfast cereal market in a bit of a tizz, not least because many people were abandoning costlier items, heavily processed and packaged breakfast cereals, in favor of what used to be a budget buy: plain oatmeal. Where's the profit margin in oats sold wholesale at around $1.30 per kilo? Sure, you can stick it in a cardboard box with a picture of a hunky bloke in a kilt, but branding the product as authentic Scottish fare has limited up-sale potential.

The trade soon caught on however. It wasn't long before the food marketing, manufacturing and packaging businesses were producing hundreds of different ways of presenting oatmeal to make it more high-value (expensive) and to sell even more of it.

Soon, supermarket shelves were inundated with fruit-flavor porridge, handy pouches with dried milk and sugar already added, little plastic or paper pots for popping straight into the microwave. In food factories all over, they wrapped their cheap oats in fancier and fancier packaging, adding goji berries, raspberries, strawberries, honey and banana, not to mention dairy proteins and assorted artificial flavourings. I say again: yeuch!

My main preference over the years has always been to eat plain milled-oat porridge, cooked with water and nothing else. Unlike my Scottish friends, I tend not to add salt. I seldom add salt to any food other than things, like tomato, that have a bitter taste. I find that if you make porridge with just water, you get a much creamier consistency than making it with just milk. This is because dry oats need to absorb plenty of water so that they can plump up and make a smooth dish. If you use just milk, there is not enough water to cook the oats properly so you end up with a porridge that is lumpy and with a sticky dairy ooze. If you like to make your porridge with milk, you could improve the end result by at least mixing water with your milk 50/50.

My favourite way to cook porridge, however, is to leave out the milk and sugar, forget the honey and fruit, and add savoury ingredients instead. These might be mushrooms, onions or even chilis, as I said. Yes, chili peppers are a favorite ingredient. Instead of eating a sickly, milky, sticky kind of baby food, I have a proper tasty, healthy, nourishing breakfast fit for a grown-up. For those who like their meat, you could also add some chopped bacon, slivers of steak or slices of sausage to your milk-free oatmeal breakfast. Why not give it a try? A little stock will also add to the flavor, as well as your go-to herbs or spices.

I don't know anyone else who eats their porridge this way but I wonder why not. People have various forms of savory rice, jollof rice, special fried rice, why not savory porridge? Come to think of it, the famous Scottish haggis is essentially a sausage made from oatmeal and offal. I first tried a vegetarian variation of this wonderful dish at a Burns Night celebration during a business trip to a trade show in Germany. A veggie haggis at a Burns Night bash in Bavaria? For real!

Here are my recipes for a traditional Scotch porridge boiled with water, and savory porridge with variations to suit every palate and dietary requirement. If you must eat your porridge with milk, sugar, and fruit try using 50/50 water with milk and take the time to add your own choice of fruit, perhaps honey instead of sugar, rather than rely on the factory to add the powdered fruity flavor for you.

Traditional oatmeal porridge

This can either be made in a pan, or in a microwave. I prefer microwave for convenience. It takes a few minutes to make an excellent porridge in a microwave. For traditional porridge made in a pan, it is best to soak the oats overnight and then boil for 20-30 minutes, until smooth and creamy.

Whether you are making porridge in the pan, or in a microwave, you have only two ingredients (three if you want to add salt), and they are:

1. One cup of rolled (milled) oats
2. 2.5 cups of cold water (pan) or 2.25 cups (microwave).

.. or any amounts in the proportion of 1 to 2.5 for the pan, or 1.25 water for microwave. That's it. That is all you need. A complete meal for pennies.

Method

Add the oats and the water to the pan, or microwave container. For pan boiled porridge, you simply have to put the oats and the water in the pan. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for around 2o-30 minutes, stirring regularly. The time to cook depends on how you like your breakfast oats.

The microwave method is a lot quicker and, generally, more reliable. Put the dry oats in a microwave dish with a lid. Add the water, cover and microwave on medium for one minute. Stir and microwave for a further two or three minutes (single serving) at 30-seconds intervals, stirring and then covering each time. Cooking time increases with the number of servings. When cooked, the porridge should have a smooth consistency.

What is more, there is no need to waste any leftovers. Just allow to cool in a dish then enjoy cold later, or within a couple of days, by adding a dollop of fruit preserve, honey or brown sugar. You see, I do sometimes like sweet porridge too. I sometimes use the same trick with some leftover Yorkshire (batter) pudding.

Savory porridge

Best made in a frying pan but can also be microwave cooked.

First choose your additional ingredients. For me it might be mushrooms and onions, sometimes hot chilli peppers. Or you might prefer bacon or sausage. Pretty much anything goes with this dish. Fish, meat, chopped vegetables, chives, chillies...

Method

Gently fry finely chopped onions in a little oil for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Add sliced mushrooms and peppers (if desired), and continue to cook, stirring, for another minute or so. Add liquid stock (or boiling water and dried stock, or just water). Bring back to the boil, stirring, and adding any additional flavouring to taste. Options include herbs, spices, a little soy sauce. Then add the dry oats, stirring, and simmer for two or three minutes as you continue to stir.

Serve with optional garnish or toppings such as grated cheese, smoked fish, chopped salami, or a fried egg.

An alternative method is simply to cook traditional porridge (water, oats, optional seasoning) then top off with chopped savories of your choice. You might like flakes of smoked haddock, slivers of smoked salmon, sautéed mushroom of any variety, pre-cooked bacon or ham, salami, black (blood) pudding, chives, chopped herbs, a sprinkle of spice, anything you think might be nice.

Enjoy this tasty, nutritious, balanced starter to your day, or at any other time. Or come up with your own wild additional items and combinations and please let me know what you have tried, or what you might like to try, in comments.

Thanks for reading

Chef Raymond