Sitting down with a bowl right now.

It gives pleasure on a cold morning. It is filling, solid, no nonsense food, stick to the ribs stuff.

Far from haute cuisine of course, no long list of exotic ingredients, no torturing the food for “presentation.” So what?

Plain rolled oats, milk, some dried fruit added late in the cooking process, spoon of apple butter. That is it.

Could call it stodgy and I know it is not JohnSmith’s favorite food 

There are real things to say in favor of it, of course. Fibre and protein rich, no simple sugars. the beta glucans in oats, nightmare to a brewer of oat stouts and the like, the beta glucans do grab the bad cholesterol in our arteries and remove it.

Lot to be said for a simple bowl of oat porridge.

Not a fan of either of those, esp slimy wheetbix {shudder} but I too sometimes take a break from porridge and make some semolina.

I opened a bag of white polenta a couple days ago thinking it was semolina. Wouldn’t set of course    but the taste was pretty nice. Now to find some recipes for breakfast dishes from it.

If I have porridge it's always with some milk and
a dessert-spoon of brown sugar.  I never use the
"instant" crap either, always the unmolested rolled
oats.

The trick with oats is to soak them overnight. NOT IN THE FRIDGE. Preferably start them out with warm water. At least 7-8 hours.

It breaks down the phytates in the oats, which are particularly high in phytates.

Phytates bind to essential minerals, like calcium, zinc, magnesium, copper ... and carry them out through the digestive tract. Soaking your oats not only prohibits this, it makes the nutrients in the oats themselves more digestible.

All they need in the morning is heating through then add what you like. I go for oat milk, honey and cinnamon.

Jovial Monk wrote on Aug 30^th, 2023 at 9:09am:


Nope. Rolled oats. Just cover it. It'll not only be fine, it will be outstanding.

If you put it in the fridge, you negate the process.

But who wants porridge when it's hot? Still. overnight soaking would be perfectly safe for human consumption. We can handle a lot more than a lot of people think.

It's a fermentation process. A pre-digestion. Our ancestors have been doing it forever.

mothra wrote on Aug 30^th, 2023 at 9:11am:


True.

I tend to add a spoon of apple butter—just apples and spices (no butter.)

Must remember to soak the groats tonight and try them tomorrow night. No need for fridge —weather suddenly turned cold and rainy, had some lovely days before. (12–16°C is a lovely temperature especially when doing some work even just walking the dog. Over 18°C is not nearly as pleasant. Sounds contradictory but there you go, is what I find.)

I did once (had no milk I guess) make the oats with water. Not too bad but a tiny trifle watery—would do it again but only if unexpectedly out of milk. I don’t drink nut “milks.”

“Naked” means the husk removed? Or everything but the seed removed? Will find out, must fly now.