Dec 6, 2006

In Which I Accidentally Buy Steel Cut Oats

I don't know about you, but I'm unwilling to wait 30 minutes for a bowl of oatmeal. Many years ago I decided that five minutes was just right, and "quick" oatmeal is cheating. We all walk that fine line between perfection and pragmatism, right? So now I'm stuck with this cannister of teensy tough oatmeal pellets. I put some in the bread, which is now cooling. So we'll see whether we chip our teeth on these tough little Irish nuggets. The recipe for cooked oatmeal on the box is for four servings, because it really isn't worth the cooking time for any fewer. However, in our house we do not have four people willing to eat oatmeal for breakfast, alas. And the box admonishes us, "Steel cut oats are best prepared on the stovetop." And they know what we're thinking, and so they add, "Microwaving steel cut oats is not recommended." You just have to cook a mess o' these suckers, for a long time, no way around it.

Let me slice a piece of this bread. Wait right there. -Brief musical interlude- OK, I've had a few bites of steaming, crusty bread. It's chewy, and a little nutty and crunchy--it's a thumbs-up. It's going to be a good day.

7 comments:

mc said...

I bought some steel-cut oats on purpose recently but despair of ever actually eating them. I tried to microwave them on two or three different occasions, and ended up with exploded oats all over the inside of the microwave. And a half hour to cook them on the stove? I don't think so.

Anonymous said...

I bought those oats a few weeks ago! ACK! They were awful on the stove and worse in the micro. Sorry, instant oats here! But I've read you can process them to break them down or soak them and dry them to cut the cooking time. Or you can just buy quicker cooking oats...

jo(e) said...

I make a big batch and then just heat a bowl up in the microwave when I need it ....

Lucy T said...

I'm with Jo(e) . . . I make up a week's worth at a time, adding peanut butter (for protein), flax seed and wheat germ near the end of the cooking stage. I heat up a serving's worth each morning in the microwave along with frozen blueberries from Trader Joe's. I love the little crunchy parts the best. Yum.

Susan said...

My husband is all about the Oatmeal That Takes Forever To Cook, so I leave him to be in charge of it. And sure enough, on the weekends, he makes us delicious REAL oatmeal.

Of course, this requires thirty minutes of hovering near the stove while I wrangle the kids. Oh and somehow I always get stuck with the cleanup as well.

But damn that's some great oatmeal.

Anonymous said...

Alton Brown has a recipe for steel cut oatmeal that you make in your slow cooker overnight so it's ready when you wake up in the morning.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, 2 great cooking tips for this stuff! I love the bread idea AND I love the slow cooker idea. I've had a can of these sitting in my pantry for over a year now.