This morning Jac made me a bowl of porridge. The oats kind of porridge. She’d bought some Uncle Toby’s Instant Oats to use in a recipe (I don’t know what recipe) but didn’t end up making that recipe and now we have a box of porridge oats to use up. This was a purely experimental bowl of porridge because I’d never eaten porridge made from oats before. I know people who ate oats porridge as children and people who eat it now as adults but I myself had never eaten it until this morning. For me, the verdict on porridge is: yuck! The experiment failed spectacularly. I tried the porridge with maple syrup but I found the texture (like pre-chewed then spat out food) and flavour (well, lack of flavour) most unappealing. After a few valiant attempts to consume the porridge (I counted three and a half mouthfuls chewed and swallowed) I just couldn’t do it any more. Jac asked if a ham steak and fried egg would be more to my liking. What do you reckon I said?
To go with the ham steak and fried egg Jac cooked up a pan of fried tomatoes-onions-and-cubed-potato. We had cubed potato leftover from Friday night which we’d cooked for minchee, some leftover chopped onion which I didn’t use in the vegie stir fry, and tomatoes that were just begging to be chopped up and fried. The fried tomatoes-onions-and-cubed-potato tasted great. I think it may have to become a regular breakfast side dish.
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I used to eat porridge as a kid, my mum made it and used to put salt on it .
Later I found that making rolled oat cookies (with honey and coconut) was a better use of the oats.
Perhaps you could convince Jac to make cookies ???
My mum makes a savoury porridge using slices of marinated pork and a bit of salt. Its almost like congee, but with oats. And its boiled until the oats almost disintergrate.
Uncle Toby porridge is very nice. but don’t follow the instrcution on the box! the stupid instruction teach ppl how to make a bowl of yacky porridge.
I usually use full cream milk, for flavoring I use condensed milk (milk again =P)..and I add honey instead of mable syrup. you can add other fruit like banana. Dates, sultana is my fav.
U/T is for breakfast. I must admit I still prefer Chinese porridge. Those with pork, century eggs, slice ginger!! yum =P
is oat porridge the same thing as oatmeal?
….what is porridge usually made from if not oats? (extreme porridge lover here)
However, fried egg always fantastic.
Tomatos, onion and potato – can’t wait for my next fried breaky to try it out. Inspired – good work!
I eat my porridge milk and sweet condensed milk. I love it!
When I was a kid I couldn’t eat oat porridge (I guess it’s the American oatmeal) because I read a story where a witch mixed drops of blood into a bowl of porridge and fed it to someone. I didn’t touch oatmeal again until I was an adult!
Now, I’ll eat it with a LOT of sugar (I mean, seriously, like 2 parts oats to 1 part sugar) and cooked a really long time. If you close your eyes, it’s almost like very soft rice pudding.
It’s a funny thing, I never knew that oats/oatmeal were the same thing as porridge in the USA. Where I live, “porridge” = “rice, boiled until soft”, and there are two varieties — one, where the rice grains are still whole and separate and the liquid is almost like a soup, and two, where the rice grains have broken down somewhat and the entire mixture is a wee bit gooey and mashy.
The first time I tried oatmeal porridge I was not only shocked, I also found it a somewhat unpleasant surprise. That was about… 3 years ago I think. Hmm.
Oatmeal needs a little salt mixed in when it’s cooked to really taste like anything other than paste. I like mine topped with brown sugar and half & half.
minimike,
I should make ANZAC cookies. That’s my favourite thing to make with rolled oats.
SoRMuiJAi,
Hmmm, with marinated pork, I think I could tolerate it! :-P
cynthia,
I suppose I don’t see the point of eating something that’s healthy and wholesome like oats if you have to load it up with sugar or honey or condensed milk etc!
Nicole,
Yes, we call it porridge, but it’s the same as oatmeal.
bobbob,
Asians eat rice porridge, which is savoury.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee and also see my previous posts on rice porridge: http://www.thefoodpornographer.com/?cat=67
Alex,
Hope you do try it and like it. It was so yummy.
Fiona,
I know lots of people who love it – I guess I am very much a savoury person, especially when it comes to breakfast.
e,
Interesting, I’ve never heard that about the salt.
weirdlittlepony (oops missed your comment!)
An unpleasant surprise – hahahaha. I must admit I didn’t expect to like oatmeal/oats. I did try my best, but bleargh. Hahahaha.
I’ve been having porridge the past few weeks. Here’s how I make it for one:
* Take two scant handfuls of quick oats and put them in a small serving bowl that can go in the microwave
* Add a scant handful of sultanas
* Optional: add a quick shake of salt (I don’t use salt in normal cooking, so I don’t need it on porridge, but others can’t eat it without salt!)
* Pour in about 1/2 cup of milk
* Microwave on high for about 1 min 20 secs
* Take out of microwave and stir
* Add a touch more milk if it’s really gluggy (it shouldn’t be, but it depends on the quantity of oats and milk to start with)
* Microwave on high for another 30 secs.
* Add more milk if necessary.
* Optional: add other goodies like some yoghurt, sugar or honey, banana chips… whatever
* Eat and enjoy!
Rhonda,
Hmmmm. Sounds ok (thanks for taking the time to type all that out, btw! I;m sure some of my readers will give it a go), but I don’t know if I will be trying porridge again for a while!