Rolled Oat Porridge with Fruit Salad Compote

Porridge, mush and the incredibly tasteless gruel are grains cracked or rolled then steamed and flattened before cooked in water or milk until quite soft. The best grains for porridge is cracked wheat, steel cut oats, coarse ground corn (polenta or grits), whole or cracked brown rice, spelt, kamut, millet, barley, amaranth and Quinoa. Rolled oats, sometimes referred to as oatmeal look like flakes and are steamed and flattened. Quick oats refer to rolled oats cut into small pieces before being steamed and flattened. For oat porridge measure approximately two parts liquid, milk or water or a combination to one part oats.

I make this porridge for breakfast in large portions and refrigerate the rest. The next day it merely takes 2 minutes heating in the microwave.

Ingredients serve 4 - 8

2 cups water (500g)

3 cups milk (750g)

2 cups rolled oats (220g)

1 tsp ground cinnamon (2g)

3 tbls honey (75g)

½ tsp sea salt

Method

Place all ingredients in a non stick saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil while infrequently stirring. Keep cooking while stirring until the porridge has formed approx. 3 minutes. Serve in bowls with a sprinkle of oat bran some dried fruit mix compote and toasted almonds.

Dried Fruit Compote

Ingredients serve 8

375 g dried fruit salad mix lightly chopped
1 cup orange juice
1 cup water

Method

Place ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for approx. 10 minutes until liquid is absorbed while occasionally stirring.

Note: Serve your porridge with maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, molasses, jam, raisins, minced dried fruit, sliced fresh fruit and milk, yoghurt, rice milk, cream, buttermilk or a knob of butter.