(Lazy) Steel Cut Oats

Last year I lived alone in an apartment with the bedroom adjoining the kitchen.  My morning routine would last about 45 minutes, just long enough to cook a bowl of nutty, hearty steel cut oats that trumped any rolled or quick-cooking oat preparation.

I would toast the oats and heat the water as I brushed my teeth, let them simmer together while I showered, and complete the stirring/ingredient-adding in phases as I dried my hair and checked my email.  This year my bedroom is a floor above, and the morning routine consists of waking up sometime before 7:30 so Ari and I can run to class by 8.  The old oat routine has met its demise.

My dad still makes them for his own breakfast, so this is my attempt at a lazier cooking method–cooking the oats like rice.  I still had to toast them and add boiling water, but instead of simmering I cooked them on high until most of the water was gone.  I then turned the heat off and let the suckers sauna in their own steam.  The end product has the same texture with half the fussing.

You can make steel cut oats in big batches and refrigerate it, meaning that you can make these some night when you’re cooking dinner.  If you take out what you need, add some water and microwave it, it’s just as good as some made the same day.  1 cup of raw oats turns out about 3-4 breakfasts for me.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 3 cups water

Optional:

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• milk or soymilk (per serving)
• raisins (per serving)
• bananas (per serving)

Bring the water to boil in a pot.  As it reaches point, melt the butter in a pot that will hold twice the volume as the water.  When the butter has melted, toss the oats in and mix with a spoon.  Toast them in the butter on high until you get a nutty smell, 2-3 mins.  Add the now boiling water to the oats and cook on high without stirring until half an inch of water is left in the pot.  Important: keep the wooden spoon in the pot to prevent boil-overs. At this point, mix with a spoon to loosen oats from the bottom of the pot, turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 15 mins.  Afterward, add salt, cinnamon, and brown sugar to your taste.  When reheating (see above), you can add milk, more sugar, and raisins.  Some people like maple syrup in their oatmeal too.

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