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.
Love me some SCO. The toasting is key! Alton Brown adds buttermilk to his which certainly adds an interesting flavor…
I’ve tried the buttermilk–it’s romantic but it doesn’t do it for me! I want to try infusing the butter with something before I toast the oats, if you do any experimenting let me know.
Steel cut oats are my favorite! I like to make them Sunday mornings and reheat them for a few days after that. But thanks for the tip on keeping the spoon in the pot. I just always try to keep a keen eye on them, but that might make it easier.
I think the eye is key, the spoon is supplemental. If you have any tips shoot them my way!
Well, one thing I often do is add milk towards the end of cooking. It gives it a little extra protein and a creamier texture.
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Thanks! I signed up, appreciate the tip!
I’ve always wanted to try these.
I’m a breakfast fiend and I’m always trying to figure out what I can make quickly in the morning.
Plus I hear they’re healthy. I could use some more of that.
I’ll have to go out and buy some steel cut oats to try.
Your pictures are beautiful!
Yay! I just love the texture (if I haven’t said that enough). The oats are like tiny little bubbles. Let me know when you try them and if you have any suggestions. Thanks for the compliment!
“let the suckers sauna in their own steam” <- this line literally made me ROFL. My dad always ate oatmeal in the morning when I was growing up, too! Hope you gals are having wonderful holidays.
Thanks Steph! I enjoy torturing my food before I eat it, apparently. 🙂
what is the thing on the skewer? banana? can you share how you prepared this? thanks
Yes it is a banana! It’s supposed to be a brûléed banana but in reality it didn’t taste like anything special. What I did was slice a banana on the bias, skewer them like overlapping fish scales, sprinkle table sugar on them, and broil them in the oven on a parchment-lined cookie sheet until they got some color. They turned out to be all right oatmeal fodder, but mushy as a standalone. My mom suggested that I use turbinado sugar the next time. I’ll try it again soon and then post it but let me know if you come up with anything!