Wednesday, November 17, 2010
One-stir Porridge
Here's my busy person's method for making porridge.
You will need:
Add liquid by weight (much quicker and simpler than by volume): FIVE times the weight of oats. Ratio of milk to water isn't crucial: I reckon that milk should be about 50-60%. If you're short of milk, you can use 100% water with a few tablespoons of dried milk powder.
Stick bowl in Microwave. If you have a Countdown/Hold function, you can set it up the moment you get up (I wouldn't recommend overnight because of the milk).
Set the porridge to cook 1 minute for every 100g of liquid that you added.
(So, as an example, for two medium-sized portions: 100g oats, 500g milk/water mix, 5 mins cooking)
This is based on an 850w microwave oven with turntable - you may need to adjust for your particular oven.
As soon as the cooking is finished, stir thoroughly (10 secs should be plenty). This step is important - you can get away without any stirring during cooking as long as you do it immediately it comes out of the microwave. Don't worry that it looks a bit thin at this stage - it will thicken up as it cools down.
Dish up immediately into individual bowls. Use a spatula to remove as much porridge as possible from the bowl (less waste and easier washing up). Soak the cooking bowl (and, later, the individual bowls) to make washing up easier.
Leave the porridge untouched for at least five minutes to thicken (and to cool down to a palatable temperature).
You will need:
- Microwave Oven
- Digital Scales - set for metric weighing.
- Ordinary Porridge Oats (not Jumbo, nor instant)
- Milk (or dried milk powder)
- Water
Add liquid by weight (much quicker and simpler than by volume): FIVE times the weight of oats. Ratio of milk to water isn't crucial: I reckon that milk should be about 50-60%. If you're short of milk, you can use 100% water with a few tablespoons of dried milk powder.
Stick bowl in Microwave. If you have a Countdown/Hold function, you can set it up the moment you get up (I wouldn't recommend overnight because of the milk).
Set the porridge to cook 1 minute for every 100g of liquid that you added.
(So, as an example, for two medium-sized portions: 100g oats, 500g milk/water mix, 5 mins cooking)
This is based on an 850w microwave oven with turntable - you may need to adjust for your particular oven.
As soon as the cooking is finished, stir thoroughly (10 secs should be plenty). This step is important - you can get away without any stirring during cooking as long as you do it immediately it comes out of the microwave. Don't worry that it looks a bit thin at this stage - it will thicken up as it cools down.
Dish up immediately into individual bowls. Use a spatula to remove as much porridge as possible from the bowl (less waste and easier washing up). Soak the cooking bowl (and, later, the individual bowls) to make washing up easier.
Leave the porridge untouched for at least five minutes to thicken (and to cool down to a palatable temperature).
# posted by John Geddes @ 6:42 am 
