Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Perfect Porridge (Or when Porridge becomes Pudding)

Winter obviously means porridge.
Now the temperature is hitting below zero, the fire is lit every night and we have seen snow (although we had to drive for it) we are clearly deep in the deepest of winters.
My first memories of porridge are from when I was seven. My dad was researching across in Dublin and my brothers, mum and I stayed with my mum's parents in Aberdeen for a year, as keeping a family in Dublin for a year would have been too expensive for a student.
Every morning brought the sounds of the BBC... and porridge. The kind made with water and then drowned in milk and golden syrup.
As a teenager I discovered that my own favoured way of making porridge involved making it with milk, adding sultanas and a dab of butter to the cooking, a good quantity of spices (heavy on the cinnamon) possibly a mashed banana, and then eating it with sour cream and brown sugar. It is possible that it should no longer have been called 'porridge' but rather 'oat pudding'.
But I have recently discovered an even better way.
Recycled dessert porridge...
The night before I decided to try my hand at poaching pears in spices and red wine. And the night before that we had sticky date pudding. And the kids declined to taste test the sauce and only ate cake, leaving a massive surfeit of sauce - I mean, what a shame... gallons of cream/butter/sugar sauce. The hardship of finishing it off...(We have guests staying, we normally don't do desserts as a routine thing, although now I've seen how well they work as an enticement to get four years olds to eat spinach frittata, this might change).
End result? Milk made porridge (with sultanas added in the cooking to be juicy and plump) topped with re-heated poached pears, drizzled with caramel sauce and eaten with a healthy dollop of mascarpone. And of course it wouldn't be complete without a good dash of cinnamon. Now that is my idea of the Perfect Porridge.
My long search might be over.
My Beloved read the wrong kind of fantasy books growing up and is of the firm belief that all porridge is 'gruel' and prison rations. My Sprocket finds the sultanas in my porridge off-putting. There are 'things' in it. Take it away! Adding pears and caramel topping? Impure!
My Poppet and I luxuriate in Porridge with 'things' in it'.

Do you eat porridge? Do you soak normal oats? Or use the quick cook variety? How do you like your porridge?

(Now the big decision of the day - porridge or left over apple crumble for breakfast? Hmmm. How to decide?)

1 comment:

  1. MMM left over poached pear porridge! That was amazing. I hope uni life is going well again and everyone is keeping well.