March 29, 2011 - 8:23pm
The Luck of the Irish (Oatmeal)
BY JORDAN KRISTOPIK
- Irish steel-cut oatmeal
Michigan students, meet Irish steel cut oatmeal. This is not your typical, cafeteria-style oatmeal. It is not sticky, gooey, or bland. This is your hot, sexy version of oatmeal. It has flavor. It has texture. And it will rock your breakfast (and lunch. And dinner).
I've always loved oatmeal, even in its gluey form. I ate the Quaker Oats "packets" like they were going out of style. A few years ago, I graduated to plain, quick-cooking oats in the cylindrical cardboard tube. The mark of sophistication, right? No more lame oatmeal envelopes for me. But over break, I discovered steel-cut oatmeal. And let me tell you, I will never eat rolled oats again.
I don't even like to classify steel cut oats as oatmeal. It's more of a warm cereal, or an oat risotto, if you will. Unlike the typical flat, rolled oats, steel cut oats are more like grains. Instant oats are rolled oats that have been pre-cooked so they can be made into a porridge extremely quickly with boiling water. Steel cut oats on the other hand, are not flattened. The original oat grain is chopped roughly into smaller pieces, leaving the hull and kernel intact.
While the nutrition values are the same in both rolled and steel-cut (fiber jackpot!), the real difference lies in taste and texture. Steel cut oats are nutty, and slightly chewy. And the best part is that it can be reheated over and over, without the texture changing. Do you know what this means? You can make a big batch on Sunday night (the long cooking process takes about 45 minutes, mostly unattended), and it eat it all week. Dress it up with milk, butter, brown sugar, dried fruit, or my personal favorite, maple syrup and bananas. Just a little, though! Steel-cut oats require far fewer flavor enhancers than rolled oats.
McCann's Irish Oatmeal is the best, and it comes in a nifty tin can. My roommate artfully turned hers into a pencil holder on her desk. Hopefully I can be as creative with mine...any ideas? You can buy it at Whole Foods for about 5 dollars, and it should last you for a while. Unless you're like me, and went through half a can in two weeks.
