Naked Porridges are a beautiful way to experience the unembellished perfection of seasonal fruit, especially during cherry season. This particular Naked Porridge is a blend of perfectly cooked steel cut oats topped with a luscious mountain of dark cherries, freshly grated ginger, and olive oil. It’s incredibly easy to throw together, and a foolproof way to a transcendentally delicious summertime breakfast experience. When steel cut oats are perfectly cooked, cherries are at the peak of their season, and you’ve got some decent olive oil lying around, sometimes it’s best to leave things naked so that the simple beauty of the ingredients can shine through.
If you missed my previous post on Naked Porridge, please give it a visit, but this is the concept in a nutshell: when steel cut oats are perfectly cooked, they need no flamboyant over-ornamentation. The fail-safe way to perfectly cooked steel cut oats is to salt them, soak them overnight, and then oven bake them the next morning in a small, covered saucepan while you walk away and do something else. This allows the alluring nuttyness of the grain to come into full bloom and yields a wonderful texture, plus there’s no laborious stirring or fretting about the oats boiling over, burning, and sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Herein lies the magic of this particular Naked Porridge: when the oats have finished cooking, you fold in some freshly grated ginger and a generous glug of olive oil. The oats begin to soak up the olive oil and become buttery and sumptuous. When the cherries hit the warm oats, they begin to release juices, and these juices in combination with the olive oil transform into a sort of healthy syrup – dark, slick, and plump, with a hint of spicy ginger floating around the periphery. The voodoo: there are no hidden sweeteners in this improvised compote to send you on a blood sugar roller coaster ride after breakfast. It’s impressive enough for a sexy weekend breakfast in bed, and easy enough for every day, if you’d like to experience such bewitching cherry-coated ecstasy on a regular basis.
RECIPE NOTES
ON THE COOKING METHOD
Soaking the oats overnight, and then oven baking them in the same water that they soaked in (instructions below) is the secret weapon when it comes to making perfectly cooked steel cut oats, so it’s important not to skip this step. They absorb some of the water while soaking, so if you skip this step, the oats will turn out too watery and the texture will be too al dente. I also like to add my salt and collagen powder to the oat mixture the night before so that there’s less to do in the morning.
ON THE INGREDIENTS
Adjust the amount of fresh grated ginger to your liking. I actually use a lot more than the ¼ tsp that is recommended for this recipe, but I’m really into ginger. You might want more, you might want less, but err on the side of adding too little rather than too much as you don’t want to overpower the cherries. Be sure to use certified GF steel cut oats if avoiding gluten. For an optional boost of protein, I like Collagen Peptides by Vital Proteins.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 1 (cost per serving approximately $3.50)
1/3 cup (79mL) steel cut oats, soaked overnight
1 cup (237 mL) filtered water
1 serving collagen protein (optional)
Scant 1/4 tsp fine grain pink Himalayan salt
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tbsp mild olive oil, for drizzling
Heaping, hearty handful of de-stoned fresh dark cherries
INSTRUCTIONS
The night before, place 1/3 cup (79mL) steel cut oats, 1 cup (237 mL) water, 1 serving collagen protein, and 1/4 tsp Himalayan salt into a small saucepan.
Go to sleep, and let your oats soak for you all night long.
The next morning, preheat oven to 350F (175C).
Put the lid on the saucepan and place it on the middle rack of the oven for 40-45 minutes, until liquid has been fully absorbed and oats are tender to the bite.
Remove the cooked oats from the oven and stir in ¼ tsp fresh grated ginger, and 1 tbsp mild olive oil.
Pour the porridge into your favorite bowl and drown it in a heaping mass of de-stoned dark cherries.
Now go peace out, surrender to pleasure, and get your Porridge Ritual on.
Until next time, here is a shamelessly self indulgent homage to dark cherries, red velvet, gothicness and Fields of the Nephilim.
