Buttery Five Minute Oatmeal Breakfast

A warm bowl of oatmeal is a fitting breakfast for St. Patrick's Day. We've been savoring the whole grain, traditionally milled oats from our Lonesome Whistle Farm CSA, which are wonderful for leisurely weekend breakfasts of porridge and pancakes.

But I've wanted to find a way to enjoy these oats for a quick weekday breakfast. They aren't quite substantial enough for overnight oatmeal in a slow cooker, but they require about 20 minutes of stove top cooking to become tender. I was in luck when I came across this recipe from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks. First, she toasts her grains in butter and then soaks them overnight and cooks them in the morning.

The butter treatment gave these oats a lovely toasty richness. I next tried soaking them in boiling water to jumpstart their morning cooking, and this worked well. The oatmeal was done in just the time it took to prepare a well-brewed pot of tea. All that was left was choosing toppings. I'm partial to pecans, dried cranberries, and brown sugar.

Buttery Five Minute Oatmeal

serves one

scant 1/3 cup Scottish oats
1 tsp butter
1 cup water (divided)
pinch of salt

toppings such as nuts, dried fruit, and brown sugar

1. The evening before, heat a small saucepan and set a kettle with 2/3 cup water. When the pan is warm, melt the butter. Then add the oatmeal and cook the grains, stirring, for about five minutes, until they have toasted to a darker beige and are very fragrant. Turn off the heat. Carefully add 2/3 cup boiling water (it will splatter), stir, and cover.

2. The next morning, add 1/3 cup water to the pan and reheat (for a richer porridge, use 1/3 cup milk). Let the oatmeal simmer for about five to eight minutes until it is the desired tenderness and thickness. Serve warm, sprinkled with your favorite toppings and a splash of cold milk.