Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Fast food, episode IX

It's easy to get into a breakfast rut. I ate cereal with milk for about 50 years until cow's milk stopped agreeing me and processed cereal made with white flour and sugar, among other things, no longer appealed. After that, I switched to fruit smoothies, which is what I now have for breakfast pretty much every day. Every once in a while, I'll switch it up with banana oatmeal, but that's about it. I don't even eat eggs until lunch and pancakes or waffles until dinner.

But now I've found something I'll happily eat for breakfast other than smoothies. This muesli is positively ambrosial. Plus you can throw it together in a little over 5 minutes before you go to bed, then have a really tasty breakfast waiting for you in the morning. That's why I like this for running mornings, so I have something ready to eat as soon as I get back.

I haven't tried this with cow's milk, but I'm sure it would be good. It was equally appealing made with almond milk and the homemade oat milk below. And the oat milk was good enough that I had it with some of Brad's cereal one morning for old time's sake.





Overnight Muesli

Adapted from EveryDayCook (2016) by Alton Brown (quadruple recipe on Good Eats: Reloaded via Cooking Channel)

Time: <6 minutes, plus coconut toasting time

In the original recipes, AB says to use 75 grams of unsweetened almond milk + 75 grams of full-fat coconut milk, but I never have coconut milk around and this works great both with 100% store-bought almond milk and homemade oat milk (recipe below).

150 grams (~⅔ cup) unsweetened almond milk or other non-dairy milk (see note)
10 grams (1½ teaspoons) maple syrup, optional
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
40 grams (~⅜ cup) old-fashioned rolled oats
30 grams (~3 tablespoons) dried fruit, such as whole cranberries, cherries, or blueberries, or chopped dates
1½ teaspoons (3 grams) ground flaxseed meal
1 teaspoon (3 grams) chia seeds
a good pinch of kosher salt
a good pinch of ground cinnamon
8 grams coconut flakes, toasted in a 300 degree oven for 5 to 6 minutes

    1. Measure the milk, maple syrup, and vanilla into a 10- to 16-ounce jar. Shake to combine.
    2. Add the oats, dried fruit, flaxseed meal, chia seeds, salt, and cinnamon to the jar. Shake to combine. Refrigerate overnight.
    3. The next morning, stir everything together with a spoon, then stir in the toasted coconut. Eat right out of the jar. Serves 1.





Oat Milk

Adapted from Food52 Vegan (2015) by Gena Hamshaw

Time: 10 minutes (not including soaking time)

The original recipe calls for 3 tablespoons (60 grams) of maple syrup and 1 teaspoon (5 grams) of vanilla extract if you’re making sweetened oat milk. But 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and ½ teaspoon of vanilla are enough to my taste, and you can leave them out entirely for unsweetened oat milk. The original recipe and the Bob's Red Mill package both say that 1 cup of steel-cut oats weighs about 180 grams, but that's not even close to what I got, so I've left the volume measurement out of my adaptation of the recipe entirely.


180 grams steel-cut oats, soaked for 1 hour in water to cover by an inch or two (see note)
708 grams (3 cups) filtered water
20 grams (1 tablespoon) maple syrup, optional (see note)
½ teaspoon real vanilla extract, optional (see note)
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt

After soaking the oats, drain them through a fine-mesh strainer (a 6-inch strainer is about the right size to hold the oat solids). Place the drained oats and the rest of the ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. Strain through the fine-mesh strainer into a 4-cup liquid measuring cup, stirring and pressing gently on the oat mush to extract as much milk as possible. Pour into an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. Shake well before using. Makes ~3½ cups.


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