2017-2-12 - McCann's steel-cut oats (25 min. prep to eat) (yield 2 qts)

.
Ingredients:
=========
1/4 stick butter
1 cup oats
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
========
Pot on sautee, when hot add 1/4 stick butter. When butter melted add oats, water, salt.

valve on seal, manual, high, 15 min., quick release

Notes:
=====
Already getting too comfortable with pressure cooker:
1) Set cooking time for 15 min when 10 was more than enough. It made no difference in outcome, except I could have shaved off 5 min. Just for future reference, there still was no sticking at the bottom of the pot.
2) If I would have checked recipe first I would have remembered to increase the recipe. As it is, it didn't even fill one of my storage containers.

********************************************************

2017-1-22 McCann's steel-cut oats (approx. 20 min. (?) prep to eat)

McCann's is my favorite brand. I've tried both Bob's Red Mill and Quaker brand and I prefer McCann's.

The goal is to get bulk oats for refrigeration thick enough so that after they're chilled I can, for example's sake, cut them with a knife. When preparing a meal to eat, I put some cold oats in a bowl and add enough milk to make a consistency that's thick, but runny enough to drink if I wanted to (and sometimes I do). I prefer to add sugar, and sometimes cinnamon, after heating in the microwave, just prior to eating. I like to be able to adjust the consistency, thicker or thinner, from meal to meal.

Ingredients:
===========

1 cup oats
4 cups water
1/4 stick of butter
pinch of salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 heaping tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
==========

Pot on sautee, when hot add butter. When butter is melted add water, oats, and remainder of ingredients.

manual, high, 10 min, quick release

Notes:
=====

Was hungry for breakfast and very excited to be able to make steel cut oats again and added cinnamon to the pot. That will not happen again for a very, very, long time.

When I first looked in the pot, the oats looked thin, however, when I stirred, I felt the thickness at the bottom of the pot. I was concerned that there might be sticking but, no, the oats were a good consistency and there was no sticking.

Water: Instead of using cold tap water, I experimented with using hot tap water to speed up the process. It normally takes the pot about 15 min. or so to get up to pressure and using hot tap water shaved off 7-8 min.

Oats/water ratio, 1:4, I won't be changing that. I was worried that the oats might foam too much and get sucked up out of the valve during the release, but that didn't happen. The butter probably helped keep the foaming down.

Cinnamon: What I did NOT want to do was add cinnamon in the pot. I never did that before because I like to add sugar and cinnamon just prior to eating, but I was hungry and it was tempting, so I was stuck eating the same flavor till the batch was finished.

Vanilla: I may reduce to 1 tsp.

Butter: Although I like the taste of butter, 2-4 tbsp. oil will work just as well. Another time I might brown the butter for a change in taste.

Quick release: I was a bit nervous about this because of possible foaming so I didn't set the release valve on "vent" but instead gave it a few short bursts every few seconds for a couple of minutes and then did the full release. I think it would have been fine on a total quick release because the inside of the pot looked like the foam stayed 2-3" inches from the top - which brings me to quantity.

Quantity: I'd like to push this a little. Another time I'll try 1-1/2 cup oats and 6 cups water. If that's too much the foam will reach too high and spurt out the valve. I won't know unless I try.

Foam: I added the arrow in the picture to remind me how high the foam reached on the inside of the pot.

More Notes:
1) As runny as this recipe looks in the photo, they chilled perfectly. I could cut them with a knife or take a portion and roll it into a ball in my hand.
2) If I cut back on the 10 min. cooking time (as I thought I might), then I should be prepared that the consistency may change and the oats might not chill as thick as I would like.