Of all things I have yet to have hands on experience, the kitchen have always been my achilles heel for almost 3 decades living in San Francisco, never mind my entire life, specifically has to do with one aspect of that room that I have never been too comfortable going towards unless it’s for cooler weather or post-cooking: cooking on a stove. ย For many, many years, I have relied heavily upon my mother to cook delightful meals per my eating habits, and though such habit has drawn ires from my father for not getting involved, I had told them a long time ago that I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the heat generated after cooking, Indian Summer or heatwave, until I was needed in certain preparation on meat and rice, along with post-dinner dishwashing. ย However, life always take a strange turn as I found myself with an unfamiliar territory in cooking breakfast and lunch during my time off work, all the while taking care of my beloved mother who had suffered a stroke that left her left side rather immobilized (though she is making a slow recovery, thanks the Lord). ย Among those I managed to cook for myself is something I have never considered cooking in the form of oatmail; however, more I have practiced cooking, more I managed to cook for myself, so much so I’ve even stumbled upon creating a process of cooking oatmeal much better.
Before I go through the process, I’ve also observed how my father made them, and needless to say, I wasn’t impressed with his skills as he constantly make a mess on the cooktop near the fire, to which he often cleans it with a paper towels. ย With that in mind, I asked my mom to instruct me in the kitchen during the very next morning after discharged from hospital. ย At first, I made the similar mistake that dad makes everyday with spills, and this pattern repeats a few times during the first month. ย Quite frankly, dad’s temper isn’t exactly helping as he constantly scolded in quite a few occasion, as I also overcooked once or twice. ย Still, since my dad has practically refused to cook for me like my mom did, I began to learn how to cook better as I had a few occasions on not necessary cooking thoroughly, largely to do with adding too much dried oateal into the pot with insufficient amount of water, or becoming too soupy as I added too much milk or water with insufficient amount of oatmeal. ย If this had occurred before the stroke, I would have walked off after a few days; except I decided to “tough it up” and stick with the program and keep cooking. ย So, I began figuring out a way to cook them by minimizing dad’s mistake, all the while I have yet to go online to find out how to cook it first (see below).
Stove Top Preparation
To Make 1 Serving:
- 1/2 Cup Oats
- 1 Cup Water or Milk
- Dash of salt (optional; for low sodium diets, omit salt)
To Make 2 Servings:
- 1 cup oats
- 1-3/4 Cups Water or Milk
- 1/8 Tsp. Salt (optional; for low sodium diets, omit salt)
Directions:
- Boil water or milk and salt.
- Stir in oats.
- Cook about 5 minutes over medium heat; stir occasionally.
Before I go on with my discovery in the process, I would like to address my issues with the aforementioned receipt from the brand. ย First of all, neither my parents nor I were fans of adding sault, instead mom and I added about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey. ย Second, ย I have also discovered that spending 5 minutes with amount of oatmeal I want to cook with only leads to not cook thoroughly. Third, since I don’t even have any measuring cup for use, I instead opted to use a bowl to measure through by eye. ย Fourth, by cooking exclusively with milk has a potential of buring at the bottom and overspilling from the top, which is not ideal. ย In other words, I would need to come up with a formula to get my oatmeal cooking and serving under optimal standard. ย Sounds too technical, right? ย Even though I never have any desires of being a cook, creating a new way of cooking or making a new recipe has always been in my head. ย That means, I would need to improvise certain methods in making it right the first time and every time. ย Shall we proceed?
With that in mind, here’s how I proceed: First, I add cold water in almost half of the medium saucepan and place it on the stove with high heat, while I prepped the raw oatmeal into the bowl. ย That way, I won’t have to spoon it into the pot without spilling out and land all over the floow or cooktop. ย Next, I add the raw inside the pan all in one attempt once the water boils, after that, stir during high speed before slowly lowering the fire until reaching low heat. ย What that does is letting the oat to cook more thoroughly and let it soak up the water during stirring. ย Add 1/4 unit of milk during low heat before turning the heat back to medium, and keep stirring intermittely until the milk start getting boiled. ย Once it is done, though, I let it still on either the counter or on cooktop for almost 15 minutes for acclimation from the heat. ย In between acclimation, though, add the aforementioned amount of honey and stir well before covering; only until when it’s time to eat, I would uncover the pot and left for cooling – for one reason: my aforementioned statement concerning eating without feeling of roughing mouth, throat, Asophogus, and stomach alike like a sandpaper. ย In terms of what those ratio on those liquids are for, like I mentioned before, that is something I come up with as I cook, since I want to discover a “golden ratio”.
Hope you enjoy this article, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Until next time.
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