Breakfast #36: Savory Oatmeal

I have been thinking about summer breakfasts lately. How could I not with the sun blazing and the mercury rising as it is nowadays? Despite the heat (and my sunburn…when will I ever learn??) and my love/hate relationship with the mornings, the season’s buoyant personality seems to be cheering me on. And I’m determined to have breakfasts that are just as bright and sunny.

But that will have to wait until I’m done with this.

This is not the most summery of breakfasts but I have been seeing this all over and, as a lover of both breakfast and oatmeal, I had to try it and couldn’t wait. A good friend I met though blogging alerted me to this intriguing version and it’s been on my mind ever since. So despite the sun streaming its rays of Pollyanna through my window and the optimistic patch of blue sky I see from my window, I set about creating my first ever bowl of savory oatmeal.

The idea isn’t as novel as one would think. In some cultures oatmeal is savory, enjoyed with a pat of butter and some salt. We, of all people, shouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Over here, we have chocolate rice pudding (champorado) with dried salted fish – now that’s a combination you don’t see every day. On the whole though, oatmeal has always leaned more decidedly towards sweet preparations. So for me the idea of it was new and luscious and very enticing.

For this my first foray, I wanted to stick to the basics: good olive oil, flaky sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and shavings of parmesan cheese. I was sorely (sorely!) tempted to add a fried egg but I held myself back. (Time enough for that later.)

This is hardly a recipe, and really, I suggest you go with your favorite basic recipe for oatmeal (I usually go with 1/2 cup of oats and 1 1/2 cup of water -- this will make me two servings). I used steel cut oats here because I felt the texture would lend itself well to savory preparation (although I am sure rolled oats would be good as well). What is key here is that you use the best possible ingredients you can find. I know, when is that ever not key right? Well, in this case more than others as there are so few ingredients so each is a major player. Now place one serving of hot oatmeal in your favorite cuddle bowl. Top with a couple of swirls of olive oil, a sprinkling of sea salt flakes, a grinding of black pepper, and generous shavings of parmesan cheese. Now tuck in and prepare to be converted. I suggest keeping the condiments near because you may want to adjust as you work through you bowl. I definitely like adding more parmesan at some point.

This is really all that they say it is. It is silky in a way regular oatmeal hardly is. It feels decadent when it is in fact so simple. And the sudden bits of saltiness cutting through the creamy oatmeal feels at once pleasantly confusing and, as Golidilock said, just right. I’ll be making this again. Yes, even if it’s summer. I’m still thinking of that fried egg…and maybe some browned butter.

Don’t worry. I won't be spending the whole summer churning out oatmeal on the stovetop. We just got a box of our favorite mangoes so those summer breakfasts will be making their appearance here soon!

UPDATE: If you can't decide between sweet or savory why not try both? Honey bacon steel cut oats :)

Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers

Summer is here! With it comes its usual promise of soaring temperatures that will have one cranking up the a/c. I won't be complaining though. Our summer also brings sunshine, blue skies, and a thousand excuses to pack your bags and head out on a seaside jaunt - where the promise of white sand and crystal water beckons. And the beaches aren't the only draw of summer on our islands. There are the mountains too for those who wish to escape a bit of the heat. And anywhere in between. The arrival of summer just sets everyone's (no matter the age) thoughts to vacation, no matter what the destination.

We will be leaving a today for our first summer trip of the season. Nowhere far or fancy, just a drive out of the city to a friend's place near the sea. This is one of little C's first trips and I am quite excited. Although traveling with a child is a whole different ballgame (gone are the days when all I needed was a backpack!), it carries a whole new set of pleasures and surprises. Not the least being the feeling that you are experiencing even the little things for the first time through the eyes of a child.

I bookmarked this recipe from the awesome Smitten Kitchen as soon as I saw it. I am always on the look out for homemade (and healthier) versions of snacks for the little one. This fit the bill to a T...and it makes a great travel snack as well -- easy to pack and cart around and great to have on the go!

Whole Wheat Cheese Crackers

(Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers from the Smitten Kitchen -- if you've got the fish mold!)

6 ounces cheddar cheese (about 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated -- I used half cheddar and half mimolette)

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon salt (you can use up to 1/4 teaspoon but I thought 1/8 was salty enough for me)

- Process all the ingredients in a food processor for about 2 minutes until the dough forms into a ball or until you can form the pieces into a ball (mine never really formed into a ball until I "assisted" it with my hands).

- Divide the dough into two discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 30-45 minutes --- a must in our summer heat!

- Take one of the dough discs out and roll to a thickness of 1/8 inch (I like to roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment). Cut the crackers out with your cookie cutter (you can dip the cookie cutter in some flour to ensure a clean cut) and transfer gently to a parchment lined cookie sheet with 1/2 inch of space in between them.

- Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven for about 12-15 minutes. Remove and cool the crackers on a wire rack. Repeat with the second dough disc.

Sadly, I do not have, now could I find locally (yet!), the adorably tiny fish cookie cutter Deb has. Instead I used the smallest of my round cutters and this work fine for now (I will definitely be on the hunt for cuter cutters soon!). I also used a mix of cheddar and mimolette cheese as I couldn't find orange cheddar and the mimolette's bright orange color, and delicious taste and texture (it was a relatively young one), seemed perfectly acceptable to me as a replacement.

The crackers are lovely -- cheesy and crisp. Despite most of the flour being whole wheat, the crackers do not have a very overtly wheaty taste, just a slight earthiness that I think is perfect with the cheese. They got the thumbs up from both little and big C's, the former munching on two in a row and the latter declaring that it would go well with a glass of wine (I agree!).

I must leave you now to start preparing for our trip (so many things not to forget!), but I didn't want to go without sharing this with you just in case you were also looking for something tasty and healthful (and lovingly homemade) to take on your road trips this summer :)

Carbonara For One

My mother had a peculiar habit when she cooked for us when I was a child. She would fixate on a dish and this is what she would cook for us for days on end. I have no clue to this day why she did this. Perhaps her pleasure at her successes led her to try and prolong it for as much as she could. Maybe she figured that practice makes perfect. Maybe my voracious appetite for anything she placed in front of me made her believe that she couldn’t stop making whatever it was, for the love of her dear daughter.

It was this very appetite that kept me from tiring of mom’s meal-repeating. That, and the fact that all of those meals were, in truth, delicious. There were the huge hearty lasagnas groaning with meat sauce and cheese. There was that oh so delicate pasta with scallops in cream sauce, the luscious lobe of orange roe still attached (which quickly became my favorite part). There was what she referred to as “dragon fish” because it was cut and scored in a certain way that it looked like a dragon’s knobby/scaly back when fried – this was served with a sticky lemon ginger glaze. And a baked fish auspiciously named “Royal Apahap” which I still love to bits. Then there was the carbonara…oh the carbonara! When she discovered it (or, more to the point, when she discovered making it) it was like (re)inventing the wheel – while the whole world had already been there and done that, we were in awe. Silky, smoky, creamy, rich, and light all at once…for the bargain price of some eggs, bacon, and cheese. I never tired of it, never.

Carbonara For One
(inspired by this recipe)

• One serving’s worth of uncooked pasta (anywhere from 60-100 grams, depending on the person…I usually take 80 grams)
• 1-2 strips bacon, chopped coarsely
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
• A generous grating of parmesan cheese
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons chopped parsley

- Start cooking your pasta in salted, boiling water as per package instructions.
- Cook bacon in a non-stick or cast iron pan until a lot of the fat has rendered and the edges are just crisping up and golden but the bacon itself is not totally crispy. Add the garlic to the pan and toss and sauté until the aroma of the garlic wafts up to your nose.
- While your pasta and bacon are cooking, crack the egg into a bowl and whisk with the parmesan and black pepper until well combined.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain (saving some of the pasta cooking water) and toss in the pan with the bacon (still on the heat). Toss well so the pasta is covered in bacon drippings and everything is hothothot.
- Dump the pasta, bacon, garlic, and every last beautiful drop of bacon fat into the egg mixture and immediately start tossing briskly so the uncooked egg coats every single noodle and “cooks” from the heat but does not scramble. Add dribbles of the pasta water if you need to thin tha sauce out. Toss in parsley.
- Serve immediately to your one lucky self!

I hadn’t had this well-loved childhood favorite in a long while, so when I found this recipe from Eat, Live, Run I was elated. I love recipes for one as I am a big believer that, although cooking for those you love is undoubtedly special, cooking for oneself is just as precious. Also, my husband is a tomato-based pasta sauce person so this would be perfect as a quick workday lunch for (just) me. It's a very loose recipe because I do it mostly by feel. I whisk the cheese into the egg until it reaches a consistency that looks to me like a thin Caeser salad dressing. Some say to place the eggs and pasta back into the pan, off the heat, but I find that even off the heat the pan is just too hot and my eggs scramble. So I just place the very hot noodles and bacon into the eggs and this works perfectly for me.

Here’s a little cheater’s trick: You can make this with leftover pasta! Perhaps you’ll be tempting the ire of carbonara purists, but when you’ve got just enough pasta noodles for one serving languishing in your fridge, and you need lunch in a hurry, who’s going to tell? What I do is heat my leftover pasta noodles in the microwave while I am cooking my bacon. I add a couple of drops of water to my noodles and cover the container with a paper towel so they “steam”. When they are piping hot and smoking, and the bacon/garlic is ready, I toss the noodles in the pan and proceed with the recipe above. You won’t have any pasta water to loosen your sauce if needed, and it may not achieve the perfect silky texture of a truly excellent carbonara, but it will still be delicious!

My mother has moved on to other dishes now (never one to shy away from new tricks), although a few old staples remain (osso buco, fabada, and cocido…may you always continue to repeat yourselves!). Thinking about it today, perhaps it was because of her children and their insatiable appetites that she churned out these dishes end to end. Whatever the reason, I am glad for it…and infinitely and forever grateful. I hope to nourish little C as she nourished me, and, as I sigh over a bowl of carbonara, I realize she nourishes me still.

Tinapang Bangus (Smoked Milkfish)

There are many things in life we can neither control nor change. The only thing we can control, and change, is our own actions, and our reactions to these uncontrollable things.

Almost a decade ago, when I was young and fancy free (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) I had a job that allowed (required) me to travel extensively around Europe. I would be based in a country for around 3 months, after which I would move on to my next “assignment” in a different country. It was all terribly exciting. I was, after all, pretty much without ties or responsibilities, and I was totally and unequivocally enthralled with Europe as only Europe can totally and unequivocally enthrall.

This job also came with its own set of challenges. Nothing was constant. You had to learn to quickly adapt to and function in your new “home” – each with its own culture and ways and language and public transportation system. In all this, it was only too easy to sometimes become overwhelmed by things out of my control. It was also, in all this, that I learned to let go of that which I could neither control nor change --- and focus on myself, and my reactions. I learned two important things: 1. To be able to be infinitely adaptable while, 2. Maintaining a central core which is constant no matter where I am…my inner compass.

When I travel out of the country, this is one of the dishes I look for when I return. It is a taste of home, familiar and comforting. At the same time open to many adaptations.

Tinapang Bangus (Smoked Milkfish)

• 1 tinapang bangus
• 1-2 white onions (depends on size – I like a lot of onions), sliced into thin half-moons
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt and lots of freshly cracked black pepper
  

- Place the onions, olive oil, and vinegar in a bowl. Generously crack the black pepper over and sprinkle with sea salt. Toss to combine.
- Lightly grease a baking tray and lay your tinapang bangus on it, open and belly-side up. Pile the onions on the bangus.
- Bake in a pre-heated 350C oven until properly heated through (the tinapa is technically already cooked) and the onions slightly softened.

Bangus (milkfish) is one of my favorite fish. Over here, bangus is eaten in households far and wide, in many different preparations. You can have it marinated and fried (daing na bangus), stuffed (rellenong bangus), in sinigang (our famous sour soup), even bottled like Spanish-style sardines. You can buy them whole, but I like to get them already deboned (unlike most of the time when I prefer my fish whole) as their bones are like a network of feathers and quite difficult and tedious to remove. This fish’s smooth, black belly is rich and fatty and my absolute favorite part of the fish.

Tinapa is fish that has been smoked, and this preparation of bangus it the one I like the best. It is similar to any hot smoked fish, not just in its dusky flavor, but also in that it is already cooked. So preparing it is simply a matter of heating it up. This is my preferred way of preparing it, although not at all traditionally Filipino (what with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar). But like I said, this fish is open to many adaptations, and I think the soft, sweet onions complement the tinapa perfectly.

I am far from having reached a perfect state of balance. Life is one continuous learning process after all. Sometimes things happen…plans fall through, things just don't go your way, it rains and you wreck your ballet flats. And as much as I want to be that woman who goes through troubles with effortless grace and positivity, sometimes I am still that frustrated girl who needs to remind herself of lessons past.

And sometimes I just escape into my kitchen, where I make the rules.