1. Apple, Pecan and Cinnamon Porridge


2. Steel-cut Oat Porridge


3. Pineapple-Coconut Porridge

Oat porridge is one of my go to breakfasts and another popular Irish dish. I chose to make it three different ways to highlight its versatility. In honor of the chefs and their work, I will not reprint recipes here; however, I do provide tips and comments for each. All of the books I use are readily available at your local bookstore or online. And finally, I included my own recipe for porridge (with coconut cooked directly in), which I hope you try!

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1. Apple, Pecan, and Cinnamon Porridge from Clodagh McKenna, Clodagh’s Irish Kitchen, page 48. Do please seek out her book if possible, I am loving it!

She uses rolled oats, steamed, rolled, then toasted rather than steel-cut that are just roughly chopped. Both are close in nutritional value to each other although the glycemic index – which helps with blood sugar levels – is lower on steel cut (www.prevention.com).

This dish is also cooked with milk rather than water, giving it a creamier texture and filling me up a bit more than the water-based porridge. One tip is to bring the milk and oats just to a boil; watch it like a hawk. Since I am an easily distracted amateur cook, I did overcook it a bit and the milk scalded.

As for the taste? Rich, creamy, delicious. The grated apple was a beautiful touch (great way to sweeten it- I did not even need honey), and something that I had never done in all my years of making oats. The mixture of cinnamon, pecan, and apple was just right.

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2. Steel-cut Oat Porridge from Darina Allen, Irish Traditional Cooking, page 268. Her books are thorough and gorgeous resources for cooking all Irish foods. She gives the history and variations so I feel like I am in school – in a good way! It is a class I wish they had offered at my college.

She uses steel-cut oats, which always bring me back to Ireland. I remember my bedroom in one house where I stayed was so cold in the winter that I saw my breath every morning. We only had one coal fireplace to heat a three-bedroom house. I was such a cliché, wearing my fingerless gloves, clutching my porridge, surrounded by blankets. I was in heaven.

So Darina Allen’s recipe was perfect for warming me up both in body and spirit. She soaks the oats overnight, which brought out even more of the nutty flavor that characterizes steel-cut. I use McCann’s since it is readily available in the states.

Before reheating it in the morning, I swirled my bowl with some unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and after, I loaded on the brown sugar. It was scrumptious. And you can really put anything on it, which brings me to my own recipe for porridge.

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3. Coconut and Pineapple Steel-cut Oats. I cook the coconut with the oats and the aroma swirls through the house. If you like coconut, please try it. The smell alone is worth it – rich and tropical, which is great on a bleak winter’s day. And it tastes amazing!

• Half cup of McCann’s Steel Cut Oats
• 2 cups of water
• ¼ cup of organic, finely shredded, unsweetened coconut – very important that it be finely shredded
• 2 heaping teaspoons of sugar
• Fresh pineapple chopped to bite size pieces
• Extra shredded coconut for topping

Boil the water. After it comes to a rolling boil, add the oats. Keep it at a boil, stirring until the oats start to thicken a little (5 minutes or so).

Stir in the coconut. Bring it to a boil again then reduce the heat to medium low and cover.

Simmer covered for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently (make sure it does not boil over- lower the heat if necessary). Add two heaping teaspoons of sugar after about 10 minutes. The oatmeal should be fairly thick when done; but if not thick enough, let it stand for five minutes off of the burner –in the pan– and it will thicken up. Or if you prefer thinner, eat it right away!

Serve it in a bowl topped with plenty of pineapple and a bit of shredded coconut. And a bit of extra sugar – if desired.

Beginnings, fresh starts, warmth, comfort – breakfast has all these connotations for me. I feel there is no better way to embark on our journey than for Irish Food Revolution’s inaugural blog post to feature breakfast. And the Irish do it right.

It is no wonder that James Joyce begins Ulysses with the morning meal playing such an important role. Leopold Bloom starts his celebrated day on a quest to find and cook a pork kidney for his breakfast. No kidneys will be fried up in the making of this blog; however, Bloom’s satisfaction with the kidney’s earthiness and decadence seems to transcend a single breakfast, speaking to the importance of a hearty meal for the Irish.

Breakfast was actually my indoctrination to Irish food over twenty years ago, and after embarking from any plane trip back to Ireland, I always head out for the quintessential Irish fry up (for restaurant suggestions head to the ever-growing locator page). But at home, I make it myself; it brings me back twenty years to my first day in Ireland.

What I’m creating here is one possible version and does not include black or white pudding, but the Irish sausage, Irish beans, and fried tomato do it for me!

RECIPE
For a simple nod to an Irish Breakfast, and I stress simple:

1. Fry up the following (I use Kerrygold butter rather than oil for a truly decadent experience):

• ^{Half a fresh, ripe organic tomato- till it is soft and has a nice crust}
• ^{One cage free, organic egg- made to your liking}
• ^{Two Irish sausages (you can find links to online Irish food sales on the locator page-if there aren’t any stores near you that sell any). Heat the sausage until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. The sausage needs to be golden brown all over.}

2. Warm up some authentic Irish canned beans- I bought my can of Batchelors at a local Irish shop. They use tomato in the beans, which gives them a distinctive flavor.

3. Serve with soda bread or brown bread with more butter (and even a bit of honey too).

4. And plate.

Note about beverage

No Irish breakfast is complete without a cup of tea. In Chapter 1 alone of Ulysses, tea is mentioned ten times as Joyce’s alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, eats his breakfast. And Clodagh McKenna has a wonderful recipe for an authentic cup of tea in her book, Clodagh’s Irish Kitchen. But one simple directive: you must use a kettle and bring the water to a rolling boil before pouring over tea bags or leaves. The tea flavor will be that much richer!

At this moment, I am actually craving a cup of tea-so until next week, where I will explore great breakfast alternatives.

Here is to your own new beginnings. May they bring you joy.