u/TheCosmicJester

I found out the hard way that a hotel’s rooms didn’t design their curtains right. At least I got a good snapshot out of it.

Yes, there are plenty of steel-cut oats under all the toppings. I always go too long in between batches of this one. It takes a little more effort than my usual weekday bacon egg and cheese business, but it’s just a series of things you can all cook in the same skillet. This is totally one of those recipes where you should involve yesterday’s leftovers for toppings and then fill in the blanks.

My standard toppings in addition to the requisite couple of sunny eggs, clockwise from the top: Sautéed mushrooms, Spam, scallion, sausage, kimchi, sautéed spinach, bacon. The sauce is made from gochujang (Korean chile paste), gochugaru (Korean chile flakes), mirin, soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and a little bit of sugar.

The other day I mentioned on someone’s post that a great starting point is adding cheese (extra sharp Cheddar today, please), sliced scallions, and your breakfast protein of choice (bacon? Bacon, yes of course bacon), topped with a couple of sunny side up eggs. Naturally, talking about it got me in the mood for exactly that. I made it just a little fancy with a dab of Dijon mustard mixed into the oats, and a little tangle of arugula on top.

This is now my Start Here for savory oats. At the very least use the cheese and scallions. But don’t be afraid of the mustard, the depth it adds is incredible.

I woke up in the mood for biscuits and gravy, but I didn’t want the inevitable post-B&G food coma. I adapted the flavor profile to my morning oatmeal, and loved the result. There’s buttermilk in the oat cooking liquid, sausage, a dollop of cottage cheese (not traditional in there but it works well to bolster the tangy buttermilk flavor) and a generous dot of butter mixed into the oats, and seasoned with Lawry’s seasoned salt and an irresponsible amount of black pepper. A couple of sunny eggs and a few dashes of hot sauce on top completed the flavor profile, and scratched the itch while leaving me ready for the day. I think about the only thing I’d do different is toast the oats in the butter before I cooked the oats.

It was going to be straight up blueberry, but the bag of frozen mixed berries caught my eye first. To give the oats a pancake flavor, I started with making the oats a custard by mixing in some beaten eggs and slowly cooking it until it thickens up. I usually make buttermilk pancakes, so I tried buttermilk for the dairy, which worked fine. After I finished it I realized I could use cottage cheese to similar effect, so the next time I buzzed a dollop of cottage cheese with the eggs in the blender and it worked great. A pat of butter (note to self: next time brown the butter first), a little dribble of vanilla, and a tablespoon or two of sugar helped round out the flavors.

The berries on top are a simple compote: put your fruit of choice in a pan, and cook on medium-low until the fruit starts to soften and releases its juice. If the juices are too watery, take it off the heat, mix in a slurry of 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 teaspoon water, then put it back on the heat and stir until it thickens. Add sugar and a little squeeze of lemon to taste.

I topped mine with a dollop of Greek yogurt, but whipped cream works nicely as well.

A while back, I realized that any time a dish calls for rice, one can swap in oats and make a pretty killer breakfast. One of my favorites is omurice, a classic Japanese home cooking dish consisting of meat and diced vegetables cooked up with leftover rice and a generous squirt of ketchup, all topped with a French style omelet. It’s a perfect vessel to use up last night’s leftovers, or you can do like I did this morning and use frozen veggies. It’s not traditional but I’m fond of using some shelled edamame as part of the veggie mix for a little texture.