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This is the breakfast I grew up eating in Ireland. Hi, I'm Gemma Stafford, a professional chef from Ireland and a mom. And today I'm going to show you how to make traditional Irish porridge, how to get it perfectly creamy every time and what sets it apart. And once you try it, you'll understand why this simple breakfast has been a staple in Irish homes for generations. I adore Irish oatmeal. It's something that kind of like feeds my soul probably because I'm Irish. And but it's just so hearty and warming and just absolutely delicious. So the big difference with Irish oatmeal is that we use steel cut oats. So what are steel cut oats?
Steel cut oats are oats, but unlike the traditional oats that we're used to, quick cooking or rolled oats, these aren't flattened like those are. These are just shocked, hard oats. And you can feel they're pretty hard. They do take longer to cook, but they give you like this lovely thicker texture that you can kind of bite and it's just really yummy. So that's what these are. Also less processed. For many centuries oats have been grown in Ireland long before we even grew the potato. This is a staple in Irish food.
We don't really have it in breakfast, but we do it in our bacon. We push it into our breads. I've got some fantastic traditional recipes that I use it in that I can share with you. So into our pan, heavy bottom sauce pan, I say heavy bottom because these take a long time to cook. So if you have a nice thick bottom on your pan, that'll make life easier and your oats and your mix won't get scorched on the bottom. Into this, we are going to add in some milk. Often with oats, we just do water, but for Irish oats, we're going to add half milk and half water. I like to do whole milk because it has more fat.
More fat is more flavor. And then the other half is water. If you don't want to do dairy at all, leave it out and just do it with water. And maybe you can put in a non-dairy milk later. Into this, we need a little bit of salt. Salt brings out the flavor. I've seen recipes for Irish oatmeal where they actually toast the oats beforehand. You can do that. And it already has a lovely, nutty flavor, so it's not totally necessary. Now I'm going to turn on the heat to medium, medium low, pop on a lid and let it come to a simmer. I've seen recipes for Irish oatmeal, or even oatmeal in general, and they don't call for a lid.
A lid is so important. It will help to cook faster, more evenly, and it won't evaporate off all your liquids. So a lid is super important. Also, what I find really convenient, especially during the winter when we have to get off to school, I will put this in a crock pot in the fridge overnight. Next morning, I turn it on. First thing, it cooks away, and then it's ready to go after an hour or so. The one thing you can't do is do steel cut oats in the microwave.
It'll take way too long. So if you want to do microwave recipes, rolled oats or quick cooking oats are the best option. Once your mix comes to a simmer, turn it down to low, give it a stir, lid on, and let it cook, like I said, low and slow for around 45, you know, 55 minutes. It needs that time to soften those oats. If you don't give it all that time, you're going to end up with crunchy oatmeal. Because we have the milk in here and the oats, every few minutes walk by, give it a little stir, lid back on, and check it every so often. You don't want the oats to burn and stick to the bottom of the pan, and you don't want that milk to scorch also.
A steady cooking for roughly the next 45 minutes or so. So while that's slowly cooking away, I thought it'd be a really good time to answer some hotline questions around Irish oatmeal. One question is, can I make this dairy free? Absolutely, replace it with any kind of milk that you like to drink, milk or not milk. Is oatmeal healthy? This is a great question. Oats are rich in fiber, and they make for a really filling breakfast. Thing about it is, is that they slow release your energy. So you have your filled throughout the morning. So you have your breakfast,
and they should sustain you until lunchtime, unlike some other foods that don't carry you for very long. So oats are a great breakfast to start your day with. Can I add fruit while cooking the oatmeal? Yes, you can, absolutely. Apples will hold their shapes. You can put those in there for quite some time. Put in dried fruit at the very beginning. That's totally fine. Maybe chop it up a little bit. If you want to put in berries, put them in at the very end so they don't overcook.
Look at that. Look at that lovely steam, and how the oats completely plump up. The salt in there is not to make porridge salty by any means. In Ireland, we call it porridge. Here you call it oatmeal. It's to enhance the flavor of the oats. It's to bring out more flavor in the milk. How beautiful that is. And stirring it every so often means that you end up with a mix that looks like this with no lumps because nobody wants lumpy porridge. If you grow up with lumpy porridge in your house, it's a very hard thing to shake. So follow me over.
I'm going to serve them, and I'm going to show you how you can really make this a true Irish breakfast. There's a saying in Ireland, you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. And what it means is if you're going to do it, do it right. So when it comes to my oatmeal, because I live in Los Angeles and not Ireland anymore, I don't get to eat it as much as I'd like to. But today, when I do, I add a little bit of pouring cream on top, some brown sugar to give it almost a caramel flavor, and then some fresh blueberries on top. Also, my friend gave me a pot of her very own honey, so I'm going to drizzle a little bit of that on there too.
Enjoying hot porridge on a cold winter's morning is what I grew up doing in Ireland. Every mouthful brings me back to that time. Making traditional Irish recipes just like this one is a little way I can experience home without having to be there. I hope you're enjoying these traditional Irish recipes as much as I am. If you'd like to see more, I've got tons for you to check out, so get comfy. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you back here again really soon.
