Savoury porridge

my attempt to heal myself (and you by extension)

Oct 09, 2024

This could literally be us (recipe below)

The changing of the seasons always has me feeling all kinds of melancholic.

I’m waking up tired. At the start of the month, I was mourning the loss of August, (and prematurely lamenting the end of summer - which IS Sept. 21st) and was hoping to write some kind of “round-up” piece of things I enjoyed, and now September is through too. I have to laugh, I got two sentences into trying to start this piece and proceeded to take a two hour nap, and as I’m editing this, that nap was days ago and I haven't found time to write since. I’m in that awful phase of a new job (perhaps particular to gastronomy) where I’m enjoying the work - but the new environment is frying my brain. I arrive home every night high on adrenaline, tossing and turning for hours before falling into a restless sleep filled with dreams/nightmares of service. I’ve reached a point of tiredness/fear of further exhaustion where my current priority is to foster wellness (a rarity for a girl who generally prioritises a good glass of wine to price ratio). I wake up in a cranky haze, trying to rouse myself early enough that I actually feel like I did something other than work, without depriving myself of much needed sleep. I exist at home only in a dressing gown, and I basically treat myself like I’m ill. No socialising, lots of sleeping, meals in bowls. Hence my current obsession with savoury porridge - top of my in’s for autumn. Right now I’m craving the kinds of food I want when I’m sick; comforting, low effort, single utensil meals only, please. If you have a lot of energy and time, I have to recommend this wonderful Ottolenghi chicken soup. Every time I’m sick, Joram makes this for me (not to double flex but with homemade pasta) - it is undoubtedly healing and delicious but also absolutely a huge labour of love and something I am not up to making myself when I am feeling sick or run down. This savoury porridge gives some of the benefits with a fraction of the effort. It's not as good - of course it's not - but it doesn’t need to be. Cook the OTK chicken soup for your loved ones when they’re sick, and make this savoury porridge with chicken for you when you're sick.

Sometimes I kind of hate in/out lists (especially when they are related to purchasing things) but I can’t help myself…

Autumn OUT’s

Cold food
Saying yes to things I don’t want to do
Trying to monetize my hobbies
6 cups of coffee/day (Btw this is a fake out, I haven’t been successful thus far)
Holding on to things which no longer serve me (my janky old new balances that cut my heels)
Buying cookbooks and not reading them

Autumn IN’s

HOT breakfast
Rituals (locking my keycard in the work changing rooms every day)
More rom coms (recs please)
Taming the beast (my screentime)
Mash potatoes and also roast dinners
Chai (this is a theoretical in - please, please send me your trusted chai recipes)
Sad dad music
JOMO/FOBI (joy of missing out/fear of being included)
Baths (never out)
Parentheses

HOT BREAKFAST FOR AUTUMN

Savoury porridge!!! A hug for your soul etc etc. Something to eat on the sofa in your dressing gown, something cosy, comforting, easy. This is very meal prep-able which I guess is a selling point, because anyone with a normal job probably isn’t ready to chop onions at 7am (but if you are - I love you). It’s also not necessarily a breakfast recipe - this is where it fits for me, but I eat breakfast around 10-11am and start working at 2:30pm. I think it is easily appropriate, or more appropriate for a lunch or dinner, depending on how substantial you make your add-ins. This is as always, much more of a “how to” than an actual recipe - but there is the joy!! You can always just use what you have. I started making this when I moved to Berlin a couple of years ago, when the intensely cold winter and short, short days hit me like a slap in the face. I became literally obsessed with making soup and savoury porridge. If I have the time, I prefer to make congee, but I make this when I don't have enough time or rice. I usually make this slowly in the morning while watching Netflix on my laptop - I just started Nobody wants this and I love it. Again while writing/editing I have well finished this and am somehow on my first ever watch of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I need more romcoms. Can you tell I’m craving comfort?

Everything here can and should be eyeballed; chop whatever you have/want to use up, and at the end you can add an appropriate amount of oats - but for the sake of writing a recipe I will try to give a basic scale. I recommend reading everything first and if you are not vegetarian I really recommend buying chicken and cooking as follows below. I’ll make a grocery list (ish) at the end. My other note is that I don’t really recommend making this without any add ins unless perhaps your stomach is bothering you - without mushrooms or chicken or some other sautéed vegetable added in, this will likely be quite plain and unexciting to eat.

Let’s start with the bare bones - this is for approximately one bowl but usually I make more, and just reheat it from the fridge. Chop a small onion/shallot/whites of spring onion, whatever you have. A rough dice is fine. Sweat it down in a pan on low heat, with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook until translucent. Use a microplane to grate at least one clove of garlic and as much ginger as you like straight into the pan (or peel/chop finely if you don’t have a microplane). Cook the aromatics for 1-2 mins until fragrant. If you want to add veggies or mushrooms, sauté them in the pan at this point, with a little more oil and salt. Rehydrate dried mushrooms to add in, and use the mushroom water to cook the oats! Add some oats, about 50g for one bowl if you’re measuring. After adding the oats, add your cooking liquid of choice (broth/stock/water) - I don’t measure this, I just add a splash at a time and cook until it’s a consistency that looks good to me. Time to cook and amount of liquid needed will also differ depending on what kind of oats you’re using. Think risotto! It’s all personal preference at this point, it’s done when you want it to be, and you can always thin it out with more liquid. I always season mine with salt, pepper (a lot) and soy sauce. Sometimes miso (make a slurry with some water to avoid clumps) and a touch of msg powder. Chilli (flakes or fresh) is good, sesame oil is perfect. Freshly chopped herbs are always welcome. I’ll list toppings/add ins below -it’s whatever you need it to be. If you want to wilt in greens, do that at the very end. I’m currently in a huge egg ick phase but if you’re not, a fried or soft-boiled egg plays well here.

For this week’s savoury porridge, I poached some chicken thighs with salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, ginger, salt, carrots, onion. When the chicken was done, I removed the skin + bones and shredded the meat. The skin/bones/poaching liquid/veggies went in the pressure cooker to make stock (along with other chicken bones I had in the freezer.) I use the chicken stock to cook/reheat the oats, adding the shredded meat, chilli and fresh coriander and THIS is truly my favourite. It is substantial, but very comforting to eat and easy on your stomach, and it reheats very well. If you can still get chanterelles, they are an excellent addition, but any mushrooms added here are wonderful. Note; I had somehow never poached chicken thighs before, but cooking chicken thighs in general is very forgiving because they have so much fat/collagen. I tested mine with my digital thermometer and pulled them out at around 70C and let them rest for a few mins. (If you rest chicken at temp for 2+ mins it is safe above 64C - and lower, the longer you rest - this is especially valuable for the white meat, which is woefully dry when cooked to the widely “recommended” temp of 74C/165F). I honestly cannot recommend a digital thermometer enough -they’re like 10 bucks. Obliterate dry chicken from your life!! Stop overcooking it because you’re scared of undercooking it. Also very useful for pastry, bread, fish - everything. On another note, you definitely don’t have to make stock - I’m trying to be that bitch but generally when I save things for stock it takes me 3-6 business months to actually make the stock - and then sometimes I let the stock go bad in the fridge. Of course, cook the chicken as you see fit/use leftovers if you have them!

Necessities: