Cherry Porridge with Brown Butter Seeded Crumb
I’m a porridge gal through and through, but it needs to be just right. I’m quite a picky porridge eater. I like it cooked low and slow for a good 15-20 minutes so its really creamy. It has to be just the right consistency; thick but it still needs to flow off of a ladle. I love that its such a lovely blank canvas for flavour and is so adaptable. Yes porridge can be boring, but it can be pretty flippin’ delicious too. It’s also guaranteed to keep me full until lunch time.
This version of the perfect porridge includes a glossy sweet cherry compote and a brown butter seeded crumb. The buttery, toasted pecans and mixed seeds add a great little crunch to the dish along with a sprinkling of demerara. As a treat, I like to pour a little single cream around the edge. Pure breakfast perfection.
Ingredients - serves 3
Porridge:
1 cup oats
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups milk
Small pinch of salt
Dash of vanilla paste
Dash of cinnamon
Cherry compote:
250g frozen cherries, thawed
25g maple syrup
3 cardamom pods, ground
a small squeeze of lemon
1/4 tsp cornflour
Brown butter seeded crumb:
15g salted butter
50g crushed pecans
100g mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, hemp & golden linseed)
To serve:
Demerara sugar/fresh cherries/single cream
Method
For the cherry compote:
Place all the ingredients into a pan apart from the cornflour. Cook over low heat the cherries are soft and bubbling. Remove from the heat and whisk together a few tbsp of the juices from the pan with the cornflour in a small bowl. Add the slurry back into the pan and mix. Mash the cherries so they're still chunky but broken down. Return the pan to the heat and cook until it starts to bubble and looks glossy. Refrigerate until needed.
For the seeded crumb:
Melt the butter in a frying pan. Continue to cook it until it turns brown and foamy. Add in the nuts and seeds and cook, stirring continuously, for approximately 3-5 minutes. They should smell lovely and toasted. Set aside until needed.
For the porridge:
Place all ingredients into a saucepan on low heat and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often. Serve in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of compote, fresh cherries, nutty crumb, a sprinkle of demerera and some single cream.