Why Irish Oatmeal Tastes So Much Better

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, 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 and quick cooking or rolled oats, these aren't flattened like those are. These are just chopped 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. They're 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 only have it in breakfast, but we do it in our bacon. We put 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.