Sowing My Wild Irish Oats.

"What you sow, you shall reap." So says the proverb, and tonight in my kitchen, proved quite true, at least partially. When I saw "Irish Oats" at the store, I could not resist picking up a big can. The basic cooking instructions were simple enough, requireing that the cook combine oats, water, and salt if desired in a specific proportion and let it cook for some time. Basically just like any dried pasta recipe you've ever seen on the side of a box.

Figuring my self as a budding epicurist, I foresaw tonights dinner being a butterflied roast chicken, with some braised red cabbage and an artful rendition of Irish oats. Luckily, before I began prepping my bird and cabbage cabesa, I decided to make a quick test batch of these oats.

Following the directions exactly (admittedly a trait I notoriously lack), I cooked my "Irish Oats" according to package directions. I am convinced it was this dish that drove Irish immigrants to America, not a potato blight. Truly a horrid porridge of sticky, tasteless mush. I do believe this has all the flavor of kindergarten sticky paste glue, and probably twice the sticking power.

So bland was this concoction that it did indeed kill my appetite for the evening. Nevertheless, in the aftertaste, once I "glorped" down the stuff, there did emerge a slight nuttiness. A subtle hint of a flavor that had been abused by cooking instructions on the side of a box.

It then dawned on me that just as is the case with dried pasta, only a madman would "follow the directions". Doing so would yield an end product that was more mush than pasta, and would leave an insipid flavor that no sauce could mass. Real pasta makers know it's done by sight, taste and texture. I decided to treat these oats the same way I would treat my pasta. I am going to cook it how I want to, not how the good people at the Irish Oats Company told me to.

But alas, it is too late to continue my gastronomic experimentation this evening. My dreams of culinary grandeur shall remain in my dreams for tonight. But tomorrow, I intend to reap what I have sown! Not a bowl of mush, but a wondrous and savory harvest featuring the flavor of these Irish "steel cut" oats as I believe they were meant to be. So tonight, sleep well everyone! I bid you all, "Good Eating". =)