My breakfast part 1: Rice Cooker Oats

One of my two breakfast staples is rice cooker oats.
It's not the best way to make oats, but it's the best first thing in the morning.

I've always found oatmeal unappealing since there's no texture left and nothing to chew. I just don't like eating breakfast with a spoon. I totally wrote off oats until a letter in Cooks Illustrated caught my interest.

The letter suggested a technique for steaming oats that they said tasted oatier than oats. Here's my rendition of the instructions.

Steamed Oats
Ingredients: 1part old fashioned oats to 1 1/3 parts water
Technique: Put steamer basket in pot and fill with water several inches above basket. Bring water to rolling boil then add oats and boil for 90 seconds. Carefully remove steamer basket with tongs and pour out all but 1/2" of water. Return steamer basket to pot and cover and let stand off-heat for 10-15 minutes. Serve with maple syrup.

This yields the best tasting oats that I know of and is well worth trying. The grains are nicely separated and chewy like rice. Unfortunately, it takes some concentration and coordination that is a bit much to expect first thing in the morning.

Intrigued by this technique, I noticed that they were treating oats like rice. So why not use a rice cooker? The results are not quite as nice, but they are a lot easier.

Rice Cooker Oats
Ingredients: 1part old fashioned oats to 1 1/3 parts water
Technique: Add everything to rice cooker and start. When it is done serve with maple syrup.

This is obviously much easier. You can increase the water to make it closer to oatmeal if you like. Because of the way the rice cooker works, using more water will yield mushier oats but they won't be wetter since the extra water will cook off.

One note: if you leave the oats in the cooker too long they'll take on a jello like texture like in the picture. It's a bit weird, but it doesn't hurt the flavor. I'm experimenting to see if I can use oats to make a vegan jello dish.