Saturday, July 16, 2016

Elna's Fried Oatmeal

My mother-in-law was one of the best "comfort food" cooks I have ever known.  She could fry chicken that was heavenly, or make a Sunday roast that was browned and fall apart tender, along with gravy that was so dark it was almost black.  When we went to visit, I always looked forward to at least one morning of fried oatmeal.  I had never heard of this dish before I met Elna, and I have never seen it since.  I am guessing that it was an old German recipe, as that was Elna's background.  Jan kept her mother's recipe file and we decided it was time to try to make this breakfast dish.  Jan wasn't sure she could reproduce what her Mom made so long ago,  but it turned out great.  Here is how it goes:

Ingredients:

6 Cups water
1/4 LB butter or margarine
11/2 tsps. salt
41/2 Cups rolled oats (old fashioned Quaker oatmeal)
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsps. Allspice
1/3 Cup raisins
Dark Karo Syrup
 
Preparation:

Combine the water, butter and salt in a large sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil over high heat.  Combine the sugar and the allspice and stir together.  Once the pot is boiling add the rolled oats, sugar/allspice combined, and the raisins.  Reduce heat to a low boil and stir occasionally.  Cook for ten minutes.  While oatmeal is cooking, line  a loaf pan with wax-paper.  When the oatmeal has cooked for ten minutes, remove it from the heat and spoon the mixture into the loaf pan.  It will look like this:


 
Allow to cool on the counter top for thirty minutes.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.  In the morning, when you are ready to serve breakfast, turn the loaf out onto a cutting board, by laying the board on top of the loaf pan and then inverting the pan while holding the board in place.  The loaf will slide out easily.  Remove the wax-paper from the loaf.  It will look like this:
 
 
Using a sharp knife, slice off as many 3/8" slices as you think you will want to cook.  Melt a couple of TBSP of butter into a skillet.  Preferably an old black cast iron skillet.  Fry the slices in the butter over high heat, until they get crispy around the edges.  Here is the first batch we cooked this morning:
 

Elna always served with crispy thick cut bacon and of course Karo dark syrup.  To get the original comfort food taste,  you have to go with the Karo.

 
 
Maybe it is just the memories this dish brought back for us, but we really enjoyed it this morning as part of a lazy Saturday morning breakfast.  I hope you enjoy it too.

2 comments:

  1. I got this recipe from Aunt Phyllis once when Dick and I stopped at Laren's house. It is basically a way to use left over oatmeal isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not really. The proportions and ingredients are different. It is thicker and is cooked longer than oatmeal.

    ReplyDelete