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Alex Rast

at Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:23:47 GMT in >,
(Dee Randall) wrote :

>
>"Wayne Boatwright" <wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote in message
. 228.19...
>> On Wed 15 Feb 2006 02:28:25a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Alex
>> Rast?
>>
>>> at Tue, 14 Feb 2006 15:07:22 GMT in
>>> >, (Dee
>>> <Randall)
>>> wrote :
>>>>"Alex Rast" > wrote in message
.. . ...
>>>>>
>>>>> If you can afford the expense, Chefshop.com sells quite simply the
>>>>> best oats you can buy - The Oatmeal of Alford. There is just no
>>>>> comparison. Compared to standard steel-cut oats (e.g. McCann's,
>>>>> they have a much more assertive oatey flavour and the texture is
>>>>> impossibly creamy - MUCH creamier than any other porridge you will
>>>>> ever have had.
>
>Reading further about the Alford, I see that one can cook them in the
>microwave -- well, that speaks volumes (to me).

In a positive or a negative sense?

>I am now wondering about Alford.
>Alex, have you, could you, would you, recommend cooking them in the
>microwave?

I don't own a microwave so there I have no information to impart.

at Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:58:51 GMT in
> ,
(rox formerly rmg) wrote :
>
>I don't know. I like to know I'm having oats. Nutty, textured, not too
>goopy oats. If it's creamy like porridge I fear I might get grossed out.
>Then again I've never tried them as you say so what do I know. I like my
>oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and just a dot of cream.

No, I think you misunderstood. Alford doesn't dissolve into an
unrecognisable mass. The oats stay whole and nicely firm - "al dente" you
might say. But they render up in addition a mass of creamy goodness, so
that you get a suspension of very oatey-tasting and well-defined oat groats
in a creamy pudding-like semifluid. It doesn't come out gloppy.

By all means use your favourite additions, but I encourage you to try it
just once without, in order to understand that the flavour of really first-
rate oats can stand on its own. (Not that I haven't added things in the
past. Some examples: currants, almonds, hazelnuts, cocoa, chocolate,
cinnamon, almond butter, peanut butter, dark Muscovado sugar)

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)