7daysofporridge

MAY 14, 2009

Porridge with Fennel

Fennel, that beautiful seed, muted yellow green stripes running from end to end, sensuous lines of ridges and grooves. Hold it vertically and it begins to look like the seductive crescent moon. Breath in, pull the scent deep into your lungs and your head and heart wakes to today's horizon. Down to earth, drop a handful (40ml) of seeds into soymilk ... actually a small cooking pot, say 1 litre, three quarters filled with soymilk (650ml). Add a handful (40ml) of flax/sesame seed mix, make the mix yourself; now pour cracked oats into that pot until the growing little oat mountain (300ml) reaches the surface. Add a dollop (10ml) of honey (the dark stuff of buckwheat origin or that light clover kind; this is all about love, make your choice). Take an old wooden spoon, that feels good in the hand and stir like your life depended on it, which it doesn't. Put a lid on the mixed up brew and stick it in the fridge, at least an overnight stay or maybe longer, our upper limit is 4 days which is just short of it getting out of the pot and biting you. Yes, this is a recipe ... and it should serve four. So take it easy.

It's one of those next mornings, Good Morning, smile, try to touch your toes, just try, bending from the top of the pelvis, rolling your torso down your legs, thinking "one vertebrate at a time", breathing out through the movement, try to get that bum pointing skywards and then rise like an eagle, stand up straight, Tad asana. Step lightly to the kitchen, bring the pot out of the fridge, set it on the lowest heat available, add a cup or so of soymilk, potter around, and wake up more, wake your family, shower. As you get closer to wanting to eat, raise the heat and give the porridge more love, stir.
Where are those blueberries?
Add them,
If you have them.
Taste ... do you like it?

A few alternatives: stir-fry the blueberries (grapes are also fun) in olive oil, until the skins just begin to break. Now, add them to the porridge or some other feast. Further variation can be brought in by stir-frying the fennel seeds, bringing in more nuisances on taste.

If the handful method is not quite your thing, the amount descriptions in the narrative are there for you and we have a little table below, but we strongly recommend the joy of measuring by hand and eye:

Soymilk: 650ml
Fennel: 40ml
Flax/Sesame seed mix: 40ml
Cracked Oat Groats: 300ml
Honey: 10ml

Excellent nutritional information can be gleaned at the website: http://www.calorie-count.com/
-Accessed: 14th May 2009-
E.g.
Grade given to Flaxseed: A-
Good points
No cholesterol
Very low in sodium
Very low in sugar
Very high in dietary fiber
Very high in manganese
High in magnesium
-the site also provides a calorie breakdown and dodgy advertising.