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Agua de Jamaica

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So why not make something beautiful in the morning and then consume it.

This morning I put a cup of skim milk in the small red pot with a stick of cinnamon, a sprinkle of ground ginger, another of nutmeg, and I set the timer and let it froth on very low heat for about 10 minutes while I folded laundry and the cinnamon stick became sodden and unfurled. The milk turned creamy and cinnamon dark and smelled like a heaven you can't imagine, so I added half a cup of oats and watched them roil for about four minutes till they'd soaked up the last of the cream and turned the color of light toast. I removed the stick of cinnamon, poured the oats into a bowl, and added a diced sliver of cold Granny Smith apple--why not, since I have them around?--to top it off. No pecans, I crushed a few unsalted cashews into the apples, which was just about better.

Add brown sugar or honey if you'd like, but it won't need it.

Other considerations: use apple cider instead of milk to cook the oats for a caramel apple version. You'll have more success if you add a little water to the juice: the oats will still caramelize but will cook more evenly and will not be too sweet. Use 1/2 a cup of cider, 1/4 cup of water, and add a 1/4 cup of milk to the oats towards the last minute or two of cook time for creaminess.

Whatever you do, don't add the milk to the cider directly. Wait until the oats have cooked down a bit or the acidity of the juice will cause the milk to separate.

Also note: if you add the oats to the pot before heating anything, you'll have a creamier, clumpier, stickier side of the meal--overcook this mess and you'll have glue. Adding the oats after boiling the milk, water, and/or juice will give you a firm nutty texture (as above), but under cook it, and you'll have something that looks like cold cereal in a pot: a runny, swimmy breakfast.

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