Porridge saga

I had read in the EDC that the TM made great porridge.  As the Canberra mornings are getting colder, I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm supposed to be on a high protein,  low carb diet, so my porridge (which I usually make in the microwave, with varying results) usually has some sort of protein in it, such as protein powder.

Following the EDC, but only making half a batch, I added 80 g rolled oats, 325 g water and 2 scoops of protein powder to the TM.  I didn't mill the oats first, as I like mine whole.  I cooked this on 90 degrees for 8 minutes. 

I like my porridge really thik, so I can almost stand my spoon up in it.  I really don't like runny porridge.  So, I was really disappointed to find that, at the end of the cooking, the porridge was really runny when I poured it into a container.  I was even more disapointed to find, when I thought I had got all the porridge out, that I had a thick layer of congealed oats and protein powder firmly stuck to the bottom of the TM!  It was sunday, and I was running late for church, so I drank some of the runny stuff, threw the rest down the sink, and left the congealed mess soaking in the bottom of the TM bowl with hot water.  Disaster!

The next day, I decided to give it another go.  I followed the same instructions, making a full batch this time, but didn't add the protein powder with the oats, as I decided to add it into each serve of porridge when I heated it up each day.  Again, I got a runny result, with congealed oats at the bottom.  I didn't throw this lot away though, but ate it over the next 4 days.  I mixed protein powder through 2 serves, and blended them up to drink as smoothies.  I mixed cottage cheese and brown sugar through the other 2 serves, which tasted really good.  However, the cottage cheese was lumpy, and didn't do much to thicken the runny porridge.

I did some research on the forums, and discovered that some people were making thicker porridge using 100 g of oats and 350 g of water, cooked at 100 degrees on reverse speed 4 for 9 minutes.  I tried this this morning, and the result was perfect!  Nice thick creamy porridge!

It's a real pain to get out of the TM though, as my scraping skills still aren't very good.  I got most of it out though, and while there is still some in the bottom of the bowl under the blades, it isn't a congealed mess like before.

Perhaps I'll make a double quantity next time, on the weekend, and let it cool before scraping it out.  At least then I can remove the blades , and really get in there with my fingers to get it all out.  I also think I'll truy ricotta as a protein source instead of cottage cheese, as it will be smoother.