Panna Cotta Porridge

Recipe by Jennie Corrigan – 2013 Entry

Website/Blog: www.passionateaboutporridge.com

Inspiration / Influences / Story behind recipe
Browsing through a magazine, I spotted a recipe for panna cotta. It looked lovely and creamy. Unusually, it had lots of grated lemon zest and presumably fruit juices running down it because it was presented in the manner of a turned-out blancmange.
What intrigued me, was that the panna cotta was flavoured not only with lemon but also with basil. This I had to try in my porridge!

Ingredients
For each portion:
Standard ingredients
•50g porridge oats (Small, rolled oats – they are super creamy and cook super quickly – am still experimenting which brand is best but currently use Mornflakes Superfast oats.
•150 mL milk/water (I use 50% semi-skimmed milk and 50% water)
•1 or 2 Splenda® Sweet Minis (I only use sucralose-based sweeteners and am still experimenting which is best. You get sweetness with no added calories.)
•Sprinkle of ground almonds (I was told to add ground almonds as a source of extra protein by a nutritionist so did what I was told.)
•three or four large basil leaves
•The grated zest and juice of half a lemon.
• double cream – optional!

Method:
First, make a batch of porridge using the standard ingredients placed in a large non-metallic bowl but before microwaving:
•       Add three or four large basil leaves
•       The grated zest of half a lemon.
Nuke for the usual 2-3 minutes on full power then:
•       Remove the basil leaves
•       Finely chop up one or two of them and put back into the porridge
•       Stir the porridge  to make it creamy
•       Add a squeeze of lemon juice and stir
•       Add a little bit of double cream
•       Stir again – sniff!
•       Eat!
This and hopefully! 364 other flavours are becoming available on my website www.passionateaboutporridge.com  Enjoy!