Oat cuisine

Until quite recently I was a happy member of the no-breakfast club. Breakfast is something you do on holiday (coffee, croissants, fluffy bathrobes), at the weekend (in a glass with vodka and a shake of Worcestershire Sauce) or when you have retired and gone to live at the seaside. Eating something before work is the sort of thing sensible people do. Sensible as in 'sensible shoes' or 'sensible diet'. Breakfast is a meal for the sort of people who buy their clothes at Marks & Spencer.

I know hardly anyone who eats anything much in the morning. By which I mean something substantial, taken at the table and before 9am. Friends admit to grabbing a cappucino/latte/espresso from the despised-but-oh-so-useful Starbucks; snaffling a muesli bar with one hand on the steering wheel. No one yet has owned up to stirring porridge with a spurtle, pouring milk over blocks of desiccated wheat or even blasting a banana to a pulp in the blender. And you can forget bacon, sausage and egg - the Great British Breakfast is now something you suck through a slit in the plastic lid of a paper cup.

I started eating breakfast in an attempt to lose weight. One of the downsides of the no-breakfast club is the vast gurgling hole you get in your tummy about 11am. A hole that in my experience tends to get filled with junk from the biscuit tin or the sweetie counter. Add to that the slight dizziness you incur just before lunch and you've got a recipe for a severe telling off from Dr Briffa.

That glorious dog's dinner of grease and starch known as the English breakfast is all very well in bed and breakfasts in the Lake District or on first-class train journeys (on expenses, naturally). To skip either would be to miss out on a much-loved chunk of British hospitality. But an early morning roller coaster of soft, crisp, tart, sweet and savoury is too much of a good
thing for every day. The alternatives prove no better. A croissant leaves you hungry half an hour later, grapefruit takes the enamel off your teeth, and porridge is fine for those who can stir a pot and read the newspaper at the same time.

Muesli it is then. In the space of six months, I have gone from being espresso-man to a fully licensed muesli-geek. Instead of just knowing my espresso from my ristretto, I now know more than is decent about rolled and jumbo oats, pumpkin and sesame, linseeds and sunflowers. I know, for instance, that hazelnuts and almonds are better toasted, and that sesame seeds get stuck in your teeth. More than anything, I have learnt that no two mueslis are alike.

I approached the muesli world with deep suspicion. There is something almost sinister about anything quite that healthy. Then again, much of the stuff you buy ready-mixed is not very healthy at all. Several brands had a hefty wack of sugar in them, others a dodgy dose of sulphur-dioxide-preserved dried fruits. One healthier-than-thou looking company has a whole range of recipes, yet all so sweet as to almost qualify as puddings.

It is almost impossible to find a commercial recipe that doesn't have at least one horror lurking among the oatbran. Discs of tooth-breaking banana are one of them. At the top of my rather long hate-list is shaved coconut. It is not just that it is too sweet and too full of cholesterol. It is simply that shaved coconut bares a distinct resemblance to toenail clippings.

The only way to find your perfect mixture is to make it yourself. Easy done. But be warned, by the time you have bought even the smallest
packets of oats, raisins and apricots you will have enough breakfast to feed every tent at Glastonbury.

Now, have you ever thought of toasting your muesli before you eat it? The oats and seeds develop a deep, nutty flavour, the larger oats crisp a little and the dried fruit softens. Once the milk or yogurt hits the toasted nuts and cereals, all the toasty, nutty flavours come to life. This toasting brings out all the sweetness you need and makes the flavours sing that bit louder.

Texture matters almost more than flavour here. Pumpkin seeds are large, flat and crunchy, while linseeds, though minute, have a silky, almost slippery feel in the mouth. The mix is all about balance - not too flaky or powdery and not too heavy with dried fruit. My own mixture has a warm and nutty base of toasted oats and hazelnuts with a little sharp-tasting fruit to lift it. The bran sticks are there for their crunch and for the spiky note they add.

Makes 10-12 portions

100g porridge oats

100g jumbo oats

40g pumpkin seeds

30-40g bran sticks

20-30g linseeds

100-125g skinned hazelnuts

150-200g brazil nuts

125g dried unsulphured apricots

a small handful of dried cranberries, cherries or barberries

Mix the porridge oats with the jumbo oats, then add the pumpkin seeds, bran sticks, linseeds, skinned hazelnuts and brazils. Slice the apricots finely and add them with the small dried fruits to the muesli. Mix the nuts, oats and fruit, then spread it all out on a baking sheet (you may need two). Put the baking sheet under a hot grill and toast until the oats are starting to
colour. I watch the progress carefully at this point, knowing the ability of oats and nuts to burn if unwatched for more than a moment or two. Move the mixture around on the tray, then return to the grill. Cool thoroughly before scooping into a Kilner jar.

• What you add to your muesli in the way of milk or yogurt is up to you. I have always used yogurt to soften mine, and goat's yogurt at that. It takes practice to learn how long to leave the dry ingredients infusing. I dislike soggy cereals so I tend to leave mine no longer than 10 minutes.

I am not really a tray-bake kinda guy, but it is a small step from a bowl of muesli to a muesli bar. These are nothing like those soggy wedges sold as flapjacks in corner shops. They are crisp with a soft, buttery interior. Try not to overcook them - the edges should be starting to crisp, but the middle should still be soft when you take them from the oven. Much will depend on your accuracy with measuring the syrup, which in my hands is always a bit hit and miss. The salt stops the mixture being oversweet.

Makes about 20.

250g salted butter

125g demerara sugar

125ml golden syrup

250g good quality muesli

250g porridge oats

You will need a shallow roasting tin approximately 24cm by 36cm.

Melt the butter in a large heavy-based pan, add the sugar and golden syrup and leave to melt over a low to moderate heat. Stop when it starts to bubble. Stir the remaining ingredients into the melted butter and sugar with a small pinch of salt. Stir briefly then remove the pan from the heat.

Tip the mixture into a lightly buttered or non-stick baking tin and bake at 180 C/gas mark 4 for about 15-20 minutes till firm and lightly crisp around the edges. Cool slightly, then score with a knife into wide, finger-length biscuits or squares. OM