Okay, so I have a tendency to just throw things into a pot and eat them. For the most part, I am awesome at pulling this off looking somewhat professional about it. I love that about cooking.
And yesterday, I made something really good and I loves it.
Thus, I am going to share it in a semi-formal recipe format. The only difference being that there aren't going to be any actual measurements involved. It's all entirely customizable.
Currently, my new creation is called Samantha's Unexpectedly Delicious Bran Mash.
Sounds yummy and indistinguishable, right? Well, it is. ^^ A little bit of backstory: My mom is really big into oatmeal. I'm kinda sorta not really into oatmeal. I mean, I like it but I don't love it. It never sticks with me like real cereal does and I really can't add enough to it to make it tastefully pleasurable on a level that makes it worth eating. Usually we just throw some brown sugar in it with some milk. It's okay, but not enough punch for me. I've made a peach topping to go in it, an apple cinnamon concoction to go in it, I've mixed all sorts of things and still the oatmeal doesn't pop right. I'm a Bran flake girl. So, then I got an idea. Make a bran-type of "oatmeal". So, I did. And it's sooooo good.
Bran Mash
You will need the following to create the "original" Bran Mash made awesome by me (ingredients first, followed by equipment):
- A bowl of bran flakes-- no raisins, unless, that is you like that kind of thing. You may need to get an off-brand flake. I prefer the generic Wal-Mart one because the flakes have more body to them and aren't as thin as the Kellogg's All-Bran is.
- Skim or low-fat milk-- I am on a "diet" here. I will say it would probably be creamier with a higher fat count, but skim works just fine in this instance (you just need the moisture anyway)
- Ground cinnamon (fresh or the cheaper but just as good ground kind)
- Ground cloves (same as above)
- Pumpkin or Apple butter (this is optional and just reinforces the spices above)
- A whole peach-- Doesn't matter what kind. Which ever you prefer. Actually, any fruit will do for this recipe, but this is what I've had around, so this is the original fruit for it. I will eventually play around with banana, apple, strawberry, and other fruit mash, then post edited recipes accordingly.
- A couple pinches of sugar
- A very small pinch of salt
- A ziploc bag of some type
- A medium-sized, shallow sauce pan
- Spoon or cooking spatula with a silicon head (gentler than a spoon)
- You must first take your bowl of bran flakes (however much you want for one serving-- for this recipe, I would use about a cup full) and dump it into the ziploc bag. Seal it and then just kind of smash the flakes a bit. If you bought a brand of flakes that has thinner flakes, you can skip this. This is just to make it more uniform. If you want bigger flakes, then smash accordingly or not at all. Up to you. Once you have them to the level of uniformity you desire, set them aside.
- Next, take your peach (or whatever fruit you have selected), clean it, skin it, and cut it up into smallish chunks or slices-- to cut down on clean up, use the recently emptied bran bowl to store the peaches until needed. The size of the peach bits is up to you. I've done a mix-- if you want to peach to be in every bite and thus not so obvious, you could mash it up a bit. Doesn't matter. Sprinkle just a little bit of sugar on the slices and set aside. [You can do this step ahead of time and refrigerate-- that way the sugar will draw out more juice. Or if you don't want all the juice, ignore the sugar at this step]
- Take the sauce pan and put it over lowish heat. Anywhere between 2 and 4 on a regular oven. Now you want to pour in enough skim milk to cover the bottom. It should only be about 1/4 of a cup or thereabouts. If you don't have much peach juice, you may want to put in a little more milk.
- While the milk is warming, toss in a few dashes of cinnamon and cloves each. Not too much, just enough to see the spices floating here and there in the milk. Stir slowly with a spoon or cooking spatula.
- After a few minutes, the milk should be pretty warm, at this point, if you wish, you could plop in about a spoonful of pumpkin butter (I recommend this, as it helps emphasize the spice, but also adds another taste to the milk, but this is optional). Stirring this into the milk is easier to accomplish with a spatula. The milk should turn a kind of nut color once it is fully incorporated. At this point, you may sprinkle in a little bit of sugar AND a tiny dash of salt.
- I usually let the flavors meld a bit at this stage, before I go any farther. The taste of the milk shouldn't be overpoweringly full of spice or anything-- more of a mellow mix. The salt and sugar just kind of help bring out the the other flavors.
- After everything is blended together, it's time to dump in the bruised bran flakes. Pour them into the pan and stir until all the flakes/flake bits have been coated. Keep stirring slowly as they break down. This is essential because if you add the peaches too soon, the juice will mix with the milk and cause it to separate out like acids do to milk, so make sure that the mixture in the pan looks more like generic hot cereal in texture before adding the peaches.
- It should only take a few minutes for the flakes to combine with the flavored milk. At that point, you should add the peaches and turn the heat up just a bit, so they can cook down as well. This stage can vary in time depending on what you want out of it. I, personally, want the peaches to be hot and thus will let them cook for a bit.
- When you think it's done to your liking, pour it into a bowl and enjoy.
Anyway, try it out and experiment to your heart's content. I promise you, it's good.
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