THE BREAKFAST PIVOT.
Just when you’ve got your healthy breakfast down pat for summer, they go and change it to autumn. Honestly. But at least you get my bircher muesli recipe.
It’s the way of the world right now, but jeez, it’s tough when you have to pivot before you’ve even had breakfast.
All summer long, my partner Terry has been a stone fruit stalker, buying them one, two or three days earlier than required, and nursing them like kittens before finally announcing they are good enough to join my bowl of fresh fruit, yoghurt and seeds.
Stone fruits have been magnificent this year, with white peaches (so much more special than yellow peaches), white nectarines (divine), flat donut peaches and several varieties of plums – especially blood plums, crimson glows and queen garnets. I’ve given up on apricots, sadly, which seem to have joined the Not What They Used To Be bin – you know, that bin that grows bigger as you get older.
Berries have been gorgeous, too – raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. I’ve probably spent what would have been our annual international travel budget on the little buggers, but at least they have kept me happy at home.
And now? Now that I’ve got my fresh fruit for breakfast perfect? Apples are here. Which means Autumn. Which means pivoting.
Coming back to town after the latest foodie road trip with a boot load of freshly picked Royal Galas requires immediate swivelling to the healthiest, most apple-friendly recipe on my seasonal breakfast calendar: bircher muesli.
It’s a big, cultural shift, and requires a little more washing up than just fruit or toast (two bowls, one grater, a strainer), but it’s worth it.
BIRCHER MUESLI TIPS:
# Soak the oats before you have a shower, find something to wear, or wake up properly. That way, you don’t have to wait.
# Grate the apple through skin, core, seeds and all, applying yoghurt before it can even think of going brown.
# Add a teaspoon of honey if the apple is sharp.
# Don’t overload it. You’re already eating a whole apple and yoghurt, so take it easy with the toppings.
# Don’t get all trendy with it. Goji berries begone. It’s a breakfast bowl, not an Instagram post.
# Add shredded coconut, pepitas, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, almonds and, for variety, a handful of granola or toasted muesli from a great bakery such as Illawarra or Bourke Street.
# Don’t add chia seeds if you have a 10 am meeting, unless you want to be picking little black specks out of your teeth all morning.
RECIPE: Bircher muesli
Adapted from the original recipe by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner, who fed it to his patients at the start of every meal, not just breakfast. Add whatever fruit is around - berries, cherries, dates, melons, plums or just a spoonful of sultanas.
Serves 2
75 g porridge (rolled) oats
200 ml water
1 unwaxed apple, UNPEELED
3 tbsp natural full-fat yoghurt
1 tbsp sunflower or pumpkin seeds or both
Your choice of fruit, prepped
Soak the rolled oats in the water for 30 minutes, while you have a shower, find something to wear, wake up, etc.
Grate the apple right through the core - skin, pips and all. (Me, I stop at the stalk). Toss immediately with yoghurt.
Drain the oats but keep the milky-looking soaking water in case you need to loosen the final muesli.
Add the drained oats and seeds to the yoghurt and apple, and quickly toss.
Divvy up between two cereal bowls and add the fruit.
Top with crunchy granola as well, maybe.
Have a nice day!
PS. Stone fruits, by the way, are not just for summer. With the decrease in exports and lack of workers adding to their woes, the stone fruit growers of Shepparton, Cobram and Swan Hill want to remind us that they will have beautiful peaches, plums and nectarines ripening on their trees well into March and April. “After the struggles growers have already faced this season, they are desperate to not see further stock go to waste,” says Michael Crisera, Growers Services Manager at Fruit Growers Victoria. So buy stone fruits, people. They go well with bircher muesli.
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Copyright © 2020 Jill Dupleix. Stone fruit pic courtesy of Fruit Growers Victoria.
I live and work on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging.