thanks everyone for the suggestions. second run: 1 cup groats (thanks for the term), 2 cups water, splash of olive oil, pinch of salt. cover, bring to boil, switch to lowest setting, let simmer. got a glass lid, so monitoring progress.
20 min - still water left. 30 min - still some water visible. 40 min - none visible, occasional buble pops through. turn off heat, leave covered for 10 mins. sadly, there’s some water at the bottom, was hoping everything will get absorbed.
third run will be one setting above lowest for the simmer part thus hopefully shortening it to 30 mins, and then leaving it covered for 15 minutes, hopefully that will do the trick.