Porridge

It was so spectacular this morning: the boats were buzzing up and down the Thames, and the gulls were spiralling high on the wind… It may be January, but I really wanted to eat breakfast outside. Though the sun was blazing, it definitely felt more appropriate to eat something warm and nourishing, and there’s nothing like a bowl of porridge to warm you up. I had some lovely pears to hand, and as I’m going through a bit of a cardamom phase, I thought they might taste rather special pan-fried with the warming spice. I’d intended popping in a few emerald pistachios, but I appear to be using them up all too frequently in jewelled rice. A quick ferret in the cupboard turned up my old favourite, dried sour cherries. I love these, although they’re very sweet (and therefore perfect for sweetening up the porridge), they also have a great sour tang – sour enough to enliven the tastebuds on a cold morning. I popped them into the pan with the pears and they were a revelation! Enough of the pear juice had steeped into them to plump them a little, but the pan gave their outer shell a crisp and chewy texture, almost akin to little chewy toffees… This combination is so much better than I anticipated, and the whole thing took less than ten minutes to prepare. I drizzled a little local honey onto the top, and took my bowl outside, watching the world pass me by… As a taster of the coming spring, they were the perfect start to my day.

Ingredients (for 2):
1/2 large rip pear, cored, and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon of coconut oil, or butter
the seeds of 5 green cardamom pods
1 small handful of dried, sour cherries
1 teaspoon organic honey (not manuka, probably too strong for this)
1 portion of gluten-free porridge per person, made to your preference

Pears, cored and cut into segments

Pen fry the pears for 2-3 minutes on each side, until they’re golden, with the cardamom and cherries

Drizzle with a little bit of organic honey, and savour the moment

A perfect day :0)

My predictable January health kick survives* – we’ve reached the 5th – and although it’s a Sunday morning, I’ve managed to stall breakfast long enough to make baked porridge. I’d caught this recipe earlier in the week on Ramsay’s show, and located the recipe online. I have to say, it’s so much nicer than perhaps it sounds! Forget that oats are a good source of soluble fibre, help reduce cholesterol, and provide an invaluable source of manganese and non-meat protein – this thing tastes yummy too!

Ingredients:
Serves 4–6
150g (5oz) jumbo rolled oats
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1⁄2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, plus a little extra to sprinkle
50g (2oz) whole blanched almonds
50g (2oz) blanched hazelnuts
75g (3oz) raisins
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
500ml (18fl oz) milk, plus extra for serving
200ml (7fl oz) double cream
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
Combine the oats and vanilla seeds in a mixing bowl – use your fingers to rub the seeds through the oats. Add the spices, nuts, raisins and pear and mix well. Stir in the milk and cream,
and then pour the mixture into a baking dish. Dust with a little extra grated nutmeg.
Place in the oven and bake for30–35 minutes, or until the oats are completely softened and the liquid absorbed.
Heat the grill on its highest setting. Sprinkle the top of the porridge with the sugar and place under the grill for 3–4 minutes, or until the sugar has melted and created a crust.
Serve warm, with a little extra milk on the side if desired

Notes:

I omitted the cream from mine, but I used whole milk, and upped it to 600ml
Do leave your nuts whole if you can, they will soften in the mix
I used 100g dried cranberries instead of raisins – I’m not that keen on raisins these days
I forgot to put in the pear – damnation – I have some excellent pears too
I used my Thiercelin Pain d’Epices spices, because I’m becoming vaguely addicted to the scent – although Hubby did say that it smelled a little like a Christmas pud, so beware
If you’re not going to pop your vanilla bean pod into sugar, you could put it into the porridge to cook alongside the other ingredients
Hubby had his porridge without milk on the side, but I did, it’s pretty thick otherwise
I cooked mine in a Le Creuset dish, which meant that when it cooled down, I was actually able to cut it into strips – like a soft breakfast bar. It’s actually even more delicious cold – that’s my breakfast for tomorrow sorted, with some fresh fruit, and a splodge of natural yoghurt I’ll be good to go…

The Porridge and Milk

The Baked Porridge

Delicious, but even nicer when set, and cut into slices

Cardamom Scented Pears

Gordon Ramsay’s Baked Spice Porridge