Pears

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