Breakfast is important to me. When I have the time I might indulge myself and maybe on a Saturday I will spread the paper on the table and devour a brace of kippers with some brown buttered bread and a pot of strong coffee. But in the week there isn’t time. But this doesn’t mean I need to sell myself short and resort to something fast but without substance.
In the winter months I turn to porridge and, if you do too, you will doubtless have a particular way of cooking it and also be very precise about your adornments. I used to be like that until I opened my mind to the possibility that someone else might have something to contribute to my porridge which would make it a nectar beyond my existing experience. So it proved.
Firstly don’t involve the microwave. I know its fast but the oats don’t have the opportunity to cook properly and take on the silky nuttiness that makes them such a pleasure in the mouth. Add a pinch of salt because salt brings a vibrancy to the flavour of everything else. Next, if you don’t use it already try honey to sweeten your porridge. I am currently using an orange blossom variety which provides floral notes making the bowl positively sing through the murk of the breaking day. But it is the final flourish, gifted to me by a friend, which turns my breakfast into something far less mundane than simply “breakfast”. Sprinkle some ground almonds on the top and maybe, if you like, a grating of nutmeg, a scant trace of cinnamon or even a breath of ginger. Now that is a breakfast not only full of nutritional worth to make your body happy, but the knowledge that you are taking such care of yourself and lavishing attention when all around is a frantic search for socks and school bags is a wondrous and powerful thing indeed.