A pleasing breakfast
Cereal. It has its place, but sometimes it’s not even a chore, not even unpleasant, it just IS.
Time to pep it up a bit. Ian has been pouring yogurt over the top, but that all got a bit milky and shudder inducing half-way through and there’s a limit to the quantity of dried fruit you can strew over it all before you get over-developed jaw muscles.
If only greek yogurt wasn’t generally so high fat and more to the point, expensive… Then we heard about straining yogurt and allowing it to sit overnight. The texture is transformed. It’s a miracle – a miracle, I tell ye!
Spoon over some sweet, poached fruit and bliss follows.
Here’s what I do. Do this tonight and you too could eat this in the morning.
Place a sieve over a bowl and line it with 2 sheets of kitchen roll.
Pour a carton of plain yogurt into it.
Turn the corners in on the 3rd sheet of kitchen roll and place on top of the yogurt.
Put into the fridge overnight, or at least for a few hours.
Next morning, get impressive contraption out of fridge.
Peel back top layer of kitchen roll – really, it will peel off! See how firm… but shrunken it is? (Such a shame to have both those words in one phrase.)
Have another bowl waiting and flop the now solid yogurt into the bowl and peel off the bottom two sheets of paper.
Admire the amount of liquid in the bottom of the sieve bowl, then pour it away. If you’re my Mother, you can repeatedly complain about the smell of the liquid. It doesn’t bother me, but I have a husband who goes fishing, a 4 yr old son and 2 cats, so unpleasant smells aren’t exactly a rarity in my life.
Anyway.
Witchcraft. It is now the consistency of cream cheese. Low fat tastes high fat. Runny becomes velvety-firm. Spooky.
Spoon a portion into a small (big?) bowl and drizzle with honey and maybe some nuts and succulent dates or… spoon on top of some cereal and bathe with …poached plums!
Want to poach your plums? Here we go then.
Acquire a punnet of fruit. I’ve used peaches, nectarines and as pictured here, plums. Cut them in half and remove the stones.
Pour 6-7 tbsp sugar and 250ml/1 cup cold water into a large saucepan (mine is about 8″/20cm across)on a low heat.
Swirl around to dissolve the sugar into the water. Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes.
Add the halved, stoned fruit to the saucepan – skin side down. Simmer gently for another 2-3 minutes or until they are beginning to soften around the edges (this can take much, much longer for larger or under-ripe fruit).
Turn them over and simmer for about 4/5 minutes (see above caveat for different fruit).
Once they are softened, not to mush, but so that there is no unexpected chomping to be done, spoon each fruit out into the waiting bowl.
If, like these little burlesque numbers, the skin is falling off their shoulders (look at them! Hussies!), go ahead and remove them. Likewise if you, like my husband, are sniffy about skin on poached fruit, equip yourself with a fork and a knife and remove as much skin as you can (be bothered to).
Increase the heat under the saucepan and enthusiastically simmer (as opposed to boil) the remaining liquid for a couple of minutes. I used to boil the remainder without mercy, but it goes too syrupy and I feel like we’re after more of a hint of syrup to it. Pour the beautiful juice over the plums.
Cool, then refridgerate. These keep in the fridge for several days. I put the bowl in the fridge, my husband eats them, I re-fill…etc.
Serve as they are, with ice cream, rice pudding or for breakfast with cereal and spooky yogurt.
Like this:
Gooooooooooood morning spooky yogurt and plums!
Here are the recipes once more, with feeling:
Spooky yogurt
PRINT THIS RECIPE (Opens in new window)
1 carton of plain yogurt – low fat, full fat – doesn’t matter – in fact, as many cartons as you can fit into your sieve.
1 sieve
3 squares of good kitchen roll ( I use Plenty – Bounty, as was)
Place a sieve over a bowl.
Line your sieve with 2 sheets of kitchen roll.
Pour the carton of plain yogurt into it.
Turn the corners in on the 3rd sheet of kitchen roll and place on top of the yogurt.
Put into the fridge overnight, or at least for a few hours.
Next morning, get impressive contraption out of fridge.
Peel back top layer of kitchen roll – really, it will peel off!
Have another bowl waiting and flop the now solid yogurt into the bowl and peel off the bottom two sheets of paper.
Admire the amount of liquid in the bottom of the sieve bowl, then pour it away.
It is now the consistency of cream cheese. Spoon a portion into a small (big?) bowl and drizzle with honey and maybe some nuts and succulent dates or… spoon on top of some cereal and bathe with poached plums!
(BTW, my Mum tried it with flavoured yogurt without any satisfaction. It seems like the flavouring and sweetness all drips away with the liquid, so save yourself some heartache and money and just buy the low fat cheap stuff – this carton only cost 46p!).
Poaching Plums
PRINT THIS RECIPE (Opens in new window)
400g Punnet of plums, halved and stone removed (or peaches, nectarines, damsons – although you might want to seriously up the sugar for damsons)
6-7 tbsp sugar
250ml/ 1 cup cold water
Pour the sugar and water into a large saucepan (mine is about 8″/20cm across)on a low heat. Swirl around to dissolve the sugar into the water. Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes.
Add the halved, stoned fruit to the saucepan – skin side down. Simmer gently for another 2-3 minutes or until they are beginning to soften around the edges (this can take much, much longer for larger or under-ripe fruit).
Turn them over and simmer for about 4/5 minutes (see above caveat for different fruit).
Once they are softened, not to mush, but so that there is no unexpected chomping to be done, spoon each fruit out into the waiting bowl.
If the skin is falling off their shoulders, go ahead and remove them. Likewise, if you, like my husband, are sniffy about skin on poached fruit, equip yourself with a fork and a knife and remove as much skin as you can (be bothered to).
If, like my Mother, you consider your entrails with each bite of food you take, then leave them on. It’s between you and your preferences. And internal organs.
Anyway. Increase the heat under the saucepan and enthusiastically simmer (as opposed to boil) the remaining liquid for a couple of minutes. I used to boil the remainder without mercy, but it goes too syrupy and I feel like we’re after more of a hint of syrup to it.
Cool, then refridgerate. These keep in the fridge for several days.
Serve as they are, with ice cream, rice pudding or for breakfast with cereal and spooky yogurt.
[...] fruit or leave it out altogether and just top your bowl with some fresh fruit instead. Dollop some spooky yogurt on there too, whilst you’re at [...]