We start every weekday with porridge and fruit. During the summer this includes half a nectarine each. These have been out of stock for a few weeks, so I was delighted to find a couple of punnets about 12 days ago in a local Sainsbury, reduced in price to 74p. Mrs Poacher has often warned me that nectarines this late in the season will be as hard as Drago's biceps and go rotten from the inside.
Of course, she's right. We persevered for a while, until I realised that she was loading my bowl with all the nectarine I'd carefully prepared for us both. I'm loath to throw away even imperfectly good food, so yesterday I cut the remaining three into small pieces, complete with tough skin, and stewed them gently with some demerara sugar. Still rather bland, so I added some cubes of unsweetened apple sauce from the freezer (normally kept as a side for grilled mackerel, but that didn't happen), and some amaretto soaked sultanas. A master stroke, though I say so myself. Anyway, the resulting crumble was absolutely delicious, albeit on the sweet side.