Name: Tapioca with Stewed Apples and Apricots
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 1/2 cup/70 g tapioca (soaked overnight in plenty of water); 1 1/3 cups/350 ml milk; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 tablespoon butter, plus more as needed; 2 tablespoons runny honey, agave nectar, or brown sugar; 12 dried apricots (like the tapioca, soaked overnight, but in about 1 cup/250 ml orange juice); 1 cup/250 ml or so water; 1 cinnamon stick; A few tablespoons of orange juice; 1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey; 2 eating apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

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Tapioca with Stewed Apples and ApricotsJan Baldwin

Tapioca, like semolina, is one of those things that a school kitchen could have turned you off for life. I couldn't eat it for years, having been force-fed it at primary school aged six, with tinned jam, as it oozed like frogspawn out of the bowl and I wept and retched. For years I had the same malicious feeling toward beets and mashed potatoes, which were instant and came in lumpy granules. My teacher and I had a silent war every lunchtime; a war that eventually came to an end after my parents removed me from the school. Made to your own wont, in your own kitchen, tapioca is ambrosial, and worth being a grown-up for, as is semolina. This could also be a pudding, not a breakfast, just don't serve it with dog foodlike tinned jam. Try a lovely homemade compote instead.

Recipe information

Yield
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup/70 g tapioca (soaked overnight in plenty of water)

1 1/3 cups/350 ml milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter, plus more as needed

2 tablespoons runny honey, agave nectar, or brown sugar

For the Apples and Apricots:

12 dried apricots (like the tapioca, soaked overnight, but in about 1 cup/250 ml orange juice)

1 cup/250 ml or so water

1 cinnamon stick

A few tablespoons of orange juice

1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey

2 eating apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

Preparation

Step 1
Having soaked the tapioca overnight, drain and place it in a saucepan with the milk, vanilla extract, and butter. Bring to a boil, turn to low, and simmer, stirring in the honey, agave, or sugar, for another 10 minutes.
Step 2
Cut your overnight magically plumped apricots into halves or quarters, if desired. In another saucepan, place the water, cinnamon, orange juice, agave or honey, and apples and bring to a boil, giving it a good stir now and then. Simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the apples are tender.
Step 3
Now, here you can do one of two things. Serve the stewed fruit as is on top of the tapioca or put the tapioca in a small ovenproof dish with another tablespoon of butter, pour the apples and apricots on top, and bake at 350°F/180°C for 15 or so minutes. The choice, Cilla, is yours.

Recipes by Sophie Dahl. Reprinted with permission from Very Fond of Food: A Year in Recipes by Sophie Dahl, © 2011. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc. Sophie Dahl began her career as a model, but writing was always her first love. In 2003 she wrote an illustrated novella called The Man with the Dancing Eyes, which was a Times bestselling book. This was followed by a novel, Playing with the Grown-Ups, published to widespread praise by Bloomsbury in 2007. Dahl is a contributing editor at British Vogue. She has also written for US Vogue, Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine, the Observer, the Guardian, and the Saturday Times Magazine, among others. A devoted eater and cook, she wrote a book chronicling her misadventures with food, Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, published by HarperCollins in 2009, which was her second Times bestseller. Following the success of Voluptuous Delights, Dahl wrote and presented a popular BBC2 six-part cooking series, The Delicious Miss Dahl, which aired in numberous countries all over the world. Dahl lives in England, where she continues to work on her journalism, fiction, and baking.

TagsPorridge Fruit Dessert Dessert Tapioca Apple Fruit Dried Apricot Dried Fruit Breakfast Nut Free Gluten Free Vegetarian Easy Simmer Cookbooks

Recipe information

Ingredients

For the Apples and Apricots:

Preparation

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Recipe notes