Hummingbird porridge

Have you noticed the array of porridge combinations sprinkled around the internet of late?

No-one will ever make porridge like my dad used to make it. I can't put my finger on it and goodness knows I have tried but since he joined the big butcher shop in the sky in the early '80s, I have never been able to replicate just how he got his porridge so ... creamy.

That is to say, he used actual cream back when I was a kid, or more the cream that came off the top of a milk bottle when they were delivered at an ungodly hour back them. (Did you ever make necklaces from the bottle tops?) These days it's all skinny this and low-fat that. This is the reason why porridge will never be the same.

It hasn't stopped me adoring a steaming-hot bowl of porridge on a winter's morning, though and I am constantly on the lookout for new things to do with a daggy old bowl of oats in the absence of excellent creamy milk.

Recently, I saw healthy lifestyle doyenne Lola Berry had posted carrot cake porridge on social media and it got me to thinking about other porridge flavours — mind-bending stuff. Here is my hummingbird porridge. Stopping at one bowl is your mission.

Hummingbird porridge

Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 2, easily doubled

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 × 440g tin of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons coconut yoghurt (or vanilla yoghurt)
• 150ml water
• 1 can crushed pineapple (see note)
• 2 tablespoons walnuts
• 1 tablespoon toasted coconut
• lavender or rosemary petals for garnish

  Place oats in a pan and pour in coconut milk and water, stir until thickened. Add honey and combine. Pour into serving bowls and add a layer of crushed pineapple, yoghurt and top with crushed walnuts. Sprinkle with toasted coconut and lavender flowers. Serve steaming hot.

  Note: You can use fresh pineapple but make sure you dice it finely and sprinkle with a little palm sugar for extra sweetness.