This year – for the first time in my life – I hosted Christmas at my flat. On Christmas Eve Eve, four pints deep with my best friend, it suddenly hit me that I hadn’t got in the ingredients to make marzipan dates for my Mum (her favourite, and therefore a festive essential). Cue my insisting that we leave the pub immediately to get to the supermarket before it closed and rectify my fatal mistake.

After all that, it will surprise nobody to learn that on Christmas Day I was on the prosecco from the very moment I woke up and neglected to remember that marzipan and medjool dates were awaiting my attention in the kitchen drawer. Daughter of the year.

There they both sat, where I rediscovered them last month and added them to my breakfast. Once again my defective personality has led me to something delicious. The universe works in mysterious ways.

Notes on serving: all porridge is, for me, at the moment, incomplete without the addition of toasted nuts and natural yoghurt. Thanks to the wfh life, I’ve suddenly got time to do things like toast nuts in the morning.

If you’d like to do the same: to avoid washing up, toast them (dry) in the same pan you’ll make the porridge in and set them aside while it’s cooking.

70g (or one small mug) porridge oats – I use the organic rolled ones from Aldi
200ml (or one small mug) milk
100ml (or 1/2 a small mug) water
3 dried medjool dates, chopped
2-3cm piece marzipan – or to taste, this bit’s really up to you

1 – Place all ingredients in an appropriately sized saucepan on a medium heat.
2 – Bring to bubbling, and cook gently for 3-5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until cooked to your preferred consistency.

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