I do love to watch cookery programmes and collect and read many books by my favourite chefs and writers, many recipes I recreate often, especially at Christmas time, a favoured lemon & thyme drizzle cake by Nigel Slater takes centre stage over a fruit cake, although in my opinion, the best Christmas cake comes in a box in kit form from Waitrose.  Occasionally i’l have one of my three favourite creators DVDs screening on in the background whilst I do my chores, always something to catch my eye and the soothing voices instructing such wonderful creations somehow always make my day.

I like to think I’m a cross between the inimitable Mr Keith Floyd (often with a glass in hand) and Mr Rick Stein, using *my* own clumsy style, rather rustique and with an unrivalled passion for fish and seafood, I believe it to be one of the greatest food combinations ever, however, my latest *best book mate* is the extremely talented & cheeky Glynn Purnell, aka the Yummie Brummie, although I’m never likely to have a Michelin Star like him, one can always try to flatter by imitation of his recipes often.

At school I opted out of metalwork for domestic science, in 1968, young men in cookery classes often placed question marks upon ones own head. Someone should have placed that bet with Ladbrokes at that particular time, who would have thought that then?

My mother was a terrible cook, and she knew it, goodness knows how my Dad and I survived, we would always laugh about it, however, I’m sure Mary Berry would have been worried if Patsy was a contestant in the GBBO tent, as a bakestress, my Mum was THE number one!

However, today, this early September afternoon, my fingers were twitching, now returned totally deplete of energy from a harrowing supermarket dash, the only options open were either heading back out for alcohol, purely for medicinal purposes of course, or staying put with a cup of sweet tea and cooking up a storm in my kitchen overlooking the bay.

As Parker, my car, was now garaged and secured, the thought of walking to the Co-Op soon passed, opening the fridge door I pulled out a punnet of golden fruits
*IDEA IDEA* flashed across the lobes of my grey matter & as if by magic, the following recipe came out of thin air, 

6 nectarines quartered & stoned

50g unsalted Butter
200ml water

Tsp Cinnamon

Tsp five spice

Tbs Sugar (3)

Pinch sea salt

Place all ingredients except nectarines in a pan and bring to the boil then pour over quartered fruit in a baking dish, slight grind of Garlic Pepper over top

Place in oven at 180c for 30 mins
Serve with Coconut Yoghurt  

 
I do hope you like it, apart from looking great, it tastes rather wonderful.