Tapioca with Stewed Apples and Apricots

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 food–like tinned jam.

SERVES 4

1/2 cup/70 g tapioca (soaked overnight in plenty of water)
1 1/3 cups/350ml 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/250ml orange juice)
1 cup/250ml 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

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.

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.

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.

Excerpted from Very Fond of Food by Sophie Dahl. Copyright © 2012 by Sophie Dahl. Photographs Copyright © 2012 by Jan Baldwin. Excerpted by permission of Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.