Poached pears with cardamom

This one is hardly rocket science, but makes a virtue of rock-hard pears that at any moment – jeopardy rising – the blackbird/blue tits are going to peck at the neck and wasps move in. Or suddenly squish in the fruit bowl.

Quarter, peel and cut out the seeds and stringy bit. Cut the quarters into three slivers. For each pear add maybe a dessert spoon of sugar, a cardamom pod (unsmashed cos then you can fish them out more easily), and two tablespoons water into a pan. Put the lid on and on the lowest heat. Allow the liquid to boil up and after about 10 minutes leave the pan there and the pears to continue softening in the juices. Tastes like tinned pears but in a good, fresh and sattvic way!

Nice with soya cream, soya yoghurt, cashew cream or on your porridge.