Serves 4-6

I am indebted to Scottish cookery writer, Sue Lawrence, for this recipe. I have tweaked it a little by replacing oranges with kumquats. She serves it with cinnamon-flavoured shortbread. I find it light and refreshing with just a dollop of natural yoghurt or crème fraîche. Kumquats are those dolly-sized baby oranges that you eat skin and all. They do need slicing and light cooking first, though.

125g kumquats
500g red plums
120ml water
1 cinnamon stick
40g soft brown sugar

1 Slice the kumquats thinly, about the width of a £1 coin. Quarter the plums and remove the stones.
2 In a medium saucepan, heat the water with the cinnamon stick and sugar until dissolved. Then add the kumquats. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
3 Add the plum quarters and return to the boil, then cover again and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the plums are softened but still hold a good shape. Remove from the heat and cool. Serve lightly chilled.

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