RUNNING the risk of sounding blatantly middle aged, I find as I get older, breakfast has become my favourite meal. As a child the only thing I could stomach in the morning before school was a cold glass of milk. I would run to school with my mother chasing me with a plate of eggs on toast. But as I grew up, slowly my breakfast denial was replaced with a noisy tummy growling to be fed and an appreciation for this morning meal. I discovered that eating breakfast like a king really was the way to get through a day and I soon started to indulge in a big breakfast.

This discovery was a real revelation to me as a teenager – my love for cooking was now firmly on its way but growing up in the 1980s in Pakistan meant that we did not have a huge variety of imported options for breakfast. The most exciting ingredient was local oats to make porridge, which resembled the dreaded water based one your gran made (in Scotland). I wasn't really inspired by this, so I then turned to the streets of my city, Karachi. I found that traditional Pakistani breakfasts were more about rich spiced curries eaten with naan, and the quintessential Pakistan breakfast of "halwa puri" (fried flatbreads with chickpea curry, spicy potatoes and sweet semolina halwa). My inquisitive nature about food flourished as did my fascination with breakfast. I made it all, pancakes with maple syrup, shakusha (before it became trendy) and aloo paratha (ghee flatbreads with spicy potato filling).

I was lucky enough to have travelled a lot as a child, accompanying my father who was a merchant navy captain for a few years. Every country I visited, it was the breakfasts that always drew me. There is something about that early excitement in a kitchen, or on the streets, people awakening to prepare the first meal of the day. A sleepy start that leads to a rushed gobble, washed down with a hot drink. It's a shame that not many people take time over breakfast these days. But to me breakfast is probably the best time to reconnect with family, or even just yourself, however short on time – there is something to be said about taking a little time to sit down and enjoy breakfast, rather than rushing away from the kitchen counter. On my many travels I have found that some cultures won't start the day without a long, time-consuming breakfast and one of my favourites is a Sri Lankan breakfast – string hoppers. I love string hoppers, which are a type of fermented pancake made with rice flour and coconut milk served with a lentil daal and a vegetable or meat-based curry – I suppose it has always appealed to my curry-loving heritage. I remember the many trips to Sri Lanka on the ship would always mean my mother heading to the local street vendors for these hot steamed hoppers dipped in spicy curry – not just a breakfast dish, this is available all day long. But by far my go-to comfort breakfast will always be sagodanna kheer (sago pearl pudding) made with coconut and flavoured with cardamom and rosewater – my grandmother would make this hot for us in the winter and cool in summer, it’s comforting flavour, and this is far removed from the memories of British school bland gloopy sago. Usually always eaten at the morning meal in Ramadan (sehri), I am happy to make this any morning of the year. A recipe that always takes me home to Pakistan, and as the weather changes, I am looking forward to serving this cold, maybe topped with some Scottish summer berries, when they come.