The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
The Riverford Field Kitchen has been on my ‘must visit’ list for some time. It’s set within the beautiful grounds of Riverford farm and visitor centre in Devon – a pretty idyllic place to eat and while away the hours. It was a glorious summer’s day when I visited but I rather liked the idea […]
We gave each of our girls £3 to choose seeds for their little plots on our allotment. My eldest daughter didn’t want to grow vegetables. She wanted ‘pretty flowers to pick and put in her room’. With her coins she found a packet of nasturtiums and a packet of sunflowers. The sunflowers came to nothing […]
I must make a confession. I had few friends until my second year at university. I was quiet, shy and completely worldly unwise. I only spoke when spoken to in class, handed my homework in on time every time. Class A swot. But life changed a little when I moved away from home. The catalyst […]
Taking some time out for mint tea is a must in Morocco. During my travels this summer I found no rhyme or reason as to the time of day. It was offered ALL the time! There is much ceremony around it and all sorts of rituals across different parts of the country. Four simple ingredients […]
It’s great finding brands that remain true to their foundlings. Roddas is one such example. In 1890 Eliza Jane Rodda started making clotted cream in her farmhouse kitchen in Cornwall. It started to sell well locally and made it’s way to shops all over England in no time. Over 120 on, the Rodda family are […]
One of the reasons I started growing strawberries was because over the last few years, strawberries no longer taste like strawberries. They look like strawberries. They smell like strawberries but they don’t taste of anything. Bland watery popsicles. Often not even juicy and indeed sometimes crunchy. Worst of all, they’re not grown in the UK […]
Strawberries are one of those fruits which work exceptionally well in savoury dishes. This flavour combination is one I first came across at The East India Company. I’ve gone for a very peppery finish but you can play around with the right balance for you by simply grinding a little pepper and then adding more […]
Taking some time out for mint tea is a must in Morocco. There is much ceremony around it and all sorts of rituals across different parts of the country. Four simple ingredients Contrary to what I had thought the tea used is not black tea but gunpowder green tea. This is accompanied by fresh mint […]
Have I ever told you the story of how I became an allotment owner? It was about 3 years ago that I was thinking about a birthday present for my husband. It was the summer before his next birthday and there was a programme on the BBC fronted by Ainsley Harriot. He’d been cooking in […]
April in New York. Would it be hot? Would there be snow? Our friends had advised us to pack for both but on this particular day walking around the infamous Lower East Side it was gloriously sunny and we peeled the layers of woolies away and wandered in t-shirts. The Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard Street […]
This is the ultimate dessert cum snack on a hot and sultry summer’s evening. You really don’t need to make the biscuits or the ice cream either for that matter – Good quality, thick set shop bought ice cream and Oreo Cookies with the filling licked out works well. You’ll need For the biscuits 125g […]
My jasmine flowers have all but gone this week. I miss their sweet scent wafting through the window in the evenings. Of course the scent is no where close to the intensity of the bushes in my grandmother’s gardens in India or East Africa. There the blooms are so much bigger and used for adorning […]