The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
Every now and then I have a canape craze – especially when we have people over for dinner. I make mini food. ‘Pick-up-and-pop-me-in-your-mouth’ food. I suppose it’s an extra challenge to my patience but it’s so satisfying when the results are good. These little pies are a great example and are really very quick to […]
Whenever I have left over egg whites, I whizz up some macaroons. I know that sounds rather pretentious but once you’ve made macaroons a few times, you’ll get into the swing of it. I made these with the leftover egg whites from my Blackberry Curd recipe. YOU’LL NEED 250g icing sugar 250g ground almonds 220g […]
Lemon Curd is fantastic but I have often wondered if it would work just as well with other tart fruits like Blackberry. I found this recipe on the Waitrose website for blackcurrants so I thought I’d give it a go with blackberries. I had a few blackcurrants in the freezer so threw them in too. […]
About the author This book is by Linda Collister who is an experienced cook and baker. She trained at L’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris and the Cordon Bleu in London. There are also forewords from the judges of the BBC TV series – Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. My review Mary’s foreword starts […]
Ginger is one of those wierd and wonderful foods that works well in savoury and sweet. This is a super easy biscuit. Especially if you do what I do and don’t bother with the rolling! I made these to eat with Lemon Posset from Valentine Warner’s book ‘The Good Table’. You’ll need 100g soft unsalted […]
I’m really lucky to have so many cookbooks and even luckier to receive some to review every now and then. Please do leave a comment to let me know if you found the review useful or if you already have the book then which recipes you’ve made. Thank you. The Gentle Art of Preserving by […]
About the author “Valentine Warner is a cook, forager, fisherman, and a culinary adventurer. He spent five years working in London’s restaurant kitchens before setting up a private catering company”. My review The introduction of this book is incredibly poetical. Valentine sets out to explain how The Good Table is his ‘heart on a plate’. How […]
This recipe is taken from Valentine Warner’s book ‘The Good Table’. His measures but the mthod in my words. It’s super quick and super simple. In his book he recommends eating this with Ginger Thins but I made some Ginger Sable Biscuits instead. He says this serves 12 in 125ml ramekins. You’ll need 1.2 litres […]
This was my first ever attempt at making a preserve and now I am hooked! It was very easy and I didn’t use any thermometers, strainers or some of the other complex things you see in some recipes. It’s not quick to make but as long as you are close by to give it a […]
I’ve been really fortunate over the last few months to have met so many amazing foodies who have shared not only their wonderful ingredients but also their passions for helping and supporting others to (re)discover the great produce we have in this country. I’d like to introduce you to two who inspired today’s recipes of Sourdough […]
I came across Sharon on Twitter. She is the founder of the Fruitshare initiative. It is an internet-based project where people with surplus garden fruit can share their harvests – a great way to minimise waste and encourage local food sustainability. The project is non-profit making and has now been re-developed in partnership with Orange Pippin, an online resource […]
I’m lucky to have met some amazing people in the foodie world through Twitter, Facebook and the myriad of food festivals across the country. I hope you find the interviews below interesting and are as inspired by these people as I have been. Barry and Henry Chevallier Guild of Aspall Cyder in Suffolk Sam and […]