The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
I wasn’t a huge fan of the pear when I was younger as they always put me in a mood. At school I reached for the greenest but inevitably got the hard and bitter one that was neither sweet nor sour. I’d sit nibbling on it to minimise the distaste filled with food envy of […]
You know when you get a batch of apricots that are a little too tart to eat raw? Well those are the ones which are perfect for this recipe! It’s a really moist loaf and the crumbly topping adds a nice little crunch. Allow yourself time for this recipe as it takes minutes to make […]
I read a recipe using the pear and ginger combination in Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet. I wanted to give it a go and came up with this really simple slice. It’s great with some vanilla custard or ice cream and a cup of Assam. I find the Assam is strong enough to cut through […]
Parsley is too often overlooked as an ingredient in its own right and considered a garnish for many. This is a practice that dates back to Ancient Greece where parsley was sacred and used to adorn winners of sporting tournaments and decorate tombs of the dead. It might also be because parsley is a […]
This is a five minute recipe that you’ll be able to use in lots of different ways – simply stirred into pasta, as a dip with tortilla chips or pretzels or mushed into a jacket potato with some tomatoes on top. I use this with sunflower seeds as pine nuts are rather expensive. I’ve also […]
I demonstrated this recipe at the London Chocolate Festival and it raised a few eyebrows with some of the bakers in the audience. It’s really like a cake pop but made from oats. You’ll need 50g unsalted butter 4 tbsps whole milk 80g caster sugar 2 tbsp cocoa powder 100g oats 100g desiccated coconut 2 […]
I’m not a big fan of Christmas Pudding. But I am a big fan of traditions. Whether it’s keeping them going or starting a new like we did with advent last year, I think it’s important to remember the past as we step into the new. So this year we visited Grandma Sue to make […]
I had been given some lovely cooking apples and Kentish cobnuts so could not resist the combo with some cinnamon. I loved the crisp filo pastry with the soft frangipane middle. This tart is inspired by Eric Lanlard as there is a similar one in his Tart It Up book. Have you ever used cobnuts? […]
It’s Halloween. We cannot miss it in England It’s almost as big as Christmas as a ‘festival’. My children used to want to go trick or treating as witches but today, they’ve gone out as a Vampire Witch and a Vampire Cat. If you say the word ‘vampire’ to their generation and anyone born after the […]
This is a perfect and simple to make store cupboard ingredient. I use it in soups, dhals, chutneys, tossed through pasta or simply on toast. The garlic flavour mellows as it keeps so leave it a couple of weeks before you eat it unless it’s Halloween and you need to ward off those evil spirits! […]
I’ve been fascinated with mushrooms since I was little. I remember one day when I was about six years old, I was out walking in the park with my father and I came across some teeny,tiny ones on the grass. When I asked what they were, my father said they were a kind of ‘meat’ […]
I was born in Tanzania. I don’t remember much. I have flashbacks of my Mr India toy, my swing in the garden, riding an elephant to school and mangoes. Confused memories of a five year old child. What I also remember were soldiers. Guns. Dark faces with frightening eyes. Hushed conversations. Brave smiles. It was […]