The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
This recipe was inspired by Gennaro Contaldo’s recipe in The Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy book. I couldn’t find any chestnut flour and so tried it with the vacuum packed or tinned variety by Merchant Gourmet. It worked rather well but you might want to add the vacuum packed chestnuts to the potatoes at the […]
This recipe is inspired by Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo from their wonderful book Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy. You can find their recipe in the book or on the BBC website. This cake is rich and filling so don’t do what I did and cut yourself a huge slice because you will struggle to […]
I love love love Bircher Muesli which is a good thing because I hate porridge. I know! It’s the same thing but I really cannot stomach porridge. It tastes like baby food to me but this muesli is the total opposite. Super quick and can be adapted to suit your taste with fresh fruit or […]
I was sent some Black Garlic to try recently. It was during a savoury biscuit phase I was going through while freelancing at home. I was determined to create great tasting savoury biscuits for my girls to enjoy with a glass of milk. I came up with these. Enjoy! You’ll need 50g butter 100g oats […]
I’m so excited to see all the Spring flowers coming into bloom. Hopefully the snow forecast this week won’t wipe them out. Did you know that a lot of these are edible? Let’s start with tulips. Here’s a recipe I tried out from Great British Chefs which uses tapioca, mushrooms, sugar snap peas and spring […]
This recipe looks complicated but it honestly isn’t. You can even buy the pastry cases if you really want to. I found this fabulous supplier on Amazon who does all sorts of shapes. Personally I make pastry in batches and freeze it so there is always some handy. You can do this pre-baking which is […]
This recipe is from the book “Nature” by Alain Ducasse. I have adapted the dip to include some lovely Black Garlic as I was sent some to try. You can buy this now at most supermarkets or order online in the US via Black Garlic or in the UK via South West Garlic – an […]
One of my favourite salads is Pear, Stilton and Walnut. I never eat Stilton on it’s own but the salty taste mixed with the sweet pear is just so so lovely. So I thought I’d try the same line of thinking with some leftover feta and rhubarb. This recipe serves one! I had it with […]
Loaf cakes are brilliant everyday cakes because they keep for ages and you can serve them in so many different ways. A cold slice with hot custard, a warmed slice with ice cream or crème fraiche, cubed pieces with a chocolate fondue are some favourites in our house. I struggled to get this cake right because the […]
If you’re a fan of easy desserts like me then you’ll love this tart adapted from Alain Ducasse’s book called Nature. Life is too short to make puff pastry on a regular basis so this recipe uses a good ready made one. You’ll need 1 pack of ready made puff pastry 600g rhubarb stalks 200g […]
I always have a pack of puff pastry in the fridge or freezer and these are brilliant and super quick for breakfast if you’ve got some lovely rhubarb compote sitting in the fridge – or any other compote for that matter! Equally great for individual puddings with custard. This recipe makes four turnovers. You’ll need […]
If you received a beautiful bunch of roses for Valentine’s Day, they should still be going strong. If they are starting to wilt, re-cut the stems on a diagonal and then pop them back into a squeaky clean vase with freshwater. You only need about 2 inches worth of water. Any more than this will […]