The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
I have had a bottle of Maille’s ubiquitous Dijon mustard on my shelf for as long as I can remember. It goes into salad dressings and that’s about it. I had never really thought about using it in anything else. And then I went to the Maille boutique in Paris (a little sidetracking from my […]
Bananas are my go-to food when I need to eat but don’t have much time, when I’m hungry but not hungry enough for a full meal, when I’m starving but need to exercise first and finally when I want a bit of decadence. In all these scenarios eating a banana simply does the trick. It […]
Cherry season is a long way away but I could not resist buying a small pack at the market last weekend. Goodness knows where they came from but after my run in the wind and rain I thought I deserved a little pick me up. Cherries were also the theme of a recent event I […]
I first had veloute at The Walmesley Restaurant in Berkshire. It’s a soup but one that uses egg yolks and or/butter to make it soft and silky. This version has no eggs so is very light and has been reproduced by kind permission of Head Chef Gert Pienaar. You’ll need 1 kilo of Jerusalem artichokes […]
I was browsing through seed catalogues this week trying to decide what to get planting this year for the windowsill, back garden and the allotment. I pondered over the herb sections for the longest while and placed the usual candidates in my virtual shopping basket – Basil, Coriander, Parsley, Dill, Chives etc. These are everyday […]
Life gets pretty overwhelming sometimes doesn’t it? The business of work and school and home merging together too easily. Priorities and pace overlap and the wrong things get prioritised and grumpiness sets in. I’ve started to consciously challenge my grumpiness. Is it worth it? Or rather should I focus on all the little things that […]
I felt a little sad this weekend as I emptied my freezer of the last bag of this summer’s courgettes. I was getting sick of the sight of them in August but on this cold, wet and windy weekend I was nostalgic for our excitement as the seedlings popped through the soil. I wanted to […]
After my epic summer of courgette production, I froze a lot in a grated a chunk form to use over the autumn and winter months in soups and curries. This dish took just half an hour with the courgette and mussels thrown in direct from frozen. This recipe serves four hungry adults. You’ll need 150g […]
Every now and then you come across a recipe which you know you’ll make time and time again. This is one of those recipes. I’ve never had twice baked soufflés before. In fact I’ve not had many soufflés at all before as I always choose something cake based for dessert in restaurants. Also soufflés have […]
I always have an abundance of lemons in the house but even more so at this time of year. It’s bitterly cold in our old Victorian house and we already have the odd sniffle here and there so a hot toddy with lemon or a squirt in hot water with some ginger is the perfect […]
This is a wonderful recipe to have in a jar in the pantry. If you don’t have a pantry the fridge will do! I love charmoulla and have adapted various recipes to get to this one. It’s quick to make in a food processor but I would suggest using a large pestle and mortar as […]
These are super simple and quite simply sunshine in a jar. They do take a couple of months to mature and build the flavour but I can highly recommend them for all sorts of uses – tagines such as this Sea Bream and Vegetable Tagine , Charmoulla for this Preserved Feta with Charmoulla to savour with […]