The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
Once upon a time I lived in Aix-en-Provence. I was living in halls of residence. It was my third year at university. I was away from my parents and there was much hair to be letting down so I went to every party there was. Don’t get me wrong. I was still a complete and utter swot […]
So what is ‘it’ that is eating my kale? For the last two years I have planted kale at the allotment. I have given up trying to grow from seed. It’s impossible without a greenhouse so I am ashamed to say that I get a batch of six from the garden centre. Almost before I have […]
There is a beast on my allotment. Something that’s nibbling at the few plants we have in the ground. This is what it’s done to our wonderful kale which is all but gone. With sowing season now fully underway, I decided to pull out the final scraps and rework the bed for something new. Rainbow chard […]
I really can’t get enough beetroot at the moment. We’ve harvested so much over the summer and I still have about 30 growing away nicely on the allotment. I’ve roasted it, eaten it raw, mashed it, boiled it and pickled it. We’ve even put it in chocolate truffles which were very lovely I might add. […]
We’ve gone a bit bonkers with the bean planting on the allotment this year. I have some runner beans of the firestorm variety which yield the vibrant red edible flowers which I am looking forward to almost more than the beans. I have various varieties of dwarf beans because I’ve discovered they grow quite happily in […]
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 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 […]
I’ve had a glut of courgettes this summer and so it’s been great experimenting with them vs simply chargrilling which is what I usually do. They are lovely on their own with sea salt, fresh herbs and olive oil but I rather love this easy soup because the colour on a grey, rainy day is […]