The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
A simple recipe for making delicious gyoza dumplings at home using up bits of broccoli, cabbage or kale. It’s a lovely way to spend a few hours catching up with friends making batches. Equally a nice way to get some quiet alone time in the kitchen.
A delicious crumble recipe with a crunchy yet chewy flapjack style topping. Perfect for snuggling in on cold and rainy days
It has not been a good year for the allotment. It’s really strange how we’ve had no luck and no time. Usually one or the other motivates us to go but it’s been hard to get excited when everything we’ve planted gets eaten or dies. The slugs have just taken over this year with the […]
Aside from beetroot, I’ve managed to salvage some chard from the allotment this week. It was being eaten by something a few weeks back but seems to have renewed growth. I must confess though that I don’t much like chard! We decided to grow it because it was just so so pretty to look at […]
I ate the last of my squashes this weekend. The little baby ones that have been so pretty as decorations. The ones that didn’t get stolen for Halloween. I was inspired to keep them whole by this recipe by Emma at The Food Gatherer. I then remembered seeing something similar in one of Diana Henry‘s […]
I am still harvesting my holey kale at the allotment but am also loving all the curly kale around locally. Usually I find this too tough and bitter but lately our vegetable bag scheme has provide some sweet tasting leaves which barely need blanching to cook. Here are a few ways I’ve been using the […]
I just popped one of these in the oven and so I thought I’d write the recipe up while I still have the luscious smells wafting up from the kitchen and before I need to run downstairs and make custard for the girls. The blackberries are just about from the allotment. My new allotment neighbour […]
If there is one crop I’m chuffed with this year it’s my runner beans. I pulled the last of them yesterday and they’ve given me a plentiful crop all summer. I plant Firestorm Runner Beans as they have beautiful red flowers which are also edible. I planted late this year so didn’t think I’d get […]
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 […]
I haven’t spent much time on the allotment this year. What with opening up a cafe, settling into a rhythm of freelance work and just general family life it’s been hard to get there on a regular basis. My crops have suffered as a result but if there’s one veg that never lets me down it’s […]
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’ve not had much success growing carrots at the allotment. Last year we planted three different varieties. One variety grew really well but we went away for a weekend and some little critter had a much on them all. My little one was devastated as she had been growing them for Santa – or rather […]