The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
I have had an abundance of courgettes this year. I am still eating the ones that grew to marrow size while we were on holiday a few weeks ago! Of course the best thing about growing courgettes is the flowers. I’ve had weekly meals since July of these fritters. There are lots of recipes and […]
This year my hayfever has been worse than I can remember. It’s around now in the season that it’s really bad. Almost everything locally has begun to flower at the same time. From horse chestnut trees to honeysuckle. It’s all magnificently in bloom! I don’t think I’ve gone a day without sneezing in the whole […]
Have you noticed that tulips are everywhere at the moment? I’ve been about and about today and noticed all sorts of different varieties. They are about the only plants that have come up at my allotment too. The first thought that has come to mind has been to wonder if they are an edible variety. Many […]
Since getting our allotment I have had runner bean envy of my neighbour’s runner beans. They are pristine. not a black fly, white fly or any fly for that matter on them. Each variety could have been entered into countless competitions and won. I was determined to grow my own this year but I wanted […]
Have you noticed that alongside the daffodils that seem to be everywhere, there are also bursts of yellow from dandelions? They too are so pretty and brighten up banks of green in our lovely city of London – or the suburbs in my case. Like many, I’ve disregarded these these plants. Sunny and cheerful as […]
We gave each of our girls £3 to choose seeds for their little plots on our allotment. My eldest daughter didn’t want to grow vegetables. She wanted ‘pretty flowers to pick and put in her room’. With her coins she found a packet of nasturtiums and a packet of sunflowers. The sunflowers came to nothing […]
I was inspired by a visit to the flower market today. I saw wonderful tulips in all sorts of colours and got very excited about using them again for summer dinner parties. I also came across this amazing infographic which does a lovely job of summarising popular edible flowers. You’ll find this and lots of […]
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 […]
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 […]
As a university student in Aix-En-Provence, I used to order profiteroles every time I went to one of the posh cafes on the Cours Mirabeau. I went back there a few summers ago with my daughters and ordered the same thing – they were hooked! I get a plea at least once a month to […]
This is a lovely creamy baked cheesecake which is based on an Indian rose flavoured drink called ‘Falooda’. It’s like a milkshake and knickerbocker glory rolled into one. Rose flavoured milk, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, jelly chunks and a sprinkling of nuts. I like a thick crumb crust but if you prefer a […]
I first had a taste of lavender when I lived in Aix en Provence. My weekly treat was a whole morning at the Saturday market. I would go from stall to stall practising my French with the traders and sampling their wonderful wares – yeah OK – I was a student so it was a […]