The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
So excited to share with you details of my debut cookbook! All about the wonderful world of Gujarati snacking and our culture of sharing and hospitality. It’s full of stories as well as quick and easy vegetarian recipes from beer snacks to bhajia, masala mogo to green chilli margaritas! Have a look!
I love travelling. Especially travelling on holiday. But the problem with holidays is that you have to leave behind important everyday chores. I know what you;re thinking. “That’s the whole point of a holiday!”. I know. I know. But when you are away during quite possibly the hottest couple of weeks in the UK for […]
It’s been a while since I was at the allotment. It was a pretty grim day today and none of the plots were looking that great to be honest. Empty canes stick out from the ground. Seedlings were not to be seen – even in the greenhouses. It’s that time of year when everything is just […]
There is a term we Gujaratis use often and do far too often. It’s called ‘biting’. It means snacking, eating little Polpo-esque portions of something to tide you over to the next biting or meal. When you are visiting relatives the first question you’ll be asked will be if you’ll partake in some ‘biting biting’. […]
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 […]
Patra is one of my all time favourite Gujarati dishes. My Baa (maternal grandmother) used to make them for breakfast when I was little using fresh colocasia leaves and her own spice mix. I was too little to really appreciate her or her patra which makes me so incredibly sad. However, I wasn’t so little that […]
This coconut masala is adapted from the lovely book Mr Todiwala’s Bombay. Please also take a look at the okra. The tomatoes soak up the coconut really well and I’ve added a little extra of the coriander seeds and cumin seeds, garlic and a tarka with curry leaves to give this dish more flavour. A tarka is […]
I am a huge fan of okra. This wasn’t always the case because they can become a huge sticky mess and taste awful! The trick is to make sure they are washed and dried carefully with a teatowel so there is no trace of water when you cut them. The water meets the inside and […]
I was invited to the Harvest Festival at The Eden Project to talk to people about Baobab and take up the challenge to create some recipes. This was my savoury offering which worked really well. The baobab powder brought out the citrus of the lemon and gave the bhajias a light tang. You’ll need 300g […]
I’m not a fan of mixes. Really I’m not. Especially Indian spices mixes. Everytime I see one on the shelf I can hear the voice of Nina Wadia’s Goodness Gracious Me character shouting “Naheee, I can make it at home for nothing“. But ….and I’m finding it difficult not to wave my forefinger at you here […]
I wanted to share with you the story of Draupadi. She’s a mum like me. She’s also a grandmother that I aspire to be one day. She lives in a remote village in Uttarkhand in Northern India. She’s part of a unique, tribal community that sadly suffers from discrimination, violence and exploitation because of this […]
Ragini Dey runs The Spice Kitchen restaurant in South Australia which has now expanded to include cookery and spice appreciation classes. What I love about her is that she makes everything from scratch – spices mixes, pickles and chutneys and these are all covered in this wonderful book. First off the look and feel of […]