The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
My husband tells me that one of his favourite memories of us is in Essaouria, Morocco. The sun is setting and we are sipping cheap rose wine and stuffing ourselves with freshly grilled sardines at the edge of the port. I have sardine juice running down the sides of my mouth and a look of […]
My trip to Morocco was led by food and our base in Ouarzazate afforded us many day trips in search of traditional dishes and ingredients. On learning of my interest in food, our host at Dar Daif, Jean Paul, sent us along the Dades Valley in search of dried rose petals and rosewater. Eastwards along […]
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 […]
With all the Seville oranges in season in the shops I’m drawn back to the warmth and heat of the Moroccan dessert. Sounds strange but it’s these wonderful oranges that produce Orange Blossoms which in turn are used to make Orange Blossom Water (or Orange Flower Water) and it was this that I smelled every morning when I awoke […]
On my recent trip to Morocco fitting in a cookery class was at the top of the list. It’s a cuisine I’m not too familiar with and to be honest have not had many good experiences with on previous trips. I did a fair amount of research and found many half day workshops at […]
This was the first tagine I ever made. I learned the recipe from Muna at a wonderful cookery school in Essaouira called L’Atelier Madada. It is much easier than I thought and I use this as a base for so many different types of tagines now. It takes just half an hour to prepare […]
Taking some time out for mint tea is a must in Morocco. During my travels this summer I found no rhyme or reason as to the time of day. It was offered ALL the time! There is much ceremony around it and all sorts of rituals across different parts of the country. Four simple ingredients […]
Taking some time out for mint tea is a must in Morocco. There is much ceremony around it and all sorts of rituals across different parts of the country. Four simple ingredients Contrary to what I had thought the tea used is not black tea but gunpowder green tea. This is accompanied by fresh mint […]