The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
The first time I saw sorrel was at The Eden Project in the gift shop. A stunning red veined variety which tasted as beautiful as it looked. I promptly bought a plant which sits happily in my garden for infrequent nibbles. It’s so pretty I don’t want to take too many leaves off it for […]
I am ashamed to say that prior to a couple of weeks ago I had never really thought about the different varieties of UK ‘Early Potatoes’. I’d grouped them all under ‘New Potatoes’ which is to be honest the only variety I tend to see mass marketed in the supermarkets. Jersey Royales in the main. I’ve discovered a […]
How is it midsummer weekend already? In my part of London we’ve only just started getting those balmy sunny evenings. They have been so few that we’ve savoured each one til the last trickle of light fades behind the trees and the Salvation Army tower visible from that special corner of the garden. Of course […]
I tried my hand at growing broccoli last year. I ordered some seeds and put them in the propagator. Nada. Not even one little sprout. So as I was a little late to the party now, I planted some rather limp looking plants from the garden centre – six to be precise. I watered. I weeded and […]
I’m not normally a gadget person in the kitchen. Sure I like to save time like everyone else but rather than some whizzy gizmo for peeling garlic for example, I prefer to get stuck in and peel it with my fingers. Having said that I do use a few machines to help get big jobs […]
Pancakes. They have become a Sunday ritual. It’s a weekend so porridge or cereal aren’t special enough. Somehow the Sunday breakfast deserves more attention. Deserves more time. But the warm bed, Sunday papers and my stack of new cookery books are calling and they deserve equal amounts of attention too after a long week. So the […]
As I grow older I find myself getting more and more irritated at New Year’s resolutions. I tend to review and set myself goals monthly because things move on so quickly so I find waiting once a year to kick start something is a little late. But that being said, all the detox hype in the […]
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 […]
I’m very fussy about tomatoes. I love the sundried variety but not in pesto. I like the raw variety but only paired with basil and mozzarella and in a ‘cachumbar’ (salad) with sliced onions, red chilli powder and salt. But I love cooked tomatoes. Especially in curry. It’s my go to dinner when I am […]
It’s getting decidedly chilly in North London. Oh yes it starts off all sunny and warm through the window but as soon as I open that kitchen door in the morning it’s a little bit nippy. Porridge is what that signals. Porridge. There are a myriad of different types of grains or cereals you can use […]
I received a lovely box of fruit and veg last week at work. My postroom chaps were not best pleased as it was rather large. They were soon pacified with a friendly smile and a promise of cake. The box was from Wholegood – a new fruit and veg wholesaler that has started delivering to […]
It’s Indian mango season. The season I look forward to the most. The season that makes me salivate the most. The season I never tire of because I could eat my bodyweight in Indian mangoes and then perhaps your body weight too! They are beloved in my household and we usually buy dozens of boxes […]