The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
Last week I received an intriguing parcel from Lurpak. It contained some flour, a bar of dark chocolate, a pack of Lurpak for baking and two leaflets enticing me to go create! The pack is part of a new campaign they have launched called #FoodAdventures which sees some new products designed to speed things up in […]
I paid little attention to World Book Day before I had children but as they started nursery and now school, it’s become a big thing in or house. They have always worn a costume from their favourite book. We’ve gone from princesses, to wizards, Gruffalos to robots. It’s all a bit of fun. World Book […]
I was introduced to this lovely honey at a foodie event last year. I had it on a salty cracker with some lovely manchego type cheese. It was incredibly memorable and incredibly moreish.Pasilla Oaxaca Chillies The honey uses Pasilla Oaxaca chillies from the Oaxaca region of Mexico which is about five hours from the Pacific […]
I could not let the last post of 2013 be on anything other than by two favourite things! I must confess to having them both on a regular basis and not just on special occasions but as this will be my last post of 2013, it seems to be a fitting occasion. Perfectly compatible with […]
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 […]
I have a love hate relationship with Bombay. (Yes I know I should say Mumbai but it’s always going to be Bombay to me). The first time I visited I was terrified! I was eight years old and there was simply too much hustle and bustle for my little head to cope with. The second […]
It’s Chocolate Week! A whole week dedicated to all things chocolate so I could not let this wonderful experience with master chocolatier Paul A Young slip by without sharing his words of wisdom and recipe for simple Chocolate Truffles. First a quick bio.. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Paul, here’s a quick […]
Jam. Such a simple word. Why then does it instil so much fear when paired with the word ‘making’? I made jam once. Poured it into a jar and it went solid. Rock solid. Even placing the jar in boiling water didn’t loosen the contents even slightly. The expensive Kilner jar went in the bin […]
It’s mango season and quite possibly one of the best times of the year! Crates full of mangoes arrive into the UK from all over India which produces 51% of the world’s mangoes. Here’s a great little map pinpointing exactly where they come from. The state of Andhra Pradesh produces the most but my favourite are […]
This is my first blog post! I’ve been blogging at for a few months now and while I’ve been out and about lots of people have asked me about my background which is Gujarati. To be specific, my father is from Rajkot and from a ‘community’ of ‘Suthar’ which literally translated means ‘carpenter’. This is rather […]
I recently attended a Vietnamese and Thai Cookery Day at The Vegetarian Cookery School in Bath run by Rachel Demuth. I first met Rachel last year and discovered that we both have a love of teaching and passing on our skills and knowledge to others. Like me Rachel has travelled extensively in India and the […]
I was invited on to BBC 3 Counties Radio on Saturday to be a guest on Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen. (Click on that or Nick’s picture below to listen to the show). I also met the lovely Producer Emma, Neil Irvine from No. 2 Pound Street Deli and Mummy Blogger Sandy Calico of Baby Baby. I […]