Gathered Botanicals

There is something special and exhilarating about exploring the countryside to discover and collect seasonal edible delicacies. Young wild garlic leaves for soup are at their best in March, late May brings elderflowers for cordial and in October sloes on Blackthorn bushes for that perfect Christmas tipple of sloe gin.

I recently discovered Gathered Botanicals https://www.gatheredbotanicals.co.uk Based in Cornwall their range of jams, jellies and syrups are made in small batches with freshly gathered, local, seasonal ingredients.

It was the Fig Leaf Syrup that I sampled. Gathered Botanicals description was just right "a little bit fig, maybe some coconut, slightly woody" 

It is recommended you try the syrup to transform a drink it being delicious with gin and tonic or Prosecco or to liven up tonic or sparkling water. Mine was with gin, elderflower tonic, fresh mint and lime.

Other ideas for using the syrup are as a salad dressing or as a drizzle for a cake.

Last Christmas my gift to some friends was a gathered subscription. This is a selection of 4 or 6 new season flavour jellies sent out periodically during the year. The gorse flower jelly was tried on toast as suggested in the tasting notes and has been described by Heather of Shropshire as "a nice light refreshing jam". 

The range makes a gratifying and unique present for friends who enjoy trying something new. 

Yakitori or Grilled Chicken Skewers

Japanese food is not something I prepare often but this speedy and delicious chicken and spring onion dish is certainly going to become a regular.

Yakitori, rice and asian slaw

This is a recipe from London based Japanese food expert Aya Nishimura it is tasty and remarkably simple to prepare https://www.telegraph.co.uk/recipes/0/yakitori-grilled-chicken-skewers-recipe/

The ingredients are straightforward boneless chicken thighs, the white part of a bunch of spring onions, some vegetable oil for frying, a bottle of supermarket teriyaki sauce and some shichimi togarashi (7 spice powder)

I hadn't heard of 7 spice powder which is sprinkled over the finished dish and is described as giving a fiery, savoury kick. I certainly didn't have any in my extensive herb and spice cupboard. I did however have most of the ingredients (bar the poppy seeds) so followed a simple recipe. This included a sheet of nori (dried seaweed) sesame seeds and Szechuan pepper (use sparingly its hot) briefly dry fried, chopped dried chilli, powdered ginger and orange peel dried in the oven for 20 minutes. Blitz all in a spice grinder until course not so well ground it becomes a powder.

Very hot 7 Spice Power

I served the skewers with plain rice and a quick asian slaw comprising white cabbage, carrot, red pepper and the remaining green part of the spring onions. The slaw was lightly dressed with sesame oil, soy sauce and lime juice.

The slaw takes minutes to put together especially if you have a set of these brilliant peelers made by Swiss firm Kisag and available on line for around £19.

Top tip though, when you serve up the skewers and sprinkle over the 7 spice powder it is extremely hot so don't overdo it!