‘The Botanical Kitchen’ cookbook: Recipes from banana muffins to baked brie

These are inspired by the tahini and white chocolate babka from Honey & Spice in London. To be frank, that babka is probably the best thing I have ever eaten. Its oozing core of molten tahini and white chocolate surrounded by a buttery brioche crust sees me making ridiculous detours every time I visit London just so I can pass by the deli and grab one (OK, three) pieces. As I don’t live near London and I don’t always have time to make bread, I had to come up with an alternative so I could get my fix on a regular basis. Introducing banana and cardamom to that already indulgent mixture of ingredients proved an excellent idea, resulting in a highly addictive sweet-savoury combination. These muffins are an excellent way to use up overripe bananas – the blacker the better.

Makes 12

For the muffins

200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Seeds from 8 cardamom pods, finely ground
¼ tsp sea salt flakes
100g white chocolate chips, or 1cm pieces of white chocolate
3 large bananas, mashed
70g light brown soft sugar
1 egg
50g butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g tahini

For the tahini glaze

2 tbsp tahini
100g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sesame seeds (a mixture of black and white looks nice)

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases (or grease thoroughly with some extra butter if you don’t have paper cases).

Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, then stir in the cardamom and salt. Stir in the white chocolate. In a separate bowl, mash together the bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter, vanilla and tahini.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, being careful not to over-mix – this is the key to a light muffin. Divide between the 12 cases and bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes, until they spring back when pressed lightly with a finger.

Transfer the muffins in their cases to a wire rack to cool.

Make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini, icing sugar, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of water. When the muffins are cool, spoon the glaze over the top. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and leave for an hour or so for the glaze to set before eating (if you can wait!).

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This is one of my go-to dishes as soon as blood oranges start to appear in the shops in late winter. The heartiness of bolstering chickpeas, buttered almonds and smoky chicken makes for a supremely satisfying plateful, not to mention one packed with nourishing ingredients. Vegetarians can swap the chicken for slices of chargrilled halloumi, which are just as good (they don’t need marinating, just slice and grill). Try to get very good-quality chickpeas for this – they should be tender and creamy, not hard like bullets. You can also use normal oranges, but add a good squeeze of lemon juice to the chickpeas to compensate.

Serves 4

For the chicken

3 garlic cloves, crushed 
Zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ 
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sea salt flakes
½ tsp dried thyme
3 tbsp good-quality olive oil
2 chicken breast fillets, cut into 2.5cm strips

For the salad

3 blood oranges
1 or 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
30g butter
80g whole blanched almonds
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
A generous pinch of salt
1 red onion, thinly sliced
150g curly kale
2 tbsp olive oil
2 x 400g cans of good-quality chickpeas, rinsed and drained
20g basil leaves, roughly torn

Make a marinade. Combine all the ingredients for the chicken, except the chicken itself, in a small bowl. Add the chicken strips and toss well to coat, then refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

When you’re ready to make the salad, grate the zest from two of the oranges. Place it in a bowl with the chilli. Cut the skin off all the oranges with a sharp, serrated knife, then cut the orange segments away from the pith. Do this over the bowl containing the zest and chilli to catch any juice. Place the orange segments in the bowl, then squeeze in any juice from the remaining pith too, then discard the pith. Set aside.

In a large, non-stick frying pan, melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the almonds and cook for 2-3 minutes, until starting to turn golden, then add the garlic and cook until that also starts to turn golden (a further 2-3 minutes). Season with the salt. Use a slotted spoon to remove the almonds and garlic from the pan and set them aside on a piece of kitchen paper.

Add the onion and kale to the butter in the pan with a teaspoon of the olive oil. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables are starting to soften, adding a splash of water if they start to catch or burn. Add the chickpeas and the orange mixture, and cook for another 2-3 minutes, until everything is warmed through. Add the almonds and garlic back to the pan along with half the basil, and stir everything together. Turn off the heat, add the remaining olive oil and mix well, tasting for seasoning.

To cook the marinated chicken, pre-heat a griddle pan over a medium-high heat. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through – the juices should run clear and the meat should be opaque. (You can do this in a non-stick frying pan if you don’t have a griddle pan.)

Divide the salad between four plates and place equal amounts of the chicken strips on top. Garnish with the remaining basil.

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Here it is: your new go-to dinner-party starter. It looks incredibly impressive but takes about two minutes to prepare, and the combination of molten, honeyed cheese with tangy blackcurrant, buttery pecan and fragrant herbs is both unusual and utterly addictive. Simply bring it to the table in its oven dish and let your guests dive in. I like to serve it with Scandinavian-style rye crackers, but a good, crusty baguette is also an excellent vehicle for transporting cheese to mouth. I highly recommend seeking out blackcurrant vinegar (I get it from demijohn.co.uk), but you could replace it with the more common raspberry vinegar, or a good, syrupy balsamic. Feel free to double the recipe to use a 500g wheel of brie (or a camembert), but adjust the cooking time to make it slightly longer. Redcurrants or whitecurrants would also work here.

Serves 4-6

45g pecan nuts
250g wedge of brie
70g fresh or frozen blackcurrants
2 tsp thyme leaves or finely chopped rosemary needles
3 tsp blackcurrant vinegar or balsamic vinegar
3-4 tsp runny honey

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5.

Put the pecans in a small oven dish and place in the oven for 8 minutes, until toasted. Remove (leave the oven on), set aside to cool, then roughly chop.

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Take a small baking dish, the right size to fit the piece of brie snugly. Slice the brie horizontally in half (so you have two flat triangles). Put one half in the dish, cut side up. Take half the toasted pecans and press them gently into the cheese. Do the same with the blackcurrants (some will fall off the sides into the dish – that’s fine, but try to get as many as possible on the cheese). Sprinkle over half the thyme or rosemary, then drizzle over half the vinegar and half the honey.

Put the other piece of brie on top, rind side upwards (so you have essentially sandwiched the cheese back together as the wedge it was). Press the remaining pecans and blackcurrants onto the top of the cheese (again, some will fall off). Drizzle over the remaining vinegar and honey and sprinkle with the remaining thyme or rosemary.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and spread out a little in the dish. Remove from the oven, leave for 5 minutes, then dive in with crackers or good crusty bread.

‘The Botanical Kitchen: Cooking with fruits, flowers, leaves and seeds’ by Elly McCausland. Published by Bloomsbury Absolute, £26, out now