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Herbs for Health Eucalyptus


HERBS FOR HEALTH – EUCALYPTUS     

eucalyptus-bottle

 We all know herbs can smell and look beautiful in your garden and be great for cooking, but what about herbs for health?*  Every month we’re going to be introducing you to a new herb and its traditional medicinal uses – starting with seasonally appropriate Eucalyptus.

This is a fast growing tree with beautiful bluey green leaves., it grows well in most soils and will reach a height of up to 30m. If you want to grow your own here is some good advice.

Eucalyptus essential oil is obtained from the globulus variety and is a common ingredient in medicinal inhalation preparations. Although taken in large doses the plant is toxic (it should not be taken orally, or put on the skin undiluted), its medicinal benefits are well documented, where it’s decongestant properties make it useful for cough, cold and chest preparations.. It is also widely used in dental preparations such as mouthwash and toothpaste, as it has a unique, fresh aroma. This aroma also has uses in the perfume industry. Eucalyptus can be used in oil burners to freshen the air with its lovely fresh fragrance

The leaves can be used to repel fleas and for pot pourri.

Cosmetically the plant can be used to make deodorant and is antiseptic.

*This article is intended for interest only – use of herbs given are traditional and do not reflect the herbs efficacy. It is not intended, nor should be taken as medical advice. If you have a medical condition please consult a qualified health professional prior to using any herbal preparation. Although the facts have been checked carefully, we cannot guarantee the reliability of information provided. Essential oils should not be used on children or vulnerable adults (elderly, breast feeding or ill) or during pregnancy. Some essential oils and herbs can be toxic, whether taken internally or used on the skin – your health care professional will advise.

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Recipe – Gremolata

Herbs can be in short supply in the garden at this time of year: although there still seems to be plenty of parsley around. Gremolata is a great way to make use of this herb. This super easy, extremely versatile recipe will use up all that parsley hanging around, plus give you a garlic-y hit – always necessary over winter.

finish-gremolata

Gremolata

Ingredients:

2 cups (500mls) parsley

4 tbsp (60mls) finely grated lemon rind

2 tbsp (30mls) garlic

Chop the parsley and garlic until very fine, if you have a Vitamix this will do the job for you, then mix together with the finely grated lemon rind. This spread can be used in all sorts of ways too; freeze in an ice cube tray and then use to season stews and soups, mix with cream cheese for a delicious cracker spread, use as a garnish or mix with breadcrumbs for stuffing or coating. My personal favourite is mashing with butter, smearing on bread and then toasting in the oven for quick and delicious garlic bread. In a sealed container, kept in the fridge, this spread should last a while so you can have the chance to try it all sorts of ways!  In fact here is a great variation using walnuts.

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Make Your Own Body Powder

So Christmas is over and we’ve said our ‘happy new year’s – but if your family is anything like mine, it’s already time to start thinking about birthdays. Gift giving is never harder than for January birthdays – after all, you’ve already used up all your ideas (and money) on Christmas! Not to worry, we’ve come up with some ideas so you don’t have to – and best of all, they won’t break the bank! This week’s favourite is this cheap and easy recipe for a luxurious scented powder.

powder in progress

Ingredients:

1 measure dried thyme

1 measure dried rosemary

1 measure ground cinnamon

1 measure orange peel

1 measure orris root powder or cornflour

half measure arrowroot powder

This recipe really works best if you’ve got a grinder – just stick it all in and whizz it ‘til it’s smooth! You can even make your own dried orange peel by putting your fresh peel in a hot oven until it’s dry and crinkly.

If you don’t have a grinder then not to worry, just use ground cinnamon, orris root powder and arrowroot powder for a simpler but no less delicious version.

 

This is a fantastic product to use in place of talcum powder, or just to add a lovely scent to your skin. Let out your creative side when it comes to the packaging – it will look gorgeous in a recycled kilner jar, or even just bundled in some muslin with a pretty ribbon.

finished powder

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Christmas Cocktails Rose Delight

It’s our final Christmas cocktail before the day itself and this is one of our favourites! This Rose Delight is a wonderfully fruity drink with an unusual floral twist – and so easy to make! Inspired by our Summer Rose fragrance range, this cocktail is fast becoming a signature drink in our household. For a sophisticated yet playful theme, why not give this a go?

rose-cocktail-glass

Ingredients:

2 measures Rose Syrup

2 measures White wine

Sparkling water to taste

It’s best to use a large measure and make this in a jug, just mix together the wine and rose syrup then add sparkling water to taste.  Alternatively – for a stronger flavour – use sparkling wine and leave out the water.  Decorate with a sprinkle of petals and a straw.

Seasons greetings everyone  from the St Kitts Herbery team.

 

 

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Christmas Cocktails Festive Fruit Cup

It’s week two of our Christmas cocktail concoctions and the turn of the fabulous Festive Fruit Punch. No matter how much you enjoy Christmas, it’s undeniable that the winter can be cold and miserable. This fruity cocktail is guaranteed to give you that hit of summer we all need to see us through!

festive fruit punch glass

2 measures crème de fraise (raspberry liquor)

2 measures crème de cassis (blackcurrant liquor)

1 measure vodka

1 measure sugar syrup

3 measures cranberry and raspberry juice

6 frozen raspberries per glass

Pink sugar crystals (optional)

This cocktail really is best shaken (resisting a James Bond joke here!), simply pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and mix well, before straining over your frozen raspberries. This drink looks its best in a traditional cosmo glass – to decorate the rim, dip in lemon juice and then pink sugar crystals. Voila, you can serve summer for Christmas!

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Christmas Cocktails Chocolate Alexander

It’s December and Christmas is on its way.  To help you celebrate in style this year, we’re going to be posting one of our favourite cocktail recipes every week this December! To start you off is the ‘Chocolate Alexander’.  Created when I was still a teenager and alcopops weren’t yet around, we made our own of whatever we could.   I can’t drink quite so much of this these days, but I still give it a good go!

chocolate alexander glass pic

1 part vodka

1 part crème de cacao

1 part tia maria (or similar)

1 part baileys (or similar)

chocolate milk (chilled) to taste

It’s really easy too – just stick it all in a glass and give it a stir!  For an extra pretty touch, garnish the glass by melting some chocolate and dipping the rim of the glass, then quickly dipping in chocolate vermicelli and leaving to set.  Cinnamon chocolate works great for this if you’d like a Christmassy twist, you can also replace the Tia Maria with an orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier.  Or try Amaretti instead of vodka (or as well as vodka, we won’t tell anyone).

(Warning: This is a lot more alcoholic than it tastes  – not to be confused with regular chocolate milk!)

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Chocolate Truffles – Make your own for Christmas

Stuffing yourself full of chocolate is a time honoured Christmas tradition, but why not go the extra mile this year and try making your own? This delicious Moroccan mint truffle recipe is guaranteed to satisfy your chocolate cravings and makes a great homemade gift!

truffle cream etc

Ingredients

15g butter

1 tbsp glucose (golden syrup can be substituted here)

125ml double cream

200g chocolate plus extra for dipping

3 or 4 Moroccan mint leaves

Method

– Wash the mint leaves thoroughly and pat dry. In a pan, mix the cream, butter, glucose (or golden syrup) and mint leaves, then heat until hot but not boiling, stirring intermittently.

– Remove the mint leaves. Add the chocolate, broken into pieces, stirring until it has melted. The mixture should be thick and silky looking, if it isn’t you can add more chocolate.  Put in fridge until cold and set enough to handle.

truffle mix in pan

– Scoop out a good sized teaspoon full and roll into a ball then place on a lined tray. When all the mixture has been shaped, place the tray in the fridge and allow them to set for 2-3 hours.

– The truffles can be left like this and rolled in cocoa powder or, if you would like to make them look more polished you can dip them.

Temper your extra chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of boiling water (you can also use a microwave for this if you would rather).   Full instructions can be found here.

truffle dipped on fork

Handling them carefully, one at a time take a rolled truffle and place it in the melted chocolate. Using a fork, very gently roll the truffle until completely coated, before carefully lifting it out. Balancing the truffle, tap the fork on the edge of the bowl to remove the excess chocolate before once again placing the truffle on the tray. Repeat with all the truffles before leaving in the fridge to set.

-Voila! One hand made batch of deliciously flavoured, creamy truffles. All you have to do now is try not to eat them all at once!

Our main picture shows dark chocolate truffles decorated with roughly piped lines.

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Bath Vinegar – Make your own Christmas presents

With Christmas drawing closer it’s time to start thinking about those all-important presents. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have noticed that unique gifts are getting harder to come by – so why not change things up this year and make some of your own? This is our tried and tested, easy recipe to make your very own bath vinegars. Unique, beautiful and great for balancing the ph of the skin, these are a failsafe present for the hard to please.

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– Start by collecting your flowers. We made ours with beautiful pink roses, but you could also use pelargonium flowers, carnations or even lemon slices, depending on the scent you’d like to end up with.

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– In a sterile bottle or jar, gently arrange your flowers. This is much easier to accomplish in a jar, though if you like the look of the sauce style bottle then be sure to take care when pushing the buds through the neck.

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– Pour in enough cyder vinegar to cover the flowers, before adding a few drops of essential oil. Again we have used rose essential oil to complement the flowers. If you’ve gone for pelargonium then geranium oil works best here, freesia oil with freesias and of course lemon oil with lemon slices.

vinegar

– Cap and shake gently and you’re pretty much done! Leave the vinegar to infuse for one month to really get the best scent for your bath. Then just decorate the bottle by wrapping with ribbon or raffia, add a hand made tag and your handmade gift is ready to go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ginger Chocolate Biscuits

As the days get shorter and winter draws closer, there’s nothing better than tucking up with a cup of tea and a homemade biscuit.  Since its chocolate week it’s only right that it should be a chocolate one.  Chocolate biscuits have always comforted me and this recipe gives them a warming ginger twist.

 

Ingredients:

125g Ginger chocolate

180g Plain flour

1tsp Bicarbonate of soda

125g Butter or margarine

125g Caster sugar

1tsp Vanilla extract

1 Egg

250g Chocolate chips

100g Crystallised ginger, diced

Method:

– Preheat the over to 170C/Gas mark 3

– Break up the chocolate and melt in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted.

– In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

– Stir in the melted chocolate.

– Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

– Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Stir until thoroughly combined.

– Stir in the chocolate chips and crystallised ginger until spread evenly throughout the mixture.

– Line a baking sheet and scoop out the mixture into equal portions about 6cm apart. Do not flatten them.

– Bake for 18 minutes and test with a skewer. If it comes out wet with batter, continue to cook until the skewer comes out semi-clean.

– Leave to cool for 5 minutes, transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool again until they have hardened.

Don’t forget to enjoy with a cup of tea!

 

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Handy Kitchen Herbs

We made some fab hanging baskets recently, stuffed full of beautiful, useful herbs – and it got us thinking! Why not grow your favourite culinary herbs in planters right outside your kitchen door? We know that sometimes everyone needs a reminder of how easy it is to add a twist to otherwise standard foods, so although we’re probably preaching to the choir, here’s our handy list of kitchen herb combinations.

 

Blackcurrant and sage

This unlikely combination is guaranteed to please the taste buds. Just a tiny pinch of sage is all you’ll need to add an unusual flavour to this seasonal fruit. Check out this recipe for fantastic fruity tarts and experiment with the use of sage – you won’t regret it!

 

Strawberries and mint

While there are still plenty of strawberries around, why not have a go at adding a little finely chopped mint and sugar for an easy but exciting pudding. If you’re feeling really adventurous, try your hand at a mint jelly  and serve with crème fraiche.

Potatoes and rosemary

Sometimes the classics really are the best and it doesn’t get better than potatoes and rosemary! Whether it’s a pinch in your mash or a sprinkle on your roasties, it’s an easy trick that never fails to please. Rosemary’s great fresh or dried, so if you need to stock up have a look in our food hall.

Butter and fennel

We all know that everything tastes better with butter, but why not try something new with butter and fennel? Mash a sprinkle of fennel in with your butter for a super easy seasoning, great for roasting fish, slathering on bruchetta or use instead of garlic butter for a great garlic bread alternative!

Yoghurt and coriander

The summer months are a great time for casual eating, finger food and dips in the garden with a cocktail in hand! Spruce up your yoghurt with a handful of chopped coriander leaves – great just with breadsticks, cucumber and carrots or try it as an unusual salad dressing.