Borrago Newsletter #8 Let’s shake it up.

With national coffee week here, we are highlighting our fantastic Borrago expresso martini and we have an update on how the Borrago bees are doing. The weather is a bit all over the place, so we are heroing the fantastic Jersey Royal Potato, to create a dish that is delicious but warming and filling for those days when the sun does not quite make it out.

The expresso martini is a classic and rightly so. It has the deep velvety smoothness of coffee with the added flavours and kick of the Borrago. Make sure you give the cocktail a really big shake to get a thick creamy head and you can always shake it again if you don’t have as much of one as you would like. Get the recipe here!

Borrago Bees spring update

Chris our Apiarist would just like to let you know that things are buzzing around the Borrago hives. We got through our first and mostly mild winter with flying colours, inspite of some Arctic blasts.

In the Superflow hive, the new Queen has been so prolific that we have already had to put the super (shiny new layer on top) on to give them more space! An almost tropical spring in the Cotswolds has meant that there are already a plethora of blossoms and wild flowers. The blackthorn and hawthorn are in abundance, so fingers crossed, we can look forward to lots of honey. 

Jersey Royal and gruyere galette

Jersey Royals are delicious just boiled, but what sort of recipe would that be? The seaweed and sea salt gives them a unique and delicious flavour that comes through in this dish and their texture is perfect to make this winter warmer, that is spot-on for when a British spring buckets down on you.

Ingredients, serves four:

450g Jersey Royal potatoes

200g Gruyere cheese

I tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

Slice the potatoes finely and put in a bowl with the oil and herbs. Season well and mix until they potato slices are covered in oil, herbs and seasoning.

Oil an ovenproof frying pan or tin. I like using a le Creuset pan that can go from oven to table. Arrange your potato slices on the bottom of the pan until it is covered. Sprinkle on some of the cheese and repeat until you have used up all of the ingredients. Make sure you have enough cheese for a final layer on top. Put in a preheated oven at 200*C. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour depending on your pan and number of layers. It is done when the potato is soft the whole way through (use a skewer to test) and the top is golden brown.

Allow to rest for five minutes and serve. This time of year, it is delicious with some asparagus, but it goes really well as an accompaniment to all sorts of meat and fish.

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter and look forward to chatting more next month. Say hello on social media with @BorragoDrinks.

Thank you for making it to the end, until next time, all the best Tom TH