The Kitchen Orchard

2014 | Food & Drink

Every modern kitchen features a fridge and a cupboard. The bare essentials. But for Natalia Conroy, they are an orchard - the source of abundant meals, platefuls of fresh salads or slow-cooked vegetables - it just requires a little imagination. Natalia's cooking draws inspiration from seasonal produce, which she combines with essential everyday ingredients - a little cream, fresh herbs, good stock, a head of garlic, leftover cheese or wine - so that nothing goes to waste. She matches dishes to occasions, time constraints or even mood, relishing the endless possibilities on offer with a thoughtfully stocked fridge and store cupboard. With over 100 recipes grouped around the dairy compartment (storing eggs, milk, cream and wine), the vegetable drawer (housing root vegetable and robust herbs), and the top drawer (garlic, onions, lemons and fresh seasonal herbs), Natalia takes one hero ingredient and builds the dish around a core flavour. Dill lifts a salad of beetroot and mustard. Fresh rosemary flavours a soup of white bean and ham hock, and another of pumpkin and smoked pork.

Plain carrots are transformed into both carrot, mint and lemon salad and fluffy carrot and walnut cake Natalia's cooking celebrates simply, affordable food, cooked really well - celebrating taste, aroma and the joy of eating and sharing.

Natalia Conroy (Author)