Courtyard Kitchen

Herbs and potted fruits thrive in small, easy-to maintain spaces - in courtyard pots and troughs, on decks or balconies or in window boxes. Herbs are inexpensive to pot and grow and add wonderful flavour to the simplest dish - and of course there's nothing quite like cooking with home-grown ingredients.

Courtyard Kitchen is prefaced with simple tips and hints on selecting the best herbs for your space and setting up and maintaining them; it includes essential information on seasons, cropping times and basic plant care. Following this are more than 80 simple fresh food recipes with clever flavour-matching ideas based around a specific herb or potted fruit theme - basil, mint, coriander, lemon, parsley, strawberry, thyme, rosemary, chilli. There are risottos, roasts, pizzas, salsas, salads, soups, recipes for pasta, polenta, couscous; there are sorbets, cakes, biscuits and treats - delicious, easy recipes that celebrate the sheer pleasure of home cooking with herbs you've grown yourself.