Cooking with Bottlegreen

Started by husband and wife team Kit and Shireen Morris in 1989, bottlegreen has been making refreshing, clean crisp flavours for over 21 years. They first planted vines to make delicious elderflower wine, but as they waited for them to mature, they started producing elderflower cordial instead. They made this in their kitchen sink and sold it at farmers markets and local delicatessens. 

Bottlegreen Cordials

Bottlegreen cordial is the deliciously quaffable drink for you to enjoy relaxing by yourself or in an ice filled jug with a close group of friends.  It’s the perfect soft drink for you to sit back and enjoy some peaceful time away from your day-to-day hassles. They're also a great way to add flavour to your favourite dishes.

All cordials contain only the purest and finest natural ingredients blended together with clear spring water. Each one is as delicious as it is light, crisp and distinctive.

Bottlegreen cordials are also free from all artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners.

I was asked to test three different flavours in my cooking; Elderflower, Strawberry and Ginger and Lemongrass and was happy to use the recipes provided as a base, adding my own twist!

Seafood in Coconut, Ginger & Lemongrass sauce

Serves: 4
Ingredients

• 300g of baby corn mange tout and broccoli

• 2 shallots, finely chopped

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil

• 2 tsp Thai red curry paste

• 2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped

• 400ml canned coconut milk (use reduced fat if preferred)

• 400g salmon fillet, skin removed

• 300g peeled raw tiger or king prawns (thawed if frozen)

• 3 tbsp Bottlegreen Ginger and Lemongrass Cordial

• Juice from ½ large lime
• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• 2 spring onions, shredded
• handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Method

1. Cut the baby sweet corn in half lengthways. If the mange tout are large, halve them. 

1. In a deep frying pan (or sauté pan), gently cook the chopped shallots until softened. Stir them into the curry paste, tomatoes, and coconut milk. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes, or until reduced by half when the tomatoes are pulpy.

1. Meanwhile, cut the salmon into 4cm chunks. Pat the prawns dry on kitchen paper. Add them to the sauce with the Ginger and Lemongrass cordial and lime juice, and then stir together. Add the vegetables, let it simmer for 5 minutes until the prawns turn pink and the salmon is cooked.

1. Scatter over shreds of spring onion, chopped coriander and accompany with basmati or Thai jasmine rice. Ready to serve.

Recipe notes:

As with Thai food you need to add the four main elements; salty, sweet, sour and spicy. The heat in this dish comes from the curry paste. Taste, and if you need to add a little more heat, add some chopped fresh chilli. The sweetness comes from the small amount of added sugar in the cordial. I found this to be enough so no need to add anymoe. The fish sauce adds the sour element.