Spiced English Borage Honey

“It’s Christmas in a jar!” is the exclamation I usually receive when revealing this honey to taste testers. A runny variation on a twelfth century spiced honey recipe, this honey is a little more powerful than its set counterpart: sweet and spicy, with the ginger and pepper giving it a warming aftertaste.

English Borage is my favourite honey to use for this recipe: brilliantly pale, it takes on the colours of spices beautifully and is very slow to crystallise. English medieval gardens would have been full of borage in the summer months: according to the account rolls of Queen’s College, Oxford, the college gardener John Godspeed was a huge fan of the plant, ordering its seeds in 1351 and again in 1359 for planting in the college gardens.

When I’m not drizzling this over porridge, yoghurt or fruit, or mixing it with a pinch of sea salt to use as a coating for oven baked almonds, this makes the most amazing accompaniment to goat’s cheese. Whisked into reduced balsamic vinegar, it makes the most fantastically easy and deliciously sticky salad dressing, whilst adding a tablespoon to caramelised onions catapults them into a new dimension – amazing then stirred into couscous or quinoa. I’m only just starting to discover this honey’s culinary promise – recipes will follow on the blog!