About this box
The flavours that make Thai, Vietnamese and Indian cooking sing are often the hardest to buy fresh, and the jars and freeze-dried packets never quite capture them. The Asian Kitchen Garden Collection brings together eight of them to grow at home, on a sunny windowsill, in a greenhouse or out in the garden.
There are two basils, because they do different jobs. Holy Basil, Kaprao in Thailand and Tulsi across South Asia, has the peppery, clove-like flavour of a proper Thai stir-fry, while Thai Large Leaf Basil, the sweet aniseed Horapa, goes into green curries and pho. Lemongrass East Indian gives the citrus backbone of Thai and Malaysian cooking, Coriander gives leaves, roots for curry pastes and seeds for grinding, and Peppermint brings the fresh mint that fills Vietnamese rolls and Thai salads. Spring Onion White Lisbon covers every stir-fry and garnish, and Pak Choi Rubi grows deep purple leaves that keep their colour in the wok. Finally there is Cumin, for anyone who likes a challenge: it wants more heat than a British summer usually offers, but grown somewhere warm and sunny it rewards you with your own home-grown seed.
Growing guide
The basils, lemongrass and cumin all love warmth. Start them indoors from April, keep them in your sunniest spot, and give the cumin a greenhouse or a hot windowsill. Lemongrass is tender, so bring it inside before the first frost and it will carry on for years. Grow the mint in a pot to stop it spreading. Coriander and spring onions are best sown little and often from spring to late summer, and pak choi is least likely to run to seed when sown from midsummer onwards. Full instructions are printed on every packet.
Eight full-sized packets in our signature eco-friendly packaging – a gift for anyone who loves to cook, and a good way to try something different in the herb bed.
