The Cottage Cooking Club | August Recipes

The CCC cooking through River Cottage Veg
by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

My choices for August were:

Tomatoes with Thai Dressing

Chickpea, Chard, and Porcini Soup

Leek and Cheese Toasties

Fava Beans with Herbed Goat Cheese

Cheat's Cauliflower Cheese 

To see the complete list of recipes offered for August - click here.

I was only able to complete three of the five recipes I chose this month. It was just too hot for the soup - I hope to make it once the weather cools. As for the leek and cheese toasties, I just did not get around to it, though I will eventually! They sound and look delish.

Andrea, our fearless leader has been assigning themes to each month. And I have to say, I have not been on board with that aspect, and thought I better get on it this month.

This month's theme: To incorporate our favorite herb or spice into the recipes - couldn't be easier!

One of my favorite herbs is thyme. As you can see, I happened to use it in all three recipes! It was just too easy to walk out back and cut a few sprigs. I do have basil and rosemary as well, but it was the thyme I grabbed each time as I was prepping each recipe.


Cheat's Cauliflower Cheese

This is a lighter version of your typical gratin recipe - here Hugh omits the cream sauce, and tosses the cauliflower with some butter and an optional tablespoon of cream.

If you like the idea of a lighter gratin recipe, which I do, I think this would benefit from some added sautéed shallots and lots of your favorite herb(s), and you will want to use a strong cheese here. I used a white cheddar, but I think a pecorino romano would have been better.

I have to say, the best part of this dish was the topping made of breadcrumbs & cheese, and the addition of my favorite herb, thyme. If I try this again, I'll double the topping.


Tomatoes with Thai Dressing 

I was excited to have homegrown tomatoes to use for this easy recipe.

The tomatoes are sliced and plated, sprinkled with some salt and pepper, and drizzled with the dressing, which consists of a fresh red chile, garlic, salt, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and honey. Hugh suggest sprinkling with some shredded mint leaves, which I subbed out for, you guessed it, thyme.

There is something about tomatoes, they are always so photogenic; they make any dish look delicious. 

We served this tomato dish alongside some grilled chicken and artichokes. 

Sorry to say, I was not a fan of this recipe, though my other half liked the dressing. I thought the dressing, mainly the sesame oil, was too overpowering for the tomatoes.

I think it would have been fine for the tasteless store-bought tomatoes, but it was just too strong for my homegrown tomatoes to shine through. I'll stick with a lighter dressing when I use tomatoes from the garden.

Fava Beans with Herbed Goat Cheese

It just so happened I received fava beans in my farm box this month; the timing was perfect.

I almost took the lazy route, and purchased herbed goat cheese, but that would so not have been fair. I thought about using both thyme and rosemary, but ended up using only the thyme - with the addition of some chopped garlic, salt and pepper, this made for a tasty spread. This would be good even if you did not have the beans.

Adding the beans gives the spread a healthy twist, makes you feel a little less guilty eating it.

Hugh recommends serving this with hunks of bread or oily toast. I went with the oily toast - drizzled some olive oil on some winter wheat bread, and popped it in the toaster. Made for an easy and quick solo dinner.


To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the the CCC website and look for the August LYL post, for a list of their links - or click here to be directed automatically.

We have been asked not to publish the recipes here on our blogs. We encourage you to go out and purchase the book and join us on this fun and healthy adventure!

 

The Cottage Cooking Club | June Recipes

The CCC cooking through River Cottage Veg
by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

My choices for June are:

Quick Couscous Salad with Peppers and Feta 

Macaroni Peas 

To see the complete list of recipes offered for June - click here. 

Quick Couscous Salad with Peppers and Feta

Oops! I made the wrong recipe - as I was at the store, I realized I had not written down the ingredients on my shopping list - I ran home, threw the other groceries in the garage, grabbed the book, and went back. Unfortunately, (or fortunately for me) I read the ingredients for the main recipe; this salad was already in the line-up back in August of last year. This month's recipe was a variation on that one, using fresh tomatoes and olives.

The salad I made, uses jarred roasted red peppers (I used sweet cherry peppers - so good), cucumber, red onion, feta cheese, parsley, and of course, couscous. I added some spring onion from my CSA box, in addition to the red onion; and to the leftovers a couple days later, I stirred in some fresh corn kernels from the leftover corn on the cob we had the night before - it was really tasty with the added corn.



I ended up using pearl couscous, which is a lot larger than your regular couscous. I remember when I first came across a recipe calling for the pearl, I could not find it. Now, when I wanted regular couscous, all my local store had, was the pearl couscous. Go figure. I actually ended up liking it with the pearl couscous, which I will use again the next time I make this - and there will be a next time.

The salad has a very light dressing made up of just olive oil and lemon juice, which is tossed with the warm couscous - I'm thinking this is Hugh's favorite.. he uses it often. However, I felt it could have used a little more dressing.

I may have made the incorrect recipe, but this was darn tasty - so light and refreshing; and it tastes just as good days later. This would make for great lunchbox fare (Ash!). 

Speaking of corn....  I received in my CSA box, corn on the cob, that the tops were lopped off! A third to half of the cob! Am I wrong to be disturbed by this? The company I received my box from, commented (on their FB page) that they cut just the tops off (ah, more than just the tops!) because they were unsightly looking. "Unsightly looking" to me, construes that maybe the corn isn't as fresh as I thought. It did still taste good, and that is what counts, but I felt this was just plain wrong.  Sorry to digress - had to vent a little. (Update: Received a phone call from my CSA - the reason for the tops being cut off, is due to WORM problems. The corn had worm holes... yeah, that would be unsightly.)



Macaroni Peas

Time was not on my side this month. I only completed two of the five recipes I committed to making. I almost did not get this one made - for I knew I would not be going to the farmer's market, and really did not want to make this recipe with frozen peas.

I got lucky - there was a whole bin of fresh peas at my grocery store. So I grabbed a bunch with hopes I would be able to get around to making the recipe - and I did!

This was a simple recipe, though it does require quite a few dishes to prepare - three pots and a blender. In the old days, it never, ever, crossed my mind as to how many dishes a recipe would use - and I used to prepare meals that would take a good four hours or so to complete! I guess I'm getting lazy in my increasing years...

The sauce for this dish is made up of fresh peas, garlic infused butter, and cheese; all is whirled together and then tossed with the noodles, along with additional (cooked) fresh peas, salt, and pepper. Just before serving it is topped with grated cheese and shreds of basil. The more cheese you use, the tastier the dish will be.

I found this to be pretty bland, even though I used three garlic cloves, to Hugh's one. I thought the sauce tasted pretty good on its own, and was looking forward to dinner, but the flavor was lost once it was tossed with the noodles. The bites with the most cheese tasted best, but I was trying to keep this on the healthy side, so I refrained from adding more.


To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the the CCC website and look for the May LYL post for a list of their links - or click here to be directed automatically.

We have been asked not to publish the recipes here on our blogs. We encourage you to go out and purchase the book and join us on this fun and healthy adventure!

 

The Cottage Cooking Club | April Recipes

The CCC cooking through River Cottage Veg
by Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall

My selections for April:

Pasta with New Potatoes, Green Beans, and Pesto

Red Cabbage, Parsnip, Orange, and Dates

Chiles Stuffed with Beans

Upside-Down Onion Tart

Celery Gratin

Click here to see the complete list of recipes offered for April.

Pasta with New Potatoes, Green Beans, and Pesto

This is a quick and easy dish to toss together any night of the week. Made even easier if you use your favorite store bought pesto as I did, rather than make your own as the recipe instructs.

I just wasn't in the mood to make my own pesto - though it's relatively easy - and maybe I should have - it may have given this dish a brighter flavor. Along with the pesto, we have green beans, new potatoes, and green olives. At serving, the pasta gets a dusting of Parmesan cheese, and if you like, drizzled with a little olive oil to finish it off.

This wasn't a favorite of mine, though it was enjoyed by Andy.  (I did not care for the pesto; I used a different brand than I normally buy.)


Red Cabbage, Parsnip, Orange, and Dates

This is one of those dishes that grows on you. You take a bite, and think, ehh, Its OK. Then after a few more bites.. you're thinking it's pretty good.

It certainly is a pretty salad.

Super simple to make too. Shred some cabbage, grate or julienne a parsnip (I used a kinpira peeler), toss with olive oil, orange juice, salt, and pepper. Top with chopped dates, supremed* (sectioned) oranges, and a sprinkling of fresh thyme. 

I preferred my second helping over the first, where I put less thyme and added some cayenne. I think the cayenne definitely brought this up a notch.

*Supreme - learned a new word today! ;)


Chiles Stuffed with Beans

These peppers are stuffed with a mixture made up of shallots, garlic, grated fresh tomato (I used petite diced canned tomatoes), canned borlotti beans, cilantro (I grabbed parsley in error, used that, plus a teaspoon of ground coriander), cumin, hot smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. I added some grated cheddar cheese to the mix, and added a bit more cheese after the peppers were stuffed.

The recipe calls for six large peppers (I swear I placed six peppers in the bag). I had two small peppers, and three medium-to-large peppers, and I barely had enough stuffing to fill the last one.

The peppers are broiled until blackened and blistering.

The peppers are peeled and seeded (the skins slip off pretty easily - for stubborn spots, take a parring knife and gently scrape off). The tops are cut off, leaving a bit of flesh to form a "lid". I find that gently running the peppers under the faucet, helps remove the seeds easily. As you can see, one of my peppers split completely open - no worries.

Stuffed and ready for the oven.

The peppers are baked for about twenty minutes, just until heated through.

The split pepper I mentioned earlier, I stuffed and left open-faced (the way I normally make stuffed peppers). I placed another pepper snuggly against it to keep it from spreading out flat.

Deliciousness.

Certainly not as attractive as the red poblanos shown in the book - however, taste trumps appearance.

I really enjoyed these. My husband thought they were a bit on the spicy side, and they were, more so the following day I thought. Maybe I should have served it with the garlicky yogurt as suggested in the book, to help cool things down a bit.

I have made a similar recipe stuffed with chicken and rice (shown above), where you leave the pepper whole, and split it down the middle to remove the seeds, and to stuff it. If you are using green peppers, I would recommend serving them open-faced for a prettier appearance, should red peppers not be available.

Upside-Down Onion Tart

Oh man. This is good. Out of the ballpark good.

Caramelized onions, balsamic vinegar, puff pastry... how could it not be?

Whole onions are sliced into six or eight wedges, depending on the size of the onion, root left intact - I cut more off the root end than I probably should have. The wedges are placed in a decorative pattern over melted butter and oil, in an oven-proof pan. The onions are sprinkled with some salt and pepper (I also added a little bit of thyme), and cooked until they begin to caramelize.

The onions are then carefully turned over; not an easy task. My onions kept wanting to separate as I flipped them. This is where I knew I cut off too much of the stem end; but I really didn't want the hard stem end attached - it seems it would be unpleasant to bite into.

After all the onions have been turned over, they are allowed to caramelize on the other side, then some balsamic vinegar is drizzled over the top, and cooked just long enough for it to reduce slightly.

 

A round of puff pastry is placed over the cooked onions and baked until puffed and golden, then inverted onto a serving platter.

My most delicious tart looks a little misshapen. For some reason my puff pastry kept wanting to shrink down to more of a rectangular shape. So after placing it on top of the onions, I filled in two spots with extra dough. It does not quite work like pie dough, where you can piece it together. The extra dough pieces cooked up and stayed separate. No biggie. As I said earlier, taste trumps appearances. I still thought it was pretty.

Definitely company worthy!

Celery Gratin

Finally, a recipe that calls for more than a stalk or two (or less) of celery! I hate it when a recipe calls for like, two tablespoons of diced celery (a soup recipe, that I make often). I always end up tossing out a whole lot of celery.

I know, I can slice up the extra, slather it with peanut butter, or cream cheese, and send it with the hubby for a work-week snack, and I always think that I will, but never do. By the time I'm done with dinner and clean-up, I'm too tired to do anything else.

Here we use the whole bunch of celery! I will never need to toss out any unused celery again. So very exited to have this recipe.

You take the bunch of celery, trim it of its leaves (they will burn - save them for stock, if you make your own), place it in a shallow pan, add some water, fresh thyme, a bay leaf, salt, pepper, and dot with a bit of butter, cover with foil, and cook until the celery is tender.

The scent of this while baking, was so enticing. 

Once the celery is cooked, the thyme branches and bay leaf are removed, and the liquid that has accumulated in the pan is mixed with some heavy cream, and some additional salt and pepper if needed. I also added a bit of nutmeg, and some extra grated Gruyère cheese to the mix (unfortunately the cheese just clumped together), this is then poured over the celery.

A mixture of fresh bread crumbs and grated cheese (again, I used Gruyère) is sprinkled over the celery, and baked until the crumbs are golden brown and crispy. A grind of fresh black pepper is sprinkled over the top, just before serving.

This was amazing! I only wish I had gotten a better picture.


To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the the CCC website and look for the April LYL post for a list of their links - or click here to be directed automatically.

We have been asked not to publish the recipes here on our blogs. We encourage you to go out and purchase the book and join us on this fun and healthy adventure!

 

The Cottage Cooking Club | March Recipes

The CCC cooking through River Cottage Veg
by Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall

February marked the tenth month of cooking along with this group, where we have made it half way through the book, and cooked over one-hundred recipes (as a group, not individually - well, except Jora maybe. :)) Boy, time sure does fly.

Andrea, our leader, has declared March our make-up month. This gives us a chance to make any recipes we hoped to have made, but did not get to.  I chose five, and there are still more I would like to get to. Maybe we should have a make-up month every quarter.. ;)

My March selections are as follows:

Crudités with Tarator Sauce p.105

Beetroot Pizza with Cheddar p.180

Refried Beens Foldover p.190

Cheesy Peasy Puff Turnover p.220

Steamed Veg with a Hint of Garlic p.372

Steamed Veg with a Hint of Garlic

Easy peasy! Can't get much easier than this.

I don't know why I haven't thought to steam a medley of vegetables before now. I have steamed broccoli and carrots together, but that's about it.

Here we have broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and cabbage, steamed to perfection, tossed with some garlic butter, salt, pepper, and a dash of red chili flakes, that I added to give it a little kick.

This was enjoyable, though I would have preferred a stronger garlic essence; even though I used three garlic cloves to Hugh's one clove, it still was not very prominent. Maybe if the garlic/butter mixture had more time to meld, it would have had a stronger garlic flavor. Then again, the title does read, a hint of garlic.

I had the leftovers the following day for lunch, and it actually tasted even better. 


Crudités with Tarator Sauce

The tarator sauce consists of toasted walnuts, bread that has been soaked in water, garlic, olive oil, lemon, s&p, and dusted with paprika just before serving.

Unfortunately, I did not care for this dip at all. I found it to have a bitter taste (maybe I added too much garlic? Is that even possible?) and well, just plain nasty.

Also, the oil kept separating, no matter how many times I stirred it. Did I not squeeze the bread of all the water? (The recipe calls for you to soak the bread in water first, and to squeeze most of it out.) I'm wondering if it would be better if the bread wasn't soaked in the water, and allowed to soak up the oil instead.


Refried Beans Foldover

This is very much like a burrito. Instead of a tortilla, we have a homemade soft flatbread that is topped with a bean mixture that is made up of cannellini beans, onion, garlic, red chile, oregano, and grated tomatoes.

This is then topped with whatever your heart desires. I chose to add some cheddar cheese, red onion, avocado, and Greek yogurt. I had planned on a few slices of tomato as well, but I forgot to buy an extra tomato.

The flatbread is made from Hugh's magic bread dough, that was not so magical for me. Actually, he calls it magic, because this one dough can be transformed into just about any shape - flatbreads, pitas, breadsticks, rolls, or even a loaf of bread.

I had issues with rolling out the dough. It kept shrinking back, even after giving the dough an additional rest. I tried re-rolling a couple of times, and still it shrunk back. So I gave up, and just cooked them. They were, in my opinion, too thick, and even though cooked through, they had a very doughy texture & taste to them.

My husband loved them, he even took the remaining breads to work and devoured them; at least they did not got to waste. :) 


Beetroot Pizza with Cheddar



This recipe also calls for using the magic bread dough; after the issue I had with the previous recipe a few days ago, I just was not in the mood to tackle it again, so I went with the store-bought Boboli pizza crust.

I have had success with the dough recipe in the past, when I made the Asparagus Pizza (to die for), and the Pizza with New Potatoes and Brie, another delicious recipe - both from the River Cottage Veg cookbook.

The pizza dough, whether homemade or store-bought, is topped with tomato paste, caramelized onions, cooked beets, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, salt, pepper, and drizzled with a bit of olive oil.

Yeah. This was good. So far, every pizza I have made from this book has been delicious; and I'm not a pizza lover. I'll order it in, only when I don't feel like cooking, or going out. 



Cheasy Peasy Puff Turnover

This recipe comes from the chapter, Pantry Suppers. To me, this means a quick and easy meal to throw together with what you have on hand - in the pantry.

Me, I never have puff pastry on hand, or frozen peas, and rarely do I have cheese - if I do, it is usually spoiled by the time I need it.

But that did not stop me from making these easy, surprisingly delicious turnovers; nor should it stop you.
 

These beauties are comprised of puff pastry, frozen peas, cheese (I used Gruyère), egg, salt and pepper.

The recipe instructs you to make one large turnover. I chose to make smaller individual ones; they are just more fun that way, and also, it's easier in my opinion, to transport the leftovers, if there are any.

These were a hit, to say the least. My daughter & I each had one and split another, and Andy, he had three! Yes, three, at one sitting!

The only thing I would do different next time, is add more cheese...

I served these with a beet salad, made from the leftover beets from the beetroot pizza, but I like the idea of my fellow bloggers, serving these alongside a bowl of soup.




To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the the CCC website and look for the March LYL post - or you will be taken there directly by clicking here.

We have been asked not to publish the recipes here on our blogs. We encourage you to go out and purchase the book and join us on this fun and healthy adventure!