Cottage Cooking Club March Three Recipes

We are now in our eleventh month of the Cottage Cooking Club; a group of international blogger's cooking together and then posting our experiences along with the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cookbook, "River Cottage Veg". Our group is meant to be a project aimed at incorporating more vegetable dishes in our everyday cooking, and is and has been inspired by our dedicated leader Andrea of the The Kitchen Lioness. Every month Andrea picks one recipe from each of the ten chapters. We then pick and choose which one or ones we want to blog about in a single post. This month was special as we are half way through.

And to celebrate this occasion Andrea sent us all a gift basket from Bonn, Germany. (See the adorable picture above). This was the first time I received a package from overseas, I felt so worldly. See what blogging can do. Thank you Andrea! Anyway we all choose a recipe from a list that was presented before but did not have the opportunity to prepare for whatever reason. I choose 3 recipes from this selection and was once again impressed by the simplicity and flavor of each dish.

The first recipe I prepared was the Pinto Bean Chili. I prepared the autumn's version that consisted mainly of pinto beans, mushrooms and butternut squash. Cumin and allspice were added along with cayenne and fresh herbs.

I served this with a dollop of sour cream and it was delicious. The next day we enjoyed leftovers atop a bed of whole wheat couscous.

The second recipe was the winter stir-fry with Chinese five-spice which was my absolute favorite of all three. What is there about the smell of five-spice? The flavor is indistinguishable. Here the recipe instructs you to chop up all the veggies first and then to heat up the wok. The original recipe used egg noodles, but I substituted soba noodles which we absolutely loved. My husband said that this was "spoon worthy" which was a pretty big compliment.

By the last recipe I realized that all of my picks had the same color of veggies, similar herbs and spices. Obviously I picked them all on the same night. Maybe I was craving something. Anyway for my third I prepared the carrot hummus. This particular recipe emphasizes that most any veggie or bean can make a delicious spread. I served this with everyday pita chips and it was so flavorful.

Recipes adapted from the River Cottage Veg, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Comfort Food and Feast" Pinto bean chili (page 23). Second dish from the chapter "Pasta and Rice"Winter Stir-fry with Chinese five-spice (page 288).  And last but not least; From the chapter "Meze and Tapas" Carrot hummus (page 296).

To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the LYL post for December on the CCC website, by clicking clicking here.