Cottage Cooking Club July

We are now officially in our second year 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 Kitchen Lioness. Andrea picks one recipe from each of the chapters. This month I prepared 3 of the 10 recipes and was again very pleased with each one.

The first dish I prepared was the summer couscous salad. For the grain I used quinoa which was one of the suggested main ingredients. In this dish sweet peas, zucchini that has been fried with a little olive oil and halved cherry tomatoes are dressed lightly. The dressing is made with the juice and zest of a lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I took this summer couscous salad to a celebratory trail party and it was a big hit. The hint of the fresh lemon made this dish sing with the other fresh vegetables, another big winner in my book.

The second dish was runner beans with tomatoes and garlic. In this recipe Hugh has you grating tomatoes which I quickly realized was an easy and functional way to peel them. In a large skillet chopped onion is sautéed until soft, garlic is added; then the green beans and tomato pulp. The beans are covered and simmered about 10 minutes or until tender. This dish can be served hot, warm or room temperature. For me the preparation of this dish was very unique as I usually always throw my beans in salted boiling water for about 5 minutes and then put them in an ice bath. My husband and I both enjoyed this dish and we had the green beans cold the next day as part of our lunch.

Summer stir fry with fried rice was the third and last dish. The veggies I used were chard, peas, edamame, zucchini, green onions, ginger and garlic. The recipe instructs you to prepare the veggies first. So I prepped the veggies, set them in separate dishes and in the meantime started the rice. Since the my wok is in Arizona I used a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat and sautéed all the veggies this way. After the rice is done it is cooked with a mixture of an beaten egg, soy sauce and sesame oil, delicious. Next time I will left the rice char to get a more rich flavor. Very happy with this dish.

Recipes adapted from the River Cottage Veg, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Hearty salads" Summer couscous salad" (page 89). Second dish from the chapter "Side dishes" Runner beans with tomatoes and garlic” (page 375). Third dish from the chapter “Pasta and rice” Summer stir-fry with fried rice (page 286).

To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the LYL post for the July 2015 on the CCC website, by clicking here.