Cottage Cooking Club Month of August

Here we are in the month of August, 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’s challenge was to showcase a personal favorite vegetable and or herb and incorporate it into one of our recipes. I prepared 3 out of the 10 of this month's choices.

The first dish I prepared was the chickpea, chard and porcini soup. Hugh explains that the purpose of these types of soups is to be satisfying substantial, like a main meal, which this was. However I made a few changes. Since I love mushrooms I decided to substitute fresh mushrooms from central Oregon instead of the dried. And I used Swiss chard as it is growing like mad in my garden for the greens. I served this soup with slivers of Parmesan cheese and some whole grains crackers. My husband even had seconds.

The second dish and my all-time favorite of Hugh’s so far in his book was this recipe, Eggplant and green bean curry. Eggplant has always been one of my favorites, but I have never been able to prepare it like I have had and love in Thai restaurants. This was as close as I have come to that texture and flavor. The curry sauce was a combination of a rich tomato base and coconut milk that paired together very nicely. The green beans were a great accompaniment.

Now for the third and final dish, Cheat’s cauliflower cheese. This is where I added green onions; one of my favorite little subtle packs of flavor. I grow green onions in both Arizona and Oregon and use them fresh all year long. I am learning that cauliflower is so versatile. I have seen it made into bread, pasta and rice. Certainly this veggie has been poorly represented. This is another dish that could be served as a side dish or a main, just add a salad.

These recipes have adapted from the River Cottage Veg, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Hefty soups" Chickpea, chard, and porcini soup" (page 149). Second dish from the chapter "Comfort food and feasts" Eggplant and green bean curry” (page 29). Third dish from the chapter “Side dishes” Cheat’s cauliflower cheese (page 378).

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