Cottage Cooking Club Month Of January Three Recipes

We are now in our twenty-first month of the “Cottage Cooking Club”; a group of international blogger's that post our thoughts and experiences on the recipes that we have prepared from 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. Our motto for the month of January was to “start the new year off with incorporating even more veggies into our cooking”!

For the first recipe I prepared the winter kale and potato curry. First garlic, ginger and a green chili was pounded together to create a paste for extra flavor, onions were sautéed and then a wonderful blend of spices, garam masala, mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric and cardamom were added, indeed a great combination to create great flavor. Potatoes and chard stalks were added and then the leaves. Yogurt and tomato paste were mixed together and added at the end, then the dish was finished with cilantro. What a satisfying and hearty meal this made, easy enough for a week-night meal.

For the second recipe I prepared the curried red lentil soup. I have made other lentil soups, a few very similar to this. I almost forgot how beautiful red lentils can be, until they have been cooked as you can see by the above picture. My soup was a little thin so I simmered longer than the recipe required until the liquid became the right consistency. I added a little more lemon juice than the recommended amount and was very pleased. Garnished soup with cilantro, very delicious!

Now for the third and last dish. This was a sweet pie that is filled with Swiss chard, raisins soaked in apple brandy and apples. It is bound together by two eggs and then pine nuts are added. The dough is sweetened by the addition of confectioners’ sugar and works surprisingly well with the filling. The directions have us baking this in a spring form pan. At this point I was unsure of how to prepare the pan so I cut a piece of parchment to cover the bottom. For me this was a fairly time consuming recipe but one that I will be preparing again. Verdict, another winner!

Recipes adapted from the River Cottage Veg, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Comfort Food and Feast" Winter kale and potato curry (page 24). Second dish from the chapter "Hefty Soups” Curried red lentil soup” (page 166). And last but not least; From the chapter "Side Dishes" Tourte de blettes (page 398).

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

Just a note to everyone On 1st May, 2016, Andrea will continue our cooking adventure together - with two books from the same author. One is called "River Cottage Every Day" and the other one is called "Love Your Leftovers". Please join us for another new adventure! I can’t wait!