Cottage Cooking Club Three Recipes Month of February

It's time once again for our group; "The Cottage Cooking Club", a group of international blogger's to post our thoughts and experiences on the recipes for the month of February. Together we prepare seasonal and creative veggie dishes 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 Kitchen Lioness. Each month Andrea picks one recipe from each of the 10 chapters and then we pick and choose as many as we have time for. Our motto for the month of February is: Love your late winter veggies!

The first recipe I prepared was the mushroom ragout with soft polenta. This was easy to put together and a big hit at my house. The mushrooms melded perfectly with the creamy polenta and was indeed comfort food at its finest. I used baby portabellas but any mix of mushrooms would work very nice here. Hugh recommended cutting the leftover polenta into cubes and frying them, which I did the next day for breakfast and served topped with a fried egg. Delicious once again.

For the second recipe I prepared the white bean salad with tomatoes and red onion on top of a bed of romaine lettuce. Here everything was added together and then drizzled with a lemony mustardy vinaigrette that was offset by a pinch of sugar. I served this along-side grilled flank steak and it was a wonderful accompaniment. I can see this being a summer salad staple.

Now onto the last dish which was the Sweet potato and peanut gratin.  The surprise ingredient was the crunchy peanut butter and lime zest and juice. The saltiness of the peanut butter worked magically with the sweetness of the potatoes and the lime juice added a fresh zing to the flavor. Dried chili flakes, fresh garlic and cream were added to the mix and then baked almost an hour. I finished this dish under the broiled just to get the top a little more browned and crisp. Another home run in my book.

These recipes have been slightly adapted from the "River Cottage Veg", by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Comfort Food and Feast” Mushroom ragout with soft polenta (page 57). Second dish from the chapter "Bready Things" White bean salad with tomatoes and red onion (page 240). Third recipe; from the chapter “Comfort Food and Feast” Sweet potato and peanut gratin (page 63).

To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the LYL post for February 2016 on the CCC website, by clicking here.