Cottage Cooking Club and Jamie's Food Revolution

It's time once again for the cottage cooking club to come together and posts our thoughts and experiences for the month. We are a group of international bloggers bound together by our love of fresh seasonal and sustainable recipes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cookbooks. Last month we completed two years of cooking along with "River Cottage Veg" and will begin our official start-up  in July with the, "River Cottage Every Day" cookbook. Andrea of the Kitchen Lioness is our wonderful leader and organizer. Each month she will pick one recipe from each of the 10 chapters and then we will choose as many as we have time for.

However this month will be different. Today is Food Revolution Day, an initiative of the Jamie Oliver Foundation. The Food Revolution is a global campaign to improve the health and welfare of children through the food they eat. Part of this process is educating people to make healthier food choices, the more understanding the better choices they will make. Since Andrea is part of the Food Revolution Community, we will be joining them by choosing recipes from "River Cottage Every Day", (our new book) that we individually feel is a must-know recipe. In turn we will share the technique and cooking skill we learned from it.

Our motto for the month of May is Join the food revolution!

The first recipe I prepared was the Seedy Spinach Salad. This was quick to prepare and utterly delicious. First the seeds are pan roasted. I used four kinds of seeds; pumpkin, sesame, poppy and fennel. Then a simple dressing of lemon, olive oil and salt is made. The object of this recipe is to have the seeds stick to the spinach leaves and not all fall to the bottom of the dish. The trick is to first pour half of the dressing on the greens; lightly toss then add half the seeds, then add the rest of the dressing and then the last of the seeds, toss once again. My picture does not do this salad justice, it really is pretty. In this recipe you see that by using seeds or even nuts you can create a satisfying and healthy meal. I need to be more resourceful with the ingredients I have in my pantry.

The second dish I prepared was the Tartiflette toastie, which is a great way to use up leftovers. I prepared Hugh’s meals on toast from the first book with great results and this one was no different. Here bacon slices or ham, cold baked or boiled potato, cream, a slice of cheese and toasted bread are placed in a hot broiler. The cheese will melt and start to bubble, a sure indication of a comforting hot meal. There are so many different ways to prepare this dish, the combinations are endless. Most of us have leftovers. All you need is some kind of vehicle for the ingredients to land on, pizza, pita, English muffins, etc. No need for fast food when you can create satisfying meals like this in your own home.

The third and last dish I prepared was the Asparagus soldiers with a soft boiled egg hollandaise. We all know how wonderful asparagus and eggs taste together but in this recipe the addition of a little butter and cider vinegar can ratchet up the yolks to a creamy almost hollandaise like deliciousness. This was a quick and effortless technique with loads of flavor.

These recipes have been slightly adapted from the "River Cottage Every Day" by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Vegetables Galore” Seedy spinach salad (page 293). Second dish from the chapter "Weekday Lunch (Box)” Tartiflette toastie (page 114). Third recipe; from the chapter “Vegetables Galore” Asparagus soldiers with soft-boiled egg hollandaise (page 254).

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

P.S. Back in Oregon will send out a update in a couple of days.