Welcome to the February edition of the Cottage Cooking Club and our twenty-second month cooking together from the cookbook: “River Cottage veg everyday!” by British cookbook author and television personality, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
The aim of our international online group has been to incorporate more fresh, local, and seasonal, vegetables into our daily meals while preparing from among a broad range of creative dishes, including perhaps switching out some ingredients according to what might be freshly available in our residing regions.
Our monthly recipe selections from the book are picked by our fearless and talented leader, Andrea, of the Kitchen Lioness, Notes from a very small German Kitchen, with members of the group then preparing from among the choices, and later gathering together at months end to share our preparations.
The dishes are generally very easy in their preparations, as well as delicious, and for the most part though I generally prepare between 3 and 5 of the recipes from the list, with assorted food projects going on over the month it sort of set the ball into the air with the timing of things, and so I only prepared one of the dishes this month, Apple and blue vinnie toastie. The Dorset Blue Vinny is a blue cheese that I am not familiar but according to the recipe any blue cheese works just fine. Well, all except if you are out of Blue Cheese. I was. Apple works lovely with cheddar cheese too of which I had a nice sized chunk for shredding and so I set to its use. Hence my title name ‘Apple and cheddar cheese toastie.’
The recipe calls for shredding 2 small tart eating apples but with a nice large sized crispy Fuji apple at hand, I grated it up, tossing it together with the grated cheddar, and, some chopped pecans which the recipe also did not call for, but whose photo placed to the side of the alternate page within the cookbook, Squash and walnut toastie, did include nuts, and so let’s just say it inspired me. Toasted on whole grain crusty loaf slices, the bread is then swiped with a slice of garlic before topping off with the mixture, baking until melted, then quick broiling to a golden final finish. This single dish reminded me of the saying, ‘sometimes less is more’ and so with just one single recipe chosen for the month, the Apple and blue vinnie toastie among fewer recipes prepared, was in itself, a highly flavorful, uniquely exceptional choice.
You check out what other members of the Cottage Cooking Club prepared here.
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