The Cottage Cooking Club: August
Some of my cyber-friends participate in The Cottage Cooking Club, organized by my friend Andrea, the Kitchen Lioness. I’ve followed their cooking adventures for the past few months and have been tempted to join the party. This group is cooking vegetables in simple and delicious ways, as envisioned by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in River Cottage Veg. Andrea has kindly allowed me to participate as a guest this month, and try the group on for size.
I selected two recipes from Andrea’s August lineup: Quick couscous salad with peppers and feta (page 231) and Caramelized carrots with gremolata (page 355).
Quick Couscous Salad
In my typical fashion, I waited until the last minute to complete my challenge. When I picked the couscous, I didn’t realize that I would be making another couscous recipe last week. That’s a lot of couscous in the same week… This recipe (quick couscous salad) aptly named. It was very easy to make. The couscous takes just 5 minutes to cook. Then, you drizzle the hot couscous with lemon juice and olive oil. While it cools down, you chop roasted red pepper, a cucumber, and some red onion, mince some parsley, and crumble some feta. All the ingredients get tossed together, and you have the perfect salad for lunch! It was like sort of like a simplified Greek salad with couscous instead of lettuce. I enjoyed this couscous and look forward to trying the tomato-olive variation while I still have overflowing bowls of cherry tomatoes on my counter.
Caramelized Carrots with Gremolata
The carrots were completely different than the couscous. Young carrots (from my farm share) are roasted in butter and oil until they are tender and caramelized. The hot carrots are tossed with gremolata made from lemon zest, garlic, and a generous amount of parsley. I can’t believe that’s all there is to it. The presentation was gorgeous, so colorful! And, I had an excuse to pull out my carrot serving dish. I think this will make more appearances on my table, especially in the colder months. The carrots might not be as fresh in the winter, but the overall flavors will bring a needed ray of sunshine.
To see what other participants made this month, check out their links here. And, thanks, Andrea, for letting me cook along this month!
Posted on 28 August 2014, in Cottage Cooking Club, Summer CSA and tagged carrots, Cottage Cooking Club, couscous, salads. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
A Plateful of Happiness 
I’ve been tempted by this CCC group a few times. The recipes all look delicious, especially those carrots! But I just can’t imagine squeezing two cooking clubs into my schedule. Who knows, maybe if this one is still going when FFwD wraps up I’ll move over. I’m feeling a bit ambivalent about doing Dorie’s next book. On the one hand, I love this group, but on the other hand, I just don’t need that many desserts in my house!
Dear Betsy, thank you very much for taking the time to participate in the Cottage Cooking Club this month! I am delighted to see that you thoroughly enjoyed both the quick couscous salad as well as the caramelised carrots with gremolata (a personal favorite of mine)! Although I have not made the salad, it is on my list for the coming week – yours looks absolutely wonderful! And I love the bright color of your carrots, they get so sweet when prepared this week and the kids are crazy about that recipe!
Hopefully we were able to convince you to join us – thank you, again, for being such a enthusiastic “CCC Guest Blogger”!!!
Have a great weekend,
Andrea
Betsy, your dishes look wonderful and I’m so glad you enjoyed them. I made the same ones and both were huge hits. And if I owned that beautiful carrot serving dish, carrots would be on the table a lot more often!
Hi Betsy, I was eyeing both the couscous recipe and carrot recipe when first deciding what to cook this month and then decided upon the soup and tahini salad. Your presentation is wonderful. Welcome, It’s very nice to meet you!
Betsy!! I’m glad that you liked your recipes. I didn’t make the couscous salad (and if you remember, I was a bit overwhelmed with the FFWD one), and was supposed to make the carrots – I’m going to make them tonight, since they look wonderful and everyone that made them loved them.
I have to admit, 2 groups is a lot, but with this being vegetables, somehow it seems a little more doable. Definitely try the tomato bruschetta if you get the chance, it was my favorite, I think, and the easiest thing in the world to make.
Hope you have a fabulous weekend!!
Amazing the carrots tasted so wonderful, with very little prep and ingredients – my kind of recipe!
The carrots were wonderful, weren’t they? I wasn’t about to try the couscous salad, since we had it on the French Fridays schedule, too. I really enjoy this group, especially with the changes Kevin’s been making to his diet. I also like that it’s only a ten-month commitment.
Hi Betsy, lovely job! I must try those carrots as it appears they were rather a hit among the group in August. I didn’t try the cous cous mainly as I already make so many versions of this dish but it does look quite good. Have been preparing food for gatherings over the hoiday weekend so have been so eager to finally get to see what everyone prepared! Thanks for sharing, see you this month on the Cottage Cooking Club!
What a pretty carrot serving dish! I’m glad you tried out CCC this month, and liked both of the recipes. It’s really been a great cookbook so far.