Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall´s " River Cottage Veg Everyday" - Leek and cheese toastie


Today I am starting a new project or rather series  - recipe by recipe, I am cooking and learning my way through a wonderful vegetable cookbook written in 2011 by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a welll-known British chef, TV personality, journalist, food writer and "real food" campaigner, known for his "back-to-basics philosophy". He is best known for hosting the River Cottage series, in which audiences observe his efforts to become a "self-reliant, downshifted farmer in rural England", his aim is to feed himself, his family and friends with locally produced and sourced fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs and meat.




For the first week of my somewhat ambitious project, I chose three recipes and I am starting today with "Leek and cheese toastie". I will try to prepare at least three recipes a week and post them either separately (like this week) or all together in one post - this will depend on the time available.

While I cook my way through this wonderful book, I will still post for the groups that I have participated in for over a year now and I will also still bake lots of European treats, just as I have been doing for the last year and a half now.

This series is meant to be an additional project aimed at cooking more vegetable dishes, learning new ways to prepare tasty and healthy dishes and share them with family and friends.




I will make an effort to use as much local, regional, organic and also seasonal produce as is resonably possible. However, for copyright reasons, I will not publish the recipes - maybe I can encourage you to buy this book and cook along with me - I certainly would not mind some friendly company!!!

When Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall notes that this recipe for Leek and cheese toastie is "perhaps the simplest and most mid-week-friendly" of all his "leek-based cheesy toast toppings" - he is right.

The delicious and easy topping consists of but a few ingredients, namely some good quality butter, sliced fresh leeks and fragrant thyme - cook gently for about 10 to 15 minutes and then all that is left to do is to stir in some double cream, simmer some more, fold in some grated cheese such as Cheddar, add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, then toast a few slices of sourdough bread (or other bread that you prefer), spread with the still warm topping and top with more cheese, then grill until golden - pure midweek deliciousness if you ask my family and me!




Thyme grows in my garden, fresh leeks can be easily found locally, the bread is from my favorite baker nearby and the cheese I used was Emmenthal. We were all more than pleased with this first vegetable recipe from the book and are looking forward to tomorrow´s recipe.

For those of you who own this book, the recipe can be found on page 202 of the English edition.

For this series, I will be using the British edition of "River Cottage Everyday Veg" by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published by Bloomsbury Trade (September 19th, 2011). Thers is also an American edition called "River Cottage Veg: 200 Inspired Vegetable Recipes" May 14th, 2013), as well as a German edition called "Täglich vegetarisch - Die schönsten Rezepte aus dem River Cottage von Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall" (January 30th, 2013).

30 comments:

  1. Yum! I am always looking for more vegetable recipes and with this series, I know I'll find something fabulous. Looking forward to future posts, Andrea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cathleen, thank you - I am looking forward to maybe providing a few incentives here and there to cook a few more vegetable dishes every day or whenever possible and time as well as the availabilitiy of fresh products makes it feasible.

      Delete
  2. I love this cookbook, and I've actually earmarked this recipe to try. I'm looking forward to your take on his recipes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beth, why not cook along with a few of the recipes with me - I would appreciate some talented company for this project.

      Delete
  3. I have the bread book, but never used it yet! I must remedy that soon, these toasts looks so tempting Andrea! Perfect appetizer for a gathering.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paula, I do not own the bread book yet but it is on my whish list for Christmas! Thank you for the kind comment!

      Delete
  4. These toasties look delicious. I am looking forward to your other posts as you cook your way thru the book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Geraldine, thanks for the nice comment - you might find a few new ideas along the way and it would be nice to have you follow along whenever possible! I always appreciate nice feedback and suggestions!

      Delete
  5. Ahhhhh, Thyme!
    These look "Out of the World" fabulous!
    YUmmmm. All I need now is a glass of nice red wine :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kim, such a kind commet - thank you so very much! The thyme is growing out of control in the garden, so this is a great way to use some of it!

      Delete
  6. What a great idea! We could certainly eat more veggies. I do love leeks so I am sure this would be excellent. Maybe I will check out the American edition. Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cindy, the cookbook is available either in print or as a kindle book - you might want to take a look at it - what really attracts me to this book is the fact that it is a vegetable cookbook, it has recipes with a short list of ingredients, the recipes call for fresh, seasonal products and the photography as well as the writing is delightful!

      Delete
  7. Well, what a positively wonderful project. I tried it once with a dessert book, but it quickly got out of hand. Your project, with its dedication to local and good food - i.e. veg, is a much smarter idea all the way around. I do not know the food writer you mentioned, but I will become acquainted through your site. I look forward to your future postings. Press on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adri, I really appreciate the encouragement - considering that the book contains about 200 recipes and I have prepared about 10 recipes in one week already, I keep telling myself that I can do this - the only concern I have is that I might run out of seasonal ingredients in winter, so I am trying to make all the summmery dishes as soon as possible. Thank you for the lovely comment, dear friend!

      Delete
  8. Andrea, I love the way you imposed the botanical silhouette onto the first pic.
    And this toast looks crazy delicious. I love leeks! Looking forward to hearing more
    about what you find in your new cookbook. xo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Colette, so very nice of you to notice the botanical silhouette on the first pic - that feature is supposed to become a kind of "recognisable feature" of this series. Hopefully it will all work out and thank you kindly for the nice comment!

      Delete
  9. Hi Andrea, you've started such a wonderful healthy project: well done.
    I love your style of writing and photographing: your blog is a pleasure to read.
    PS: I had a look at the book on Amazon and wow: I love the spinach and thymes pastries.
    Shall I put it on my Xmas wishing list, as well?
    Liebe Grüsse
    Carola

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Liebe Carola, ganz herzlichen Dank für deinen lieben Kommentar - es freut mich immer von dir zu hören und heute abend besuche ich mal deinen schönen Blog - you should definitely add this lovely vegetable cookbook to your Christmas whish list (I received it as a birthday gift this month) and then cook along some of the dishes with me - that would be fun! Thanks again for the lovely comment und liebe Grüße aus dem sonnigen Bonn!

      Delete
    2. I didn't have to wait until Christmas, dear Andrea. I've just bought it at Amazon.co.uk for £ 5.00!!! You can imagine how happy I was when I saw the book on their "sales newsletter".
      So now, if you were me, with which recipe would you start? You have become THE expert ;-)
      All the best, dear Andrea.

      Delete
    3. Carola, you got unbelievably lucky then - I am quite pleased that you actuallybought a copy of this wonderful book - my kids loved the veggies dishes that I prepared so far from this book and so did my husband. My suggestion is to just follow my lead and start with these absolutely lovely "Leek and Cheese Toasties" - maybe you even get to use a few slices of one of your wonderful homemade breads for these! Thank you for letting me know that you got a copy of the book - maybe you could share some of your experiences as you cook the recipes?! I would appreciate that!

      Delete
  10. I haven't seen this book but I have watched some of the tv series and love it. Good luck with your project I look forward to seeing the results. These toasties look absolutely delicious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen, well, then how about cooking some of the vegetable dishes with me, Karen - I am still looking for some friendly company to cook along some of the dishes with me!

      Delete
  11. this looks like a delicious, healthy alternative to pizza Andrea. I love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris, healthy and hearty and delicious with the seasonal tender leeks that I found at the market!

      Delete
  12. This book is new to me - but it sounds wonderful. And what a great project! I look forward to the series - and will look into getting the book. The leek and cheese toasties look so wonderful, especially with your photos! Danke! ~ David

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David, maybe I can convince you to participate in some of my posts - it would be lovely to have some company while cooking these 200 or so recipes. It seems like a lot right now but I am happy to say that I have alreday prepared a good dozen of them this week. You would like this vegetable cookbook - I am sure - the style is "European" and "back-to-basics", meaning that the recpes can certainly be prepared every day, fresh. Just good, healthy fare.

      Delete
  13. I know I will enjoy this series that you will be doing as I do all your other endeavors. I love how you imposed the herb silhouette onto your photo...it will be a lovely indicator that the post will be from your new series. The toasties would be wonderful for a light evening meal. Karen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen, makes me happy to read that you are enjoying this new series of mine - I will try to add a botanical silhouette to the first picture of each post to "indicate" that it is part of the series, hopefully you will have a chance to follow along.

      Delete
  14. Ok, Ms. Kitchen Lioness, I have just purchased the American edition of this cookbook and look forward to reading all your recipes and even making some. Everything I read about this man and his cookbooks is very good. (I had never heard of him.) Your Botanical print on your first picture is gorgeous and I suspect you used masking but I cannot see how you did it. It's just beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary, now that you have purchaesd the book, how about some co-posting?! I would love to make one or the other recipe with you and post about it - it is a wonderful book and from what I underfstand, the recipes in the American edition bear the same page numbers as the UK edition that I am using. Be that as it may, the title of the recipe should be the same, so the dishes are eaay to find in the book
      HFW is quite the personality, isn´t he - I love what he does and I love his books - I do really appreciate the fact that these recipes come together in no time and are always so tasty and crowd pleasers at our house.
      Glad that you like the botanical prints on my pictures - honestly, it takes more time getting them on the pictures than it takes to put a post together - but I love these vintage prints and I so wanted them to be the "hallmark" of my veggies series.

      Delete