River Cottage Every Day

British iconoclast and sustainable food champion Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall goes back to basics in the newest addition to his series of award-winning River Cottage books. In River Cottage Every Day, Hugh shares the dishes that nourish his own family of three hungry school-age kids and two busy working parents — from staples like homemade yogurt and nut butters to simple recipes like Mixed Mushroom Tart; Foil-Baked Fish Fillets with Fennel, Ginger, and Chile; and Foolproof Crème Brûlée.

Hugh brings his trademark wit and infectious exuberance for locally grown and raised foods to a wide-ranging selection of appealing, everyday dishes from healthy breakfasts, hearty breads, and quick lunches to all manner of weeknight dinners and enticing desserts. Always refreshingly honest, but without sermonizing, Hugh encourages us to build a close relationship to the sources of our food and become more involved with the way we acquire and prepare it. But he doesn't shrink from acknowledging the challenges of shopping and cooking while juggling the demands of work and family. So, while Hugh offers an easy recipe for homemade mayonnaise, he admits to having a jar of store-bought mayo lurking in the fridge, just like the rest of us!

Including helpful and encouraging advice on how to choose the finest meat, freshest fish, and most mouthwatering fruits and vegetables, River Cottage Every Day shows us that deliciously prepared and thoughtfully sourced meals can be enjoyed every day of the year.

"Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall's newest edition to the River Cottage series focuses on the recipes he cooks at home for his family. He sees our food culture as a continuum, with those who are thoroughly involved with the story of their food on one end and those who are entirely dependent on anonymous, industrially produced food on the other. His object, he says, is to help people move along in the direction of 'more engagement with real fresh food, away from dependence on the industrial food machine.' Chapters include 'Making Breakfast,' 'Daily Bread,' Weekday Lunch (box),' 'Fish Forever,' 'Thrifty Meat,' 'Vegetables Galore,' 'The Whole Fruit,' and 'Treats.' Fearnley-Whittingsall's anecdotes about the recipes his kids make for their breakfasts (pancakes, oatmeal, tomato toast) and the lunches he packs for his wife (sardine nicoise, frittatas, slaws) hit home. The fish chapter focuses on sustainable species (and the intro outlines why you should avoid others). The meat chapter, interestingly, deals only with 'secondary cuts,' and offers intriguing yet homey recipes for neck of lamb, venison and pork burgers, oxtail stew, and spring chicken broth, to give cooks the confidence to open up new avenues and reduce waste. Throughout this wonderfully illustrated book, Fearnley-Whittingsall's passion is palpable, his genuine, spiritual love of food inspiring. (Mar.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright PWyxz LLC)

"A crowd-pleaser....The past few years have delivered a library's worth of 'quick-easy-thrifty' cookbooks. Global economic crisis will do that, and from Britain, where pulling your socks up in the face of austerity is a matter of patriotic pride, we have new books in this vein by Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, and even the late Elizabeth David. A surprising one is River Cottage Every Day, an accessible collection of recipes from the farmer-cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Compare, for instance, Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Meat Book, which opens with a photo essay depicting the slaughter, skinning, and sawing in half of a cow. River Cottage Every Day, by contrast, begins with a photo of the author scarfing honey-smeared bread....Fearnley-Whittingstall is, at heart, a philosopher, and these new recipes make a case for approaching daily cooking with intention — or, as he puts it, finding 'things to savor and share that don't just fill up, but make us feel good.'" Saveur, March 2011

"Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes are the solid, no-nonsense kinds of dishes you want to eat again and again." Bruce Aidells, author of The Complete Meat Cookbook

"There is more cooking know-how in Fearnley-Whittingstall's little finger than you will find in the graduating class of any cooking school in the country." NPR.org

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a renowned British writer, broadcaster, farmer, educator, and campaigner for sustainably produced food. He has written six books, including The River Cottage Meat Book, the 2008 James Beard Cookbook of the Year. Hugh established the River Cottage farm in rural Dorset, England, in 1998.

Introduction 8

Making breakfast 20

Daily bread 60

Weekday lunch (box) 90

Fish forever 136

Thrifty meat 178

Vegetables galore 248

The whole fruit 330

Treats 368

Index 406

Acknowledgments 415