February in the Cottage Cooking Club brought one of my most-awaited recipes: Beet Soup! with horseradish cream! But it also brought a Cheesy Peasy Puff Turnover, and a Potato Rosti.
The beet soup is simplicity itself. I decided that this time I would actually roast the beets per the recipe, though I often pick them up pre-roasted and peeled. These were to roast with some fresh herbs, and whole garlic cloves that would then flavor the soup – so I thought I’d stick with the original, particularly as I was making this on a weekend.
Once roasted, cooled a bit, and peeled, the beets, and soft roasted garlic are simmered with some stock, until the flavors are allowed to blend, and everything is soft. Then it gets blended to a lovely, smooth puree. It’s checked for thickness, adding more stock as necessary, as well as seasoning with salt and pepper as required.
The soup is served with a simple horseradish cream – sour cream mixed with a good amount of either freshly grated horseradish, or prepared. This is such an amazingly gorgeous soup – and it’s delicious as well. Even quite good for you! I thought it would also be good with a dollop of whipped goat cheese, but the horseradish added another layer of flavor that was a great contrast to the sweetness of the beets.
The Cheesy Peasy Puff Turnovers were a bit of fun (and deliciousness). They really are made from pantry staples – frozen puff pastry, some frozen peas, and then whatever cheese you might have on hand, though the suggestion is for aged cheddar. The original recipe calls to make one large turnover, but of course, individual pastry servings are always fun, so I decided to make 4 pastries. Simply – you cut the squares of pastry, top with peas and cheese. Brush the edges with egg, seal them, and then use the egg wash over the top. The puffs get baked in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.
I paired the cheesy puffs with the soup for a lovely, filling lunch. Delicious together – or separately.
My final recipe of the month was Potato Rosti. This is something I’ve never made before and I thought they looked like they would be terrific. The recipe offered two options: the smaller ones as shown in the cookbook, or larger rosti that could be topped with a poached egg. That sounded too good to pass up! The trick to these is to lightly par-boil the potatoes and cool them before grating. The rest is pan-frying the shreds in clumps until crisp and brown.
I’m afraid I should have stuck with the smaller ones – I think that as a beginner, I would have had more luck. Tricky to turn over, tricky to get brown all over without the outside too brown… I served mine with the poached egg – it was quite delicious!! Well worth the effort, and it didn’t matter at all that it wasn’t perfectly shaped!
This was a very fun month of recipes, and I was thrilled that I was able to compete the three that I signed up for! Hurrah! Of course, the other members of the Cottage Cooking Club are often much more ambitious than I, and you can learn all about their recipe selections and success here.
dulceshome 
A great Post, Candy. You make me want to go to the market right now and buy some beets so I can make that soup. I have all the staples for the Puff Pastry/Pea/Cheese recipe but made the Green Onion Galette (on same page) instead. There’s a tale there and I’ll include it in my post. I like that you made turnovers. Perfect idea for me. I didn’t pick the Rosti this month but look forward to making it eventually. Frankly I think your Rosti with the poached egg looks absolutely delicious. I will be posting tomorrow.
This all looked amazing! Borsch is one of my very favorite soups so this beet soup is calling my name. I will be making it soon!! Thanks!
Dear Candy – I took the liberty of pasting your link to the CCC website, so that members who do not have fb, can come over for a visit to your lovely blog and comment!
Your soup looks divine and so much better than mine, I think I prefer beets in salads – although we really love beets around here, we are not used to eating them in the form of soup, a tad of an acquired taste, I guess. But I wholeheartedly agree with you on the Cheesy Peasy Puff Turnovers – they are utterly fabulous and such a great recipe to have on hand for a quick supper – I was thinking on serving them soon with a spicy tomato soup and I really like your pairing them with the beet soup. The Rösti, well, a bit of practice but that still will not alter the taste – yours looks wonderful with the egg on top. What I usually do when making large Röstis is to cover the pan with a heat-proof cake plate, turn, slide back into the pan and fry the other side, then slide onto the cake plate again, keep warm in the oven while making another one. Hope that helps.
Thank you for participating again this month,
Andrea
P.S.: I suppose your mailing address is still the same as it was for the FFwD Christmas card exchange – I am planning to send you all a little token of appreciation for having reached the one hundred recipes in Hugh´s book
Dear Andrea, thank you so much for taking the time to copy my link to the site. I intended to, just got sidetracked!!! I was probably busy being proud of myself for making the promised recipes and posting them! How silly that I enjoyed such a small accomplishment!
And yes, my address is the same. I will have to try your method for the rosti! I’m sure it would be very impressive. I hope to carve out some minutes so I can visit yours and the others’ posts!!!
Sent from my iPhone
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Hi Candy, love the color of your soup, looks delicious! Such a great idea to make the smaller turnovers, next time I make this I will do that. Have a great week!
I agree, it was a delicious month at CCC. The beet soup looks just lovely; I know you were looking forward to this one so I’m glad you enjoyed it. I too served the rosti with a poached egg – a most delicious combination.
What great choices! You’ve inspired me to try the beet soup and turnovers as my makeup recipes in March. I also made the rosti (and loved them). I somehow overlooked the idea of topping a large pancake with an egg. I will try that next time (and I could easily see topping a stack of them with an egg instead of struggling with one big one)!
I made two of the same recipes as you, and will be making the turnovers for our March selection. Can’t wait – everyone seemed to enjoy this one. The rösti looks delicious with the poached egg on top!