Our visit to River Cottage

Forget plastic wrapped beige bakes. This place is about proper food with a pulse. River Cottage popped up on the radar and we felt like meeting a long-lost food soulmate.

Born from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s dream to live off the land and eat like it matters, the place is now a haven for soil focused farming, seasonal cooking, and planet friendly plates. Strong ethos, strong vibes. Same love for British growers (shoutout to our shared flour supplier Shipton Mill), same stance on food waste, same belief that flavour and ethics should hang out more often. 

This is not just a place with a pretty view. River Cottage is a working smallholding and cookery school teaching us gently how to eat and live better.

We were honoured to attend 'The Full River Cottage Experience'. Getting messy is our thing but no one ever told us how much fun it was going to be. We cooked, ate, giggled, wandered, ate again. This day left us full of good food and better ideas.

Here’s a little something we'd like to share with you from the River Cottage Chefs: Rough Puff Apple Strudel recipe worth rolling up your sleeves for. Pro tip: keep that pastry cold and double the batch. You’ll thank yourself later.

Rough Puff Pastry Recipe (makes about 1kg):

500g strong white bread flour (or 375g strong white and 125g fine wholemeal)
A large pinch of salt
250g cold butter, diced
About 250ml ice-cold water

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the diced butter and toss to coat the pieces in the flour. Add enough water to
bring the mixture together and form a dough; the butter should still be in small cubes, not mixed into the flour. Roll out the dough to a rectangle, 5mm thick, repeatedly turning the pastry and re-flouring it, as well as the rolling pin to prevent sticking.You should see big smears of butter running through the pastry. Fold one third of the pastry into the middle and the other third over the top. Turn the pastry 90° and roll out to a rectangle again, then repeat the folding.Wrap tightly in baking paper and place in the fridge to  rest for 45 minutes. (Use this time to make an apple compote for the filling)

Remove the pastry from the fridge and unwrap. Roll into a rectangle, fold and rest in the fridge as before; you should still have streaks of butter running through the pastry. Repeat this process of refrigerating, rolling and folding a minimum of 4 times but preferably until the streaks of butter have
disappeared. After the fourth roll, fold and chill, remove the pastry from the fridge, lightly flour a work surface and your rolling pin and roll out the pastry to your required thickness.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Bramley apple compote recipe (Makes about 800g):

2kg Bramley Apples or similar
50g butter
50g dark muscovado sugar
1 tsp black treacle
75ml double cream
A pinch of sea salt
20g demerara sugar
1⁄2 tsp ground mixed spice

Cut apples into 2cm cubes. Put the butter, sugar and treacle into a saucepan over a medium heat and heat until melted. Add the cream and a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Add the apples and cook until they start to soften, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely, otherwise the compote will melt the pastry.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle, roughly 25 x 15cm. Brush the outer 2cm with egg wash. Spoon the cooled down mixture evenly onto the middle of the pastry. Fold in the two short sides, followed by the longer sides to enclose the filling. Pinch the pastry edges together firmly to seal and them flip over onto the baking tray. In a small bowl, mix the demerara sugar and spice together. Brush the strudel with egg wash and immediately sprinkle the spiced sugar over the pastry so it adheres to the egg wash before it dries.

Score the top of the strudel at 2cm intervals, then place in the oven. Bake for 25–30 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot from the oven with custard or cream.

Happy Strudelling!