Christmas Feast at River Cottage Axminster

My  first experience of River cottage was when I attended a bloggers cookery day there last year. It was an amazing experience so I was well and truly excited when I was invited again to visit River Cottage for a special Bloggers Christmas Feast. 

As  soon as we had confirmation my two food blogger buddies Heidi Roberts and Manjiri Chitnis and I known to our friends as "The Three Musketeers" excitedly booked trains, accommodation and started to plan our two night stay. 
We like booking an extra night to make the most of the trip as the nearby Lyme Regis is so lovely as is all the Jurassic Coast.

Our accommodation for the two nights was Millwater House B&B, the owners Tim and Ruth are really lovely. Millwater House is set is set in a beautiful location with great views very close by to Axminster town . The bedrooms are  comfy and the cooked breakfast is absolutely delicious. On both our trips we have stayed at the same B&B and we love it. Tim is a gem and he even picked us up from the station and ferried us to and from River Cottage as there was a shortage of taxis.

There were approx 50 bloggers who attended the Christmas feast at River Cottage. Upon arrival we had welcome drinks and then we were free to wonder around the farm to check it out. 

Next we had a session in Brining by Andy one of the River Cottage Chefs. He showed us various techniques on the subject. Although mostly it was about brining meat he did say that you can also brine vegetables and gave me some great ides on how to brine cucumbers, courgettes and root vegetables that can served as condiments or in salads.

The evening carried on where the bloggers split into two groups and did some networking. This was the perfect opportunity to meat new and old faces and share ideas.

With the networking over it was time for the feasting. River cottage chefs had been busy all day so that we were served a magnificent Christmas feast. They had catered for all types of diets, vegetarians, non vegetarians, dairy and gluten free too.

We were served Kingston Black Apple brandy aperitif served with Canapés of Carrot hummus on rye bread, whipped goat’s cheese and beetroot marinated in cider vinegar, leek, mushroom and blue cheese croquettes with green tomato chutney and finally roasted Romanesco with Romanesco puree.

For the vegetarian starter we were served Ravioli with celeriac puree cooked with wild mushrooms, sage and served with salad leaves.

The main course followed which was parsnip and potato rosti with shavings of goats cheese, carrot puree and cabbage fried in butter and garlic.  It was served with haricot beans cooked with tomatoes, fennel and onions

The feasting continued with a wonderful dessert of Apple tart served with apple purée, apple crisps and apple rye & treacle crumble. There was also the option of honeycomb crème brûlée.

Finally when we thought we could eat no more we were enticed with coffee and chocolate orange truffles and spelt biscuits .The entire experience was a culinary delight and a very pleasurable one.

I was a guest at River Cottage, all opinions expressed in this post are my own as are all the photographs shown.
 To read Heidi's account of her experience do read her post here.