After unpacking I immediately got to work, finely slicing some tomatoes, mixed with a few leaves and some local olives and a light vinaigrette made the simple salad, the baguette was unbelievably fresh and reminded me of the baguettes they serve at Le Brasserie de Paris in my home town, Pretoria. All complimented with a bottle of local Viognier, a personal favourite of mine.
The chickens here are much older, and larger when they are slaughtered. The meat is slightly tougher/more chewy, but at the same time so much more flavorful! The chicken had been stuffed with provincial herbs, mainly thyme and rosemary and then slow roasted on an open rotisserie, very similar to what you'd find at a Lebanese pita joint, with the rotating slabs of meat, not quite sure of the name. All the chickens rotating in front of gas burners and not in a closed off rotisseries.
At the bottom is a bath of jus that is used to baste the birds and when we purchased the fowl were given an old, clean, mustard jar full of jus. A gravy basically, without the lumps and cloudiness of that horrible bisto gravy powder. So simple, not much done to it or the bird yet absolutely delicious!
I jointed the bird and carved the breasts away, placing it on a serving platter and then spooning over the jus. Served up With the salad and baguette it was light and healthy yet packed to the rafters with flavour!
To say the chicken was the best I have eaten, would be a gross understatement, the herbs had penetrated the meat perfuming it gently with hints of thyme and rosemary, yet never overpowering the natural flavour of the bird. The chicken was lean and large, instead of short and fat like you'd expect from a Woolies rotisserie chicken, with no fat on the bird.
The salad was incredible, the tomatoes tasted of summer, and with a little salt and some crushed black pepper were a meal on their own. The baguette cut into chunks with lashings of local farm butter was used to soak up the jus. Gastronomic heaven, again!
It's amazing to cook here, the ingredients are so fresh and flavorful, that very little work needs to be done to them, and respecting and honoring your ingredients, as corny as that sounds, is the name of the game. Keep it simple and you will be rewarded!
The meal was rounded off with some fresh bruschetta with the left over baguette and a ripe Brie that was oozing onto the plate. A great meal, and the perfect start to my exploration of this region.
We then had a walk down to the local bar to watch the French Top 14 final, I made sure to wear my Blou Bul trui, in support of the magnificent Bakkies 'The Enforcer' Botha and Danie 'Mr World Cup 2007' Roussouw. What a crap game of rugby, the ref was shocking, the French have no idea what a ruck is, but I digress. Their team lost, but we partied late into the night! Catching up on 8 months of life! Bliss!
The rest of the night got a bit hazy, and I'm sure I will feel it in the morning,
Till tomorrow, au revoir!
Matty
Lovely blog, Matt. Keep it up as it has all our mouths watering and our hearts pining for the south of France.
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