No amount of garlic is too much garlic!
This morning to yoga in the village of Bouteille. In the afternoon, Pinky took us kayaking down a small river, only navigable at this time of year when the winter rains fill the water course high enough. I had managed to borrow some sailing gear so I was reasonably protected from the cold water, but because I had only brought one pair of shoes to the Dordogne, which I thought it best not to get wet, I got in the kayak barefoot. The journey from St Vincent Jalmoutiers to St Aulaye took longer than expected as the river wound its way around the hills and more than once we had to stop and portage the canoes past obstacles that could not be cleared with a saw or negotiated with the boats; it was nearly dark by the time we made it to the van that we had left by the side of the weir. When we got back to the house, the kitchen was already warm with the smell of dinner: a classic recipe of chicken stuffed with half a kilo of garlic and then surrounded in the roasting tray by half a kilo more. This assemblage of alliums might sound frightening but the end result is delicious, the garlic cooks down to a sweet, rich taste and the chicken takes on a deep aroma. There was quite a good discussion of the recipe on Radio 4's truly excellent food panel programme 'The Kitchen Cabinet' (click for link).
For dessert, another classic: tarte tartin, a warm tart of caramelised apples, cooked upside-down with puff pastry on top and then turned out onto a plate—true comfort food. I'll post a recipe for this soon. Lulu's daughter Poppy had bought some delicious wine from a recent trip to the Rickety Bridge Vineyard in South Africa to wash it all down!
Dinner: Roast organic chicken with a kilo of garlic, followed by my absolute favourite, tarte tartin.