Cooking in Provence: Part 1

(I am feeling ambitious, and therefore decided to label this Part 1. Hopefully, my blog will guilt me into coming up with more recipes).

So here it is, my work of art made of the freshest produce of Provence. Also, repeated and enhanced twice in a row, so you get the photos of the best versions. :-)

1. The Salad

 Ingredients: made of awesome! But more specifically, I used cucumbers, shaved carrots, fresh mint, tomatoes, radishes and sheep feta (sheep cheese is ubiquitous here!)

The base is made of two types of salad:

Churly
(aka Spiky the Hedgehog)

Curly

If you happen to know Spiky's real name, in either English, Latin or Marathi, do please let me know in the comments.

      

The dressing is really basic: freshly squeezed lemon juice, sea salt and - of course - the star of any Provencal salad: olive oil. It is slightly surreal to buy stuff in the supermarket and realize that it's made only a few km from our place. We bought this little bottle of amazingness:







But in case we run out (a real possibility), our landlord has generously gifted us with another container of liquid gold:

And if we're really in a bind, I suppose we can always press our own, from our olive tree orchard!







2. The Meat

Marinade ingredients:

- freshly chopped tarragon
- Dijon mustard
- olive oil (but of course!)
- lavender honey

Then GRILL!

It came out delish, but just in case we messed up, we also bought these ready-to-grill skewers. From left to right: chicken (2), duck and quail. (Yes, quail!)

3. The Sidedish:

 - Marinated grilled zucchini

Marinade ingredients:
- olive oil (you guessed it!)
- minced garlic
- lemon juice

It's so good, it should be illegal! Wait! Why should it be illegal? It should be compulsory!



The Overall Result: Add all of the above to your plate, grab a baguette and pour some wine! (on the latter subject, I will do a whole 'nother post!)

Bon Appetit!