Bonjour : )
Who else gets to indulge their passion for travel, love of food and hankering for new experience in a work trip?? I am soo LUCKY! It’s at times like this I remember why I really love my job.
Sorry for the late post this week but I was across the channel in France oui oui. I will make it up to you guys. I got to stay in a lovely chateau in a village called Rue and the grounds were unbelievable. The weekend was packed full of so many activities, from a visit to a wheat factory to a goat farm that included a small workshop on goat’s cheese making. I also got to hold some adorable little fellas that were only a few days old…
… Jealous right?
I also threw myself into the cuisine fully and tried frogs legs. They were lovely but very small, you’d have to eat a fair few to come close to a starter portion! I also tried an escargot… yup that’s right, an as in one singular and escargot as in snail. Now I had gone to France adamant I was not going to try it but I was gently dared by the Chateaux manager and I caved. I’m a soft touch I know!
Ok, so the snail tasted surprisingly nice, it was buttery and garlicky BUT I could not get past the fact it was a snail and it was in my mouth…GAHHHH. Nevertheless I swallowed it, round of applause for me : ) I tried it and it’s done. I probably wont do it again but I appreciated the opportunity (in hindsight at least but that still counts right?)
What my weekend in France did remind me of though was my absurd love of garlic. You may notice it is in 90% of my savoury recipes haha. So, I decided to carry out some experiments and see just how much I can do with such a cheap flavoursome ingredient. Have you ever tried any of the cloves of garlic you may have had in with your roasties? If not, you should OH MY WORD! They are delicious, very sweet and aromatic without the bite you sometimes get with raw garlic. 
Dish one of garlic fest then? I went for a garlic and thyme risotto. I am a risotto fan, its easy to do and also find it quite therapeutic stirring the stock into your rice as the grains greedily swallow up any excess liquid… weird I know. Anyway, I slow roasted the cloves of garlic with some thyme and chilli in a bit of olive oil before squeezing the cloves out as my risotto base. For those of you who can’t eat a dish without meat try adding some shredded chicken towards the end to heat though. That should give you your fix!
Check out the recipe and let me know what you think x
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