We are winding down to the last few days of the tour, oh what will I do next week. I go through a little Post Tour Depression when it is over every year. But this year has been extra great since I have been cooking along with the Tour.
The Tour today started in Italy, they have been there since Sunday and yesterday was a rest day. So they took off from Cuneo riding over two huge mountains and then arrived back into the Provence town of Jausiers.
Another great cookbook is the Provence Cookbook by Patricia Wells, she is expert in the world of French cuisine and a teacher with classes in Paris & Provence. How wonderful would it be to go to France and take classes with Patricia Wells and Anne Willan.... I will happily take donations for my cause....
So for dinner I made Fricassee de Poulet a l'Ail et a l'Ail Confit or Fricassee of Chicken with Garlic and Sweet Garlic Confit. I started the Sweet Garlic Confit the night before, it was 5 heads of garlic that needed to be pealed. I learned a little trick from Martha to make that a little easier. Bowl some water, throw in the cloves the garlic for a few minutes. Then drain the water and put into a bowl. With a bowl just a little smaller put inside of the other bowl so you have made a bit of a circle with the two bowls and shake, shake, shake. It will help get all of the outside off of them so that you aren't pealing 40 cloves of garlic.
The rest of the process for the chicken was very easy, just brown the chicken in butter and olive oil with salt and pepper on the chicken. After it has been browned on all sides take out and then throw in the 20 other cloves of garlic,put the chicken back in and cover tightly for 20 minutes. After that take the chicken and garlic out and then put in the Sweet Garlic and white wine and cook down and crush the garlic into a paste.... Oh so good!
Along with the chicken I made Les Pommes de Terre du Max Haut also from Patricia Wells. They are your basic roasted potatoes and I make something like these all the time, but these were so crispy outside and tender on the inside. Wonderful!!!!
