Competition: Total Greek Yoghurt's Recipe Competition

Hey guys! It's been a while since I announced another competition win isn't it? Well, this week, i won runner up in Total Greek Yoghurt's "Greek Inspired" Recipe competition, winning a months supply of Various types of Total Yoghurt! The winning recipe was my Briam, which you can find on the blog under "greek recipes".

They've sent me LOADS of stuff as well, the fruity yoghurts i'll most likely just be having for brekkie and with my packed lunch, but all the plain natural stuff, i'm sure i'll be coming up with inventive uses for it, many of which will be recipes i'll post up on this blog. Cheers Total!!

Recipe: White Chocolate, Pecan and Coconut Cookies

My new housemates love me! I baked a load of these yesterday, for many reasons. 1) One of our housemates was leaving, so it was something to have at the party for people to nibble on. 2) I gave around a dozen to our leaving housemate, to take to his new home/fiancee. 3) Brought another dozen over to my new-ish neighbours, kinda like a reverse American "Hi welcome to the neighbourhood"- more like "Hi, i've moved in next door and am really nice/awesome at baking so invite me to parties please! and  4) Might enter these into a competition, they are rather scrummy, and a little bit different. There are no raising agents in this recipe (as i didn't have any at home), but feel free to use self raising flour if you want a softer/cakier texture to the cookies.

White chocolate, Pecan and coconut cookies (makes 40)

320g sugar

3 medium eggs

250g butter

250g plain flour

180g chopped  pecans, chopped finely

200g white chocolate, chopped finely

250g dried shredded coconut

Pinch salt

1.       Preheat the oven to 200C (fan oven 180C). Melt the butter in a saucepan and set aside to cool a little. Whisk the  eggs and sugar together well (until white and fluffy), then beat in the melted butter.

2.      Add all the other dry ingredients and mix well until you have a fairly firm (but quite sticky!) cookie dough. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Roll 1tbsp amounts of cookie mix into balls and place evenly on the baking tray (leaving a little room for spreading).

3.       Bake in batches, for 14 minutes. Leave to cool slightly, and serve!

Competition: Morphy Richards Healthy Recipe competition

Hey guys. Morphy Richards is doing another fab recipe competition, to win an Intellisteam Compact! Their theme is healthy recipes or "recipes with a healthy twist". If you fancy giving it a go yourselves, you have until the 22nd February to go in for it by posting a healthy recipe on your blogs (along with the pic and link of course!). Check it out here:

My recipe with a healthy twist is my "Healthy Beef Stir Fry"- we all know how many calories and how much fat can be in our cheeky saturday night chinese takeaways, so how about making something with just as much flavour- that's a fair bit more kinder to our waistlines! This recipe uses lean beef and plenty of veggies, and keeps flavours high but calories low using ginger, fresh coriander, and a sticky soy based sauce. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Healthy Beef Stir Fry (serves 2)

2 tbsp oil
½ white onion, sliced
2 spring onions, sliced
1 red chilli, seeded and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp minced fresh ginger
300g sliced beef steak (rump is fine)
½ red pepper, sliced
100g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, peeled and finely sliced
1 celery stick, sliced
80g asparagus, diced
Handful chopped fresh coriander (plus extra for garnish)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp normal soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp toasted sesame oil
Pinch of white pepper
1 tsp corn flour, mixed with 100ml water
Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

1. Stir fry the onion, spring onion, garlic, chilli and ginger for 2 minutes. Add the beef and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add the vegetables and coriander, and fry for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the soy sauces, honey, sesame oil and pepper. Add this sauce, and the corn flour mixture to the pan/wok and cook for a further 3 minutes.
3. Season to taste, garnish with a load more fresh coriander, and serve!

Competition: Bernard Matthew's "Chef Inspired" Winter Recipe Competition

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while- with all the whirlwind of Christmas and the huge amount of University work and pressure, I just havent had any type to relax and keep up with the blog lately. Aaaanyway, so just before Christmas, I won this marvellous competition Bernard Matthew has been holding for chefs. For each season, professional chefs were supposed to come up with innovative and delicious recipes for turkey. My Winter Turkey Casserole with Leek Mash won, and I received £100 Russums (a caterer- check out their site at http://www.russums-shop.co.uk) vouchers, a branded Craft Guild of Chefs' set of chef whites, and a whole load of turkey! Bootiful!!!

Was very proud of it, heres the blurb they wrote about it all as well, sounds so professional:

Our new Chef Inspired section is a collaboration of delicious seasonal turkey recipes, tips and techniques from expert chefs from across the industry, compiled to help you make the most from British turkey in order to create profitable, tasty turkey dishes for use on menus all year round.

‘’This season’s winning British turkey recipe is Turkey and Winter Vegetable Casserole with Leek Mash, brought to you by Melanie Booth, chef at Bath’s Cosy Club. The dish was chosen by the Craft Guild of Chefs from scores of submitted recipes as a ‘gloriously hearty dish that would work well on winter menus.’ CEO of the Craft Guild of Chefs Martin Bates said: “This is a really comforting winter recipe, and just reading the ingredients makes your heart and tummy warm,” he said. “The use of leek in the mash makes the perfect accompaniment.”

So without further ado, here's the winning recipe!!

Turkey and Winter Veg Casserole with leek mash (serves 4)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 knob of butter
1 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh rosemary, sprigged and finely chopped
800g diced raw turkey breast
2 parsnips, peeled and diced
4 carrots, peeled and diced
500ml chicken stock
1 tbsp Worchester sauce
2 tbsp corn flour, mixed with a little water
Salt and pepper to taste.

750g potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large leeks, diced.
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
60g butter
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Fry the onions, garlic and rosemary in the oil and butter in a large casserole pan for 5 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add the turkey and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add all the other ingredients (except the cornflour), cover the casserole, and put in the oven for 1 hour.
3. Remove from the oven, add the corn flour, stir in well, and put back in the oven for 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, put a large pan of salted water onto the boil. Add the potatoes and cook until soft. In another pan, fry the spring onions (or leeks) for about 5 minutes or beginning to turn golden.
5. Drain and mash the potatoes, mix in butter, the cooked spring onions, fresh parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Serve the casserole with spring onion mash.

*For caterers, the casserole and mash can be cooked seperately, then microwaved for 2 minutes and served with eachother. The recipe is also very easily multiplied and can be cooked in large batches

Recipe: Italian Meatballs with Cirio Sauce

Hey guys. So I won a lovely little prize draw, from My favourite recipes (who i still write for) and Cirio- an Italian food company. I got sent a lovely tomato hamper- with these sorts of products in it: tinned tomatoes, tomato sauces, pizza sauces, tomato puree, and a few other bits and bobs.

Both me and the boyfriend have been lucky lately actually- Nicky won a hamper too! He won a hamper from New covent garden- a lovely fruit, veg and nut collection just in time for Christmas! These meatballs are scrummy- my tip for the perfect meatballs, is whiever "flavour" you make them with herbs and spices (e.g. spanish, spicy, scandinavian etc.) use half pork and half beef mince. The fat in the pork keeps the meatballs moist, and the beef gives them rich flavour. If you can't get cirio tomato, garlic and herb sauce- just use your favourite pasta sauce.

Italian Meatballs with Cirio Sauce (serves 4)

250g pork mince
250g lean beef mince
1 very finely chopped red onion
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Handful fresh basil, chopped
1 egg
50g breadcrumbs
½ tsp dried mixed herbs
¼ tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper (plenty of!)

4 tbsp olive oil
1 jar Cirio garlic and herb tomato sauce
400g spaghetti

1. Mix together all the meatball ingredients, shape into medium sized meatballs (makes about 30) and put on a plate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C. Put a pan of salted water onto the boil for the spaghetti. In a large frying pan (you will probably have to do this in batches) fry the meatballs on a high heat, stirring often, for 8 minutes. Put the meatballs in a baking dish and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
3.Heat up the tomato sauce, drain the pasta, and serve the meatballs and sauce over the cooked spaghetti with whichever garnishes you might fancy (grated parmesan/cheese, freshly chopped herbs, extra virgin olive oil, cracked black pepper, etc.).

Competition: Red Tractor Assurance Recipe Competition

Hey guys, sorry I havent posted in a while, it's just i've got this mahoosive scary assignment that i've just only just manage to finish now (the day before the hand-in date) so i've had to really focuss on my Uni stuff recently. Anyway, so you might have remembered me mentioning this competition a little over a month ago, and, well, it's all over now and I got second place! My Cider and Mustard Chicken, made with Red Tractor Farm assured ingredients, won me a pretty Aga Cast Iron oven dish, and a red tractor branded apron and tote bag.

To be honest, I should have got 1st place, it's all down to the fact that these people can't run a competition properly (people could vote unlimited times, and I was winning for the full 5 weeks of the competition just from normal votes, then on the last night of the comp someone spam voted their entry in order to win), but hey ho, never mind- 2nd place is still pretty fab anyway! Thanks to any of you guys for voting for me xx

Competition: Cider and Mustard Chicken - Red Tractor Assurance

Hey Guys! So 24th-30th of September was Red Tractor Week, a week where Red Tractor Assured Food standards ingredients were celebrated and shared in events all over the country! With this, Red Tractor have also created a recipe competition, where recipes including as many Red Tractor assured products were used in order to create a delicious dish, and to promote these wonderful good quality ingredients! I have submitted my cider and mustard chicken recipe, made with Red Tractor onions, chicken and somerset cider- Yum! The grand prize is a rather tantalizing set of aga cookware- which I would really love to win, so if you follow the link below, and share it in whichever way you like (adding to favourites, printing, sharing on facebook/twitter/pinterest etc.) that would be brilliant! Thanks guys!

Cider and Mustard Chicken - Red Tractor Assurance

Competition: TateOil's Summer Recipe Competition

Hey guys! So next competition in the line is TateOil's Summer Recipe competition. The company wanted everyone to send in their favourite summery recipes, in order to win the glam prize of a Kindle! I have entered both their last competitions and no luck yet, but I still think i'm in with a chance! There are 9 entries this year (including mine), and the voting closes on Friday 31st August.

If you guys could vote for my Parmesan Chicken with Pea Shoot Salad and Zesty Yoghurt, that'd be great, thank you!! The website is below:

http://www.tateoil.co.uk/blog/summer-recipe-competition-2012/

Travel: Dordogne Day Four

So today on the Cookinfrance Itinerary the group was supposed to spend all day in the kitchen, making a vegetable and poached egg salad, a tarte tatin, and searing the duck breasts (“magret”) that we had butchered off the ducks on the first day. However, we (I say “we”- I was a bit embarrassed so I got Nick to talk to Jim) said to Jim that basically, as I am a chef as my job back at home, I really didn’t want to spend my holiday in a kitchen (a bit of a bus-man’s holiday I suppose!) so we said that we would not do the cooking today and go out and explore the region- do some sight seeing. Any way, considering everyone else on the course was leaving Saturday morning, and we had to leave Friday morning (because that’d what Sudocrem gave us as a prize), loads of the prep-work during the week was for the “final meal” everyone was having on the Friday night. Which we of course weren’t going to be involved in, so we thought we’d leave everyone else to it.

So first of all we decided to check out “Le Regourdou Neanderthal site”, a site where it said in the guide book they had found the remains of pre-Neanderthal man, and also loads of bones of ancient animals. What also drew me to this attraction was the fact that is said there were real brown bears there!!! Awesome!! When we got there, every hour a guide took a group of people round the place, explaining in French as they went. We were given a guide thingy however that explained pretty much everything they were saying to the group in English. This place was amazing, and the story behind it crazy. Basically about 1km down the road, there was also a big attraction called “Lascaux caves” (which was a load of caveman wall paintings and things). When these “lascaux” caves were randomly discovered in the 50’s by four little boys walking in the countryside ( their dog got stuck inside the cave and when the boys tried to get him out, they ended up stumbling over all this cool stuff!)- a guy in a house nearby suddenly thought “Hey, I bet theres loads of this prehistoric stuff round here, maybe theres some stuff in my garden?”. So this guy dug MASSIVE holes and things in his garden for over TWO YEARS (notice theres no mention of this guy’s wife, lol, she must’ve given up in the end!!), without finding anything- then suddenly, he struck gold! He found a burial chamber (like a crude stone coffin thing) and inside this was the remains of a “Cro Magnol” man. Cro Magnol man is even older than neanderthal man. Not only did he find this intact skeleton, with loads of hunting trophies and flowers placed around him, but they found next to him the skeleton of an ancient MASSIVE bear! There is knowledge that many groups of prehistoric man worshipped bears, as they believed they were immortal (through not fully understanding their hibernation process) and it was believed the prehistoric men in this area were part of some sort of bear cult.

After this discovery this man continued his obsession with bears, and decided he would buy a couple of brown bears from a zoo in France, and then set up a pen for them in his garden! What a nutter! There were 6 bears there in total, all of which had to be seperated into three groups of two, because apparently if they kept them all together then the alpha male would kill the cubs/ the other males would all start fighting etc etc. However awesome it was to get so horrifyingly close to these cute looking but scary animals, I did feel really bad about the conditions they were being kept in. They were in really really small areas/pens and a lot of them were walking round in circles- a sign of an unhappy animal. I don’t think its right to keep animals in such confined spaces- there really was almost no room for them to walk around. In fact I would almost say that if this was in England I don’t think laws would have allowed those conditions. I hope maybe that the WSPCA find it and sort it out. I wrote a whole long big email to them when I got back but when I tried sending it to them it made me try and create an account with them and I was like, hey, screw you WSPCA, I’m trying to report a serious animal welfare problem and you won’t let me unless you have all my contact details and get me on your mailing list, wtf?

Anyway, slightly going off topic, but the dig site, museum, bears, and story regarding the whole site, was absolutely fascinating- and I really would recommend it.

Our next stop was the Chateau at jardins de Losse- a beautiful and historic 16th century chateau containing amazing period furniture, tapestries, and weapons- and also the gardens surrounding the chateau were superbly maintained. The stories about the gardens was that although the people that did conservation on the castle and the gardens didn’t know how the original gardens would have looked like in the 16th century- they studied drawings, paintings and tapestries all over France to see what was fashionable for gardens at the time, and based their designs on this. In the gardens were classic Italian style architecture and garden patterns (fashionable in France in the 16th century apparently) and plants that were popular during that era, often due to their scent- there were many roses, lilacs, honey suckles etc. There was also a cool (perhaps with a bit more modern interpretation!) bamboo maze that after I went into I figured was designed for little children, as it was very small and the pathways very little. Cute though.

We found out half way through the guided tour (again spoken in French, but were given an English guidebook) that we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the chateau, but Nick managed to get a few cheeky ones in before that- some of the Tapestries in this place were out of this world! After the guide, we decided to have our picnic in a cute little picnic area they had set up right near the chateau, on the way to a riverside walk. Doesn’t it look scrumptious! All these lovely things we bought from stalls and markets whilst we were on holiday, and a nice crusty baguette we had bought from a boulangerie whilst we driving through Montignac earlier on. Nicest picnic I’ve ever had in my life I think!

On our drive away from the chateue, we decided to stop off at a really cute little village called St Leon de Vezere, mainly because we noticed it had a post office, so we figured we’d have a relaxed drink at one of the little bars there and write our postcards. We found the prettiest looking café covered in foliage and I have a lovely relaxed drink here whilst looking at the scenery. Also we ended up chatting to this older guy (mainly because I noticed he had the most adorable dog) from Austria that I am seriously not joking sounded completely like a Bond villain. He was saying funny/nice things about being on holiday in the Dordogne region for about a week, and that nowadays the dog is in charge of him and his partner’s holidays, not the other way around, which was hilarious. But I still kept thinking about him saying “How long will you be staying here, MR BOND! “ Haha! It’s funny the random people you meet on holiday isn’t it? This place was the nicest little village with two lush looking restaurants and friendly people around though- the kind of place you love to accidentally stumble over when you are on holiday.

Our next and last stop (we were deciding which attraction to go to next and since this place shuts fairly late and looked quite interesting we chose this) was the Maison Forte de Reignac. This has got to be the most amazing and alive museums/sites I have ever been to IN MY LIFE. The site (a set of very high cliffs) had been inhabited 20,000 years ago by Cro Magnol man- and then was built upon and lived in up until the Renaissance! It had a great defensive position and the entire castle that had been built around the rocks had loads of defensive structural functions within it- like holes in the walls to pun canons through and slitted windows to shoot arrows from and things like that. The museum as I said before, felt so “alive”- even with all the period furniture, stuffed animals, and artefacts in all of the rooms (each of which had a very detailed and fascinating description of in the free English guidebook they gave us) there was also lit fires, lit candles, bubbling pots/stoves in the fireplace, and food hanging from the ceilings/ on the table. It felt like we were intruders into a Renaissance man’s house- you could completely imagine what it would have been like to live there during those times.

I couldn’t praise this attraction any more- this was the best part of our holiday, and one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen in my life. If you go anywhere in the south of France- find this place and check it out! You can’t let yourself miss it!

At the time we were visiting, the attraction also had an extensive exhibition on the history of torture. This is something that had been to L.A, London, Mexico, Italy, Spain, and loads of big museums around the world but during July this was currently being displayed at this place. MY GOD. You kinda think that things aren’t going to shock you anymore, because you hear terrible things on the news about murderers, and you watch horror films all the time- but this exhibition completely got to me. There were all these different ancient torture mechanisms all round this room with explanations as to how they would have been used- like iron maidens and guillotines and spiky iron chairs and things. What was messed up too was some of the descriptions said “and this is still used as a method of torture in south America” or “this is still used by the US secret services currently as torture for terrorists”. Makes us think how messed up we all are really- to have come up with some of these devices.

Also, I didn’t know this about the guillotine- first of all, that it was originally a Scottish invention, but then it just got popular in France when Mr. Guillotine brought it over. Secondly that the last person to be executed by guillotine was in France in 1977. I was like, wtf?? In the seventies?? So whilst all the Beatles and Motown was going on people in France were still being executed by guillotine!?!? Mental!! I think one of the most messed up ones in this exhibition (apart from maybe “the saw”- where they literally strung you upside down and sawed you right down the middle- and often you wouldn’t die until they got to the chest because the blood was all at your head) was something called “The Jock’s Mare”, pictured last. They would make someone sit on it, with weights on high legs, then make them rock back and forth. Eventually the person would die of infected….”down there” and essentially this thing would split this person in two.

See, I told you it’s all a bit horrible isn’t it?? After I came out I was all white and felt a bit shaky, I was like “Nick, can you buy me a cornetto or something, I need cheering up after all that dreadfulness!”. After this we decided to drive to our last location to have our final meal of the holiday- the little village of Les Eyzies. I have been mentioning all the fascinating prehistoric things all around the area- well the National Prehistoric museum is located in Les Eyzies, but of course it was shut by the time we got there. Amazing looking place though- the museum had been hulled out of the rock just like many of the castles and settlements in the area had been too. We bought a few goodies in a shop that was just shutting down (Nick bought some Foie gras to bring to one of his friends back home, and I bought an awesome 16 piece amuse bouche set for like 10 euros or something equally as absurd!) and then found a little restaurant to eat in.

I can’t remember the name of the restaurant we went to, but the food was 50% brilliant, 50% lame, and I suppose the service left a little to be desired. The waiter was horrifically attractive (haha!) but dreadful at waiting tables, we heard an Irish couple next to us saying “it’s like faulty towers here isn’t it?”. Very Manuel, but French. For starter nick had a goats cheese salad, and I had the soup of the day, which happened to be Sorrel. His salad was quite generous, rather simple but pleasant enough. My soup was incredibly boring actually- just tasted of….i dunno, you know when soup just tastes of “soup” and you can’t really pick out any distinguishable flavours? Certainly couldn’t pick up any sorrel from it. Rather disappointing, and a far cry from the beautiful pink garlic soup I had the night before.

Mains then went marvellously for me, but rather disappointingly for Nick. I ordered one of the specials, “Lapin” something something, which I knew was rabbit, so I thought I would give it a go. Turned out to be roast saddle of rabit, in a really delicious thick onion gravy, served with sweet red cabbage, sarladaise potatoes (not as nice as the potatoes at the restaurant last night- much more claggy) and “vegetables”- which I reckoned was some sort of cauliflower gratin thing but it was hard to put my finger on it. The dish was unusual but incredibly delicious, rabbit is a bit fiddly when it comes to bones but if it’s cooked properly is a fantastic meat, never dry, and comes off the bones easily. Nick’s main, Duck with cep mushroom sauce and fries (he had to go for that option again after last night I suppose!) was really disappointing. The duck was dry, it had not been served with much sauce at all as you can see, so when Nick tried to get the waiters attention to bring him more sauce, he just came back to us with a few mayo and ketchup packets, by which time the fries and duck had gone cold. Felt very sorry for Nick at the time to keep feeding him bits of my rabbit, haha. We did consider getting puddings (well, I did anyway!) but it took so long to get the waiters attention, we just went straight upstairs and paid for the bill. Which the staff got wrong and we ended up paying about 20 euro less. Their mistake I guess, if the service was that bad I wasn’t going to question them making a mistake on the cheque- that’s just them continuing their bad service and is utterly their fault.

Shame that our last meal wasn’t the best, but we had such a nice time on this holiday it didn’t dampen our spirits. We loved the Cookinfrance location, the villages surrounding the area, the fascinating museums and medieval villages scattered around the place, and we LOVED the food. We both thought that the Dordogne region was so jam packed with things to see that we will definitely will be coming back here again, perhaps to a slightly different part of it. We might have spent a bit of money- but it was still an amazing free holiday, a prize that was really worth it! Cheers Sudocrem, for introducing us (I would dare to say) to the nicest region of France!

Travel: Dordogne Day Three

Today was the day we were all going to visit the medieval town of Sarlat for their food market, something I had been thoroughly looking forward to when reading about the itinerary. Sarlat seems to be the biggest/ most well-known town nearest to where the CookinFrance location (Bombel) was. The market was so wonderful! Here we found many of the traditional items we had seen in the regional produce fair, such as the foie gras, walnuts and honey. There was also some brilliant cheese stalls, fruit and veg stalls, LOADS of places selling different types of cured sausages, deli stalls and much much more!

Me and Nick decided we would get a load of items to have a picnic the next day at some point, so we bought a big chunk of cheese with walnuts in, a couple of juicy nectarines, some scrummy pickled garlic cloves and marinated artichokes, and some yellow and red juicy looking cherry tomatoes. I also bought some nougat for my mum and then some yellow courgettes to bring back for myself and my parents (thinking that shops in Britain don’t sell them, although this year once I got back I realised that Sainsbury’s have started stocking yellow courgettes, and this has made me a very happy girl!). Ooh and I just remembered- bought a gert big massive pink head of garlic, and a pack of dried cep mushrooms to be used in particular recipes at some point this month. A regular foodie smorgasbord it all was! (yes I had to google how to spell that word….)

It wasn’t all about the food though, they were some funky little tourist shops around as well, and a few cool places selling sculptures and jewellery (I’m such a magpie when it comes to jewellery- I love shiny things!!). We found this cool glass-wear shop actually, that sold glass jewellery and animals (including v realistic looking spiders- eek!)made from glass, and you could actually watch the guy in a little booth thing blowing glass and turning it into things- was pretty cool!

We noticed loads of fab looking restaurants and café’s too, and food stalls selling regional speciality dishes (like the one below a rotisserie chicken stew served with “Sarladaise Potatoes”- potatoes, garlic and herbs cooking in copious amounts of duck fat- yum!) but we knew after the market we were all heading back to prepare lunch with everyone at CookInFrance, so me and Nick figured we might head back into Sarlat later.

When we got back “to the ranch” (lol!) we had another lazy lunch of baked camembert, with “rustic” croutons and raspberry jam. The camembert was baked in a hot oven with a bit of orange, garlic, rosemary and olive oil, until it rose up and began to brown nicely, and then we scooped that up with some croutons we had baked in the oven with some olives and slices of Parma ham chucked in.

After lunch and a bit of a siesta, Nick and I decided to check out another one of the local villages, to see what it had to offer. There was the option of doing some sugar craft with Jim and everyone but we decided we wanted to do some sight-seeing. We decided to stop of at a village called Montignac, as I suppose we had heard of the name before and thought there might be some historical things to see there. To be fair, the village was beautiful, I’ll give it that, but there was actually nothing to see there really. Theres a little church, and then theres this really cool looking big old building up the hill- with old signs up to it saying “tourist trail, but then when you get to the top theres just all these signs saying “private property”. I think someone must have bought it and doesn’t let anyone go near it any more. Bit disappointing to be honest- considering how many interesting things we saw the next day in such a short space of time, so if I were you (unless you want to rent a kayak, which they seemed to be doing a lot of there) then avoid Montignac, all a bit pretty-yet-dull.

Night was beginning to close in so we decided to drive back to Sarlat and find a place to eat. We really struggled to find a place where we didn’t have to have duck as a starter AND as a main (and I swear there was even a place that sold duck as a dessert- foie gras brulee!!) but eventually through the beautifully lit streets we found a lovely posh-ish little restaurant down one of the side streets called Le Petit Borie (A “Petit Borie” being a specific type of little stone building that you traditionally find in the provence region). I had one of the best French meals of my life here and if you are anywhere near the area you have to scout this place out. I realised googling it online now that is has loads of good reviews/ tripadvisor reviews, but of course me and Nick didn’t know this at the time, we just thought the menu looked lush, there was outside seating, and there was a nice french band starting up nearby.

We ordered the “traditional pink garlic soup” for starter, which was served to us from a tureen by the very friendly waiter there. He explained to us that in The Dordogne it is traditional that just after a good friend gets married, you take over to their home a big batch of this pink garlic soup as a gift. This stuff was smooth, creamy and bloody delicious!!! I wish they would have given me more actually it was Sooooo nice! But considering I bought a big big head of pink garlic back home with me I reckon I’m going to try and recreate the dish myself at home. We had a very nice glass of rose with this too, I’m a very happy girl here!

For mains I had the Duck Cassoulet- a type of French casserole, with many types of meat, white beans and often a breadcrumb topping. In certain regions of France (such as Toulouse) there will also be sausages added to the casserole. Mine had Confit duck, pork, and thick smoked belly pork in it, with delicious creamy flageolet beans. Was so warm and comforting! I had this with a side of sarladaise potatoes (I just had to order some after seeing them all cooking in the market square earlier in the day) and some side vegetables. Nick had the seared duck breast, with sarladaise potatoes, salad, and local wild cep sauce. Both of really loved our meal, and Nick admitted that this whole holiday was really changing his mind about duck- he thought he didn’t really like it before, because he’s a bit funny about having any fat on his meat, but he decided he was going to try duck much more often when we came back to blighty. He also loved the cep sauce- I tried a little and it was so rich and creamy and earthy- me and Nick are definitely going to have a go at making something similar with our dried cep mushrooms at home.

Dessert for me had to be a traditional crème brulee, and this ended up being completely massive (as if I wasn’t stuffed enough already!) but absolutely fabulous, and Nick’s pudding, well, I suppose was a little disappointing. He ordered a caramelised apple galette which sounded yummy but what arrived was thick soggy pancake with a load of squirty cream on it, but never mind though- the meal and the whole experience was stunning.

The lovely meal finished off the night perfectly, and after picking up a few free tourism brochures from around Sarlat we decided that we were really looking forward to doing more sight-seeing the next day.