A Week in Provence Part Two

Cooking School – Les Carmes

No, I did not go to cooking school. Primarily because when I emailed my mom to ask her to sign me up for it a few months ago, her reaction was: “YOU want to go to cooking school? Did you fall down and hit your head?” I think she deemed it a waste of money to spend on me – so instead she and five other ladies went, and the rest of us got to enjoy the delicious fruits of their labour!

As I can’t recall the step by step process that went into creating this delicious meal, I can recount for you the starter of the meal which included one of the best things I have ever tasted.

After a nice glass of champagne and a chat in the lovely outside sitting area by the pool, our candlelit meal started with a started of pan seared scallops and baked prosciutto. As I’ve said before, I am a huge fan of seafood as long as it’s fresh, and these two scallops were not only fresh but they were massive and cooked perfectly. Placed ever so delicately over the top of the scallops was something I’d never seen before: prosciutto baked to a perfect crisp which was very thin and had a similar consistency to American bacon.

According to the women who were in the cooking school, they placed the strips of prosciutto on a baking sheet and placed another baking sheet on top of that to ensure a perfectly flat and very crunchy, salty piece of prosciutto. This was served over pureed peas which were salty and creamy, and it was perfectly cooked. The crunchy prosciutto mixed with the soft and never chewy texture of the scallops was to die for. I may or may not have finished off someone else’s plate of it…

The cooking course was hosted at a bed a breakfast owned by an English family and was fabulous. The town, La Sur la Sorge, didn’t have much else going on, but I would recommend to anyone who does the course to stay over night in the hotel because as true to English custome, they will provide you with plenty of wine.

Local Market in Gordes

To wrap up my holiday eating for 2009 (all good things must come to an end), I want to recommend that anyone who ever visits Provence makes a trip to the local market in Gordes. It is a food lover’s dream. And I found that although it was busy, the atmosphere mixed with the gorgeous views made for a much nicer experience than some of the markets in London. As I made my way through this market, it was easy to indulge in all of the samples given out by the vendors and I found that most of the people who worked the stalls were very pleasant, which was a nice change to a lot of the other markets and restaurants we visited in France. We hit the stalls with all the basics – cheese, sausage, bread, olives, fresh fruit and a bit of sweet nougat – and enjoyed a picnic with ice cold rosé wine which was bottled at one of the market stalls. I hope you enjoy a look through some photos of the best stalls at the market…