Cooking in Cahors: Green Onion Dressing on Bitter Greens, Chicken with Rosemary

It makes me happy to putter around the kitchen and use whatever ingredients I have on hand to come up with a makeshift meal.

I find a sense of contentment in this task and find it more fulfilling than having a recipe to follow and the most costly ingredients. Perhaps this makes me a peasant in the kitchen. So be it.

On hand were truffle oil, some very fresh green onions and some seasonings. The sun was shining, the birds were chattering and the village church bells were ringing. I set to work.

I chopped three onions and set them aside. I poured a small amount of truffle oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar into one of those little French yogurt jars. I added the onions, and set the dressing aside for an hour or two, then added a dash of sea salt and some freshly ground pepper. I used this on some bitter greens for a simple salad.

I snipped rosemary from the herb garden. Even at noon, the breeze smelled of wood fires. This adds a bit of magic to the whole process.

I sliced onions and put them in the bottom of a buttered casserole dish, layering rosemary, chicken breasts and small red potatoes. Another layer of rosemary, some sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and they went into a preheated oven.

It was a simple meal, and we washed it down with an inexpensive white table wine.