If you like gutsy food, take inspiration from Provence
Purple lavender stretches as far as the eye can see, and the heat dries your throat to sandpaper. This could only be Provence, land of herbs: heady, sticky, oil-rich bunches of sage, rosemary, fennel and tarragon. Flavoured butters - where the cow meets the olive grove - are popular throughout the region. They are made with garlic, basil, saffron, olives or anchovies, and all of them lift a grilled chop to greatness.
We may have welcomed olive oil with open mouths, but we are too inclined to forget tapenade, have totally overlooked the joys of brandade de morue - a salt-cod paste, or dip - and shy away from the awesome power of aioli. Yet these quintessentially Provencal foods are the kind of gutsy cuisine we claim to enjoy.
The area also gives us bouillabaisse, the world's most famous - and argued over - fish stew, and bourride, another fishy stew, which, like its grander cousin, is served in separate bowls, broth to one side, fish to the other.
Not all seafood is served in liquid, of course, and Provence also adores the likes of grilled sardines or herb-stuffed and roasted John Dory. Parcels are popular, too - either fig leaves or, more mundanely, grease-proof paper - to create fish en papillote, cooked with vegetables and herbs, the steam, when you open the packet, heady, rich and clean, all at the same time.
Recipes serve four
PROVENCAL FISH SOUP WITH TRADITIONAL ACCOMPANIMENTS
1 tbsp finely chopped shallot
1 leek, trimmed and finely chopped
1 small bulb fennel, trimmed, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
olive oil
1kg mixed fish (eg monkfish, sea bream, hake)
500ml light chicken stock
1 strip orange peel
pinch saffron
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 bay leaf
4 slices good country bread
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped
handful good breadcrumbs
Gently saute the shallot, leek, fennel and parsley in three tablespoons of olive oil for five minutes without colouring. Add the fish, gently colour in the oil and cover with the stock. Add the orange peel, saffron, fennel seeds and bay leaf and bring gently to the boil. Simmer for five to 10 minutes, or until the fish is cooked. Remove the fish and keep warm. Boil the broth down for five minutes.
Fry the bread in olive oil until golden brown and allow to drain.
For the rouille, crush the garlic and chilli in a pestle and mortar, with a seasoning of salt and pepper, to form a smooth paste. Moisten the breadcrumbs with a little of the simmering stock and squeeze dry. Add this to the garlic mixture and work together to form a thick paste. Drizzle in 150ml olive oil in a steady stream, as you would for mayonnaise.
Divide the fish among four deep plates, ladle over the stock, top with a slice of fried bread and drizzle the rouille over it.
CHICKEN PROVENCAL
100g pancetta cut into lardons
1 tbsp finely chopped shallot
100g chicken livers, trimmed
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 glass white wine
100g stoned black olives
1 tbsp well-rinsed capers
1 chicken
Gently saute the pancetta, shallots and chicken livers in four tablespoons of olive oil for five minutes. Add the garlic, parsley and anchovies and continue cooking for a further two minutes. Add the white wine, allow everything to bubble up, turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes, or until the livers are cooked. Remove from the heat and add the olives and capers.
When the mixture has cooled, stuff it into the chicken, which you should then truss, rub with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in a preheated oven at 180 degrees/gas four for an hour. Start with the bird breast side down, basting two or three times during cooking. Turn breast side up for the final 20 minutes.
Scoop the stuffing out, roughly chop the chicken - this is no time for fine carving - and serve with the olive-and-liver stuffing.
(Anchovy fillets are far better bought from delicatessens, which stock tins of them in salt instead of in oil, than from supermarkets. Rinse off the salt, soak for an hour or so in lots of cold water, then proceed. The same is true of capers: buy in salt, then rinse and soak for an hour or two in plenty of cold water.)