On my travels I had a great time exploring and enjoying delicious French food. If you saw Top Chef Master’s last night you got a taste of how serious French chefs are. Their training is like the military; structured, no-nonsense, all about technique, full of pride. A lot of my meals in France contained tarragon, a classic French cooking favorite. No stranger to Irish cuisine, its taste is similar to anise and licorice and is often combined with fresh parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil, otherwise known as fines herbes. Besides it’s unique taste, tarragon has a long history of health benefits, such as treating stomach cramps as a digestive aid while promoting a healthy appetite. Gotta love it when your food does double duty.

I was inspired by the tastes of France to liven up an American staple, the burger. These are made with ground chicken, an excellent low-fat alternative to high-fat mince. Having a barbecue? Try them as sliders. Don’t stop there–continue the Mediterranean journey with a mixed green & fennel salad. Can you tell I’m ready to go back?

BURGER RECIPE:
Serves 4

4 x 4-6 oz burgers (approx 1-1½ lb) ground Organic chicken
¾ cup red onion – small dice
1 large garlic clove – minced
2 tbsp fresh tarragon – chopped
½ lemon – zested
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
low-fat cheese (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
In preheated (medium low heat) sauté pan, sauté red onion in 2 tbsp olive oil for 1 minute, stirring. Add minced garlic and cook for another minute. Remove from heat and let cool.

Once cooled add onions to chicken along with chopped tarragon, lemon zest, mustard and S&P.
With clean hands, mix well. Roll burgers into 4-6 oz sized burgers.

This can be done ahead of time and refrigerated.
Remove burgers from fridge 30 minutes before cooking to let them return to room temp.

Preheat a large griddle and cook each burger for 3-4 minutes each side until cooked through. Of course you can fire up your grill for these as well. Serve with low-fat cheese on top and you’re off to the races.

NOTE:
This is also a great party idea or if you’ve got a group of friends coming over.
Simply sear the burgers for 1 minute each side and then finish in 425F/220C oven for 4 minutes until cooked through. By doing the burgers this way you can feed more people at one time and keep them sweet!

MIXED GREEN SALAD WITH SHAVED FENNEL AND GOAT’S CHEESE RECIPE
Serves 2

2 cups mixed greens
½ fennel bulb– thinly sliced and put in an ice water bath to crisp
1 oz goat’s cheese
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey (I like to use Agave Nectar instead. Still sweet but better metabolized by the body)
S&P to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Drain sliced fennel completely and mix with greens along with the goat’s cheese and lemon zest.
Add olive oil, balsamic, honey / agave and pinch of salt.

Cheers!

All recipes are made with the finest quality farmers market whole foods, natural and non-processed ingredients as much as possible.

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Had a great time on my hols but now it’s back to reality, back to the grind. Not before one last jog of the memory. If you were keeping up with my travels you already know I spent a lot of time slacking by the pool with the fam mixed with a perfect amount of sight-seeing. Paris, Grasse, Cabri, Cannes, Antibes, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Vence–all were amazing sites to visit and actually all of them had fresh food markets located around their respective cities–brilliant for a guy like me who eats non-stop.

To recap, we started our journey in Paris, the most romantic city on Earth, they say. We were only there for less than 24 hours but you can definitely feel the ‘love’ vibe–it’s a beautiful city with parks, amazing architecture and art, baguettes, coffee, wine and fashion, not to mention the French Open which was being held during our stay. We may have tucked into a bar (or 3) to catch a match, as you do on holiday. The best meal we had was in this city of love at an outdoor cafe in a prime spot for people watching. A simple lunch of mussels, fresh bread and a bottle of Rosé with the Missus was the business.

Next stop: Nice. We took the train down to meet the fam bam, which was the smartest thing we could’ve done. No stress from flying, just sitting munching on our fresh baguette, cherries and cold beer, enjoying the views of the countryside and the cities we passed through.
Once we got everyone packed in our rental cars we headed to our new home about an hour away in the hills due north of Cannes, near the towns of Les Jaisou, Peymeinade, Sperecedes & Cabri (in case you are familiar with the area). Cabri was a gorgeous little village at the top of the hills which marked the spot for early pints. The views from this town were amazing–you could see the entire coastline of Nice and Cannes from the hilltop. Amazing isn’t it?

Grasse is the world capital of parfumiers. Cannes was still trying to recover from the film fest and you already know about our joy in Monaco and Monte Carlo. One of the best surprises was our half-day road trip to Vence, a medieval town located in the hills above Nice and Antibes. We had good luck in our timing and arrived just as their outdoor market began to get busy. Here you could buy stuff from local artisans such as clothing, shoes, handbags, table linens and torchons, paintings and art in addition to many food stalls. It’s been said to be one of the most expensive streets in France for food. I was excited to see it for myself. It was pretty much a culinary haven of restaurants along with stall after stall of fresh ingredients: fruit & veg, meat, fish & seafood, cheese, bread and wine, sea salts out the wazoo, herbs & spices, and the largest selection of olives I’ve ever seen. Impressive for a small medieval town.
(I just read “ Vence is famous for its spring water, which can be bottled from numerous fountains throughout the town” which makes total sense why we saw people filling their water bottles from the fountains! I thought it was holy water at first which, in hindsight it very well may be to the locals.)