Garlic Prawns with Pernod.

Thursday 1st August 2011

Whenever we come to France, I’m always on the look out for a string of garlic. It’s part of the image we are presented of the French. Along with the man on a bicycle in a beret, blue & white stripy t-shirt & the obligatory baguette poking out of his wicker basket on the front of his bicycle. But like many national stereotypes, they either aren’t true or are much more difficult to find than you would imagine.

Garlic has always played a big part in my cooking. I’m not shy with it, choosing to use 4 or 5 teeth of a bulb to really give something taste. But this has only been stepped up a notch after another particularly bad winter suffering from sinusitis.

In an attempt to alleviate some of the symptoms I was experiencing, my wife had researched a few home remedies I could try. The first consisted of me strapping half an onion to my forehead for as long as I could manage while lying on the sofa. Not too difficult, & not too effective either. The other was slightly more complicated & came in to parts. So, in for a penny, in for a pound, I gave it a go.

I had to get the biggest tooth of garlic I could find, peel it & keep it in my mouth for 30 minutes. Just suck it, nothing more.

Part one completed I moved onto part two.

I then had to chew & swallow a golf ball sized piece of garlic without spitting it out. As I bit into it I knew I was in trouble. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. It felt like smoke was coming out of my ears. As if I was in an episode of ‘Road Runner’ & an anvil had just landed on my big toe. I hadn’t even tried to swallow it yet. I was gasping for air & trying to chew at the same time. You could say I was struggle, a bit. My wife, on the other hand, wasn’t. She was doubled up in hysterics watching the fiasco. It all became so overwhelming for I gave up & spat it out.

Since then I’ve stuck to just cooking with it. 😉