Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ratatouille

I was browsing on EPicurious.com when it caught my attention on this authentic french cuisine. The basic ingredients are vegetables like eggplant, checked; onion, checked; zucchini, absolutely checked; Tomatoes, yes! Checked; green bell pepper, yes!Yes!Checked. So, I give this recipe a try. The flavor was really good. I cannot taste the blandness of the eggplant or zucchini. I serve this ratatouille as side dish to my steak. You could serve this mixed vegetables with rice.
I then use the left over as filling for the tortilla wrap. This dish has to be cooked in batch and in the right order before simmering on low heat for more than 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

* 1 medium size eggplant
* 1/2 large zucchini, trimmed
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 7 tablespoons olive oil, divided
* 2 medium size onion, thinly sliced (about 1 cups)
* 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced into strips
* 1 tablespoon garlic chopped
* 2 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, cut into 3/8- to 1/4-inch-thick strips
* 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
* 1 bay leaf
Method:

1. Peel eggplant; cut lengthwise into 4 parts, then slice it thinly.
2. Cut zucchini into same size as the eggplant.
3. Place vegetables in large bowl; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt.
4. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain; dry with paper towels.
5. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.
6. Saute eggplant and zucchini until light golden. Transfer to plate; reserve.
7. Add 3 tablespoons oil to skillet; heat over medium heat.
8. Saute onion and peppers until just tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
9. Stir in garlic. 10.Season with salt and pepper.
11. Place tomato strips atop onion-pepper mixture in skillet.
12. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
13. Cover skillet; cook over low heat until tomatoes begin to juice, about 5 minutes. Uncover; baste vegetables in skillet with juices. Boil until juices are almost evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes.
14. Add the eggplant-zucchini to the onion and peppers.Stir.
15. sprinkle with 1 tablespoon parsley.
16. Cover; simmer over low heat 10 minutes. 17. Uncover; Add bay leaf. Stir.
18. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve warm or cold. Enjoy!

7 comments:

  1. Hello Zuraida, I must say that your blog reminds me of food :)

    I would really like to try some of the recipes some day and when I do, I'll share the comments from my children with you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ocean Girl, you are welcome to try out my recipe and share your experience. Thanks for stopping by at my site.

    ReplyDelete
  3. k.zu,
    Selalu tengok je Ratatouille kat tv/internet.. tak pernah cuma. Macam best je..

    ReplyDelete
  4. zue, lama tak post tentang yr garden....i suka sangat tengok tanaman u semua menjadi...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dhill, this sayur campur is really good. I cannot even recognize the eggplant and zucchini. The tomato and bell pepper is covering the whole experience. But like the late Julia Child said in her book, this dish must be cooked in it's order. A lot of steps involve but the outcome is fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. salam k.zue..lama kita x mai sini..la ni sibuk sikit esp dgn wabak 'selsema'yg melanda. selamat menyambut bulan ramadhan almubarak wat k.zue sekeluarga ye!

    ReplyDelete