ratatouille! or, confit byaldi!

i woke up tuesday morning the same way i do most every morning-- thinking about remnants of ingredients and what to do with them. having portions of an eggplant and zucchini, and a couple of ripe tomatoes, i thought i'd stew it all up into a ratatouille. this reminded me that i hadn't seen pixar's movie "ratatouille" in at least 6 months (there was a period of time when i suggested it every weekend), so i made some tea and settled in on the couch. every time i see it, i marvel at the attention to cooking detail. it's as if i'm watching a chef and staff in a real parisian kitchen rather than pixar-generated characters.

the movie ends with our hero, remy, serving his version of ratatouille to a monster of a food critic. when i saw his creation, i realized that i didn't want to just throw some vegetables in a pot, i wanted to cook THAT. a little internet research later and i learned that remy's ratatouille was actually chef thomas keller's confit byaldi. he was a consultant on the movie, which explains the authenticity. (those kids at pixar-- they are clever, clever souls...)

i found the recipe, published by the new york times, here. it's basically thin-sliced squash, tomato, and eggplant layered over a tomato and roasted pepper sauce and baked for a few hours, served with a drizzle of vinaigrette. i served it with artisan cheeses and crackers.

for such simple ingredients, i was expecting a much less powerful flavor-- but this dish was extremely flavorful and rich! the long, slow cooking time and the layers of flavors and seasonings must be responsible. i'll definitely make this again, with these changes:

1) i had too much olive oil in the piperade. "oily" is never good.

2) i forgot the yellow squash this time, but i think the addition of another color in this dish would be lovely.

3) i forgot a cooking step! after the first 2 hours in the oven covered, you uncover and bake for 30 minutes. i completely skipped over this step and didn't realize it until reading over the recipe again when starting this post! it needed those 30 minutes to dry out a bit-- as it was, it was kinda soupy on the plate.

4) a bigger pan would work better than the size i used. the vegetables are painfully thin, so even filling up a medium sized casserole with them only yields 2 decent sized servings. 3+ hours to make 2 servings of vegetables is a little outside of my efficiency range. besides, it tasted so good it's worth having leftovers.

really-- when your dinner starts off looking like this, can you go wrong?

potato, squash and goat cheese quesadillas. really quite tasty. really.

we're going out of town tomorrow, so tonight i decided what was for dinner based on, "what is in our kitchen and garden that will go bad in our absence?" i turned up a handful of tomatoes, a yellow squash, a potato, a half block of tillamook monterey jack, a half log of goat cheese, a bunch of cilantro, a half jalapeño, and an aging lime. the items also in possession, which were not in the same danger of decay, were an onion, a head of garlic, and some flour tortillas.

i gotta say, i thought the combo might be weird, but the resulting potato, squash and goat cheese quesadilla with a fresh tomato salsa was thoroughly delicious! i would happily make this again.

fresh tomato salsa

3 smallish, or 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2+ Tbsp onion, finely chopped

1+ tsp jalapeño, finely chopped

1 Tbsp cilantro, finely chopped

1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice

salt and pepper

mix all ingredients, adjust seasonings to taste, and refrigerate for 1 hour or more. (note: after chopping jalapeño, avoid touching eyes, nose, and lips, and pulling apart cooked chicken for the cat.)

potato, squash, and goat cheese quesadilla

2 servings

1 medium to large waxy potato, diced

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp ancho chili powder

salt and pepper

1/2 yellow summer squash (or zucchini), shredded

1 1/2 cups monterey jack cheese, shredded

1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled

2 large flour tortillas

1 Tbsp butter, divided

preheat oven to 400 degrees. toss potato cubes in ovenproof pan with olive oil, then add chili powder, salt, and pepper, and toss again. cook at 400 degrees, turning once or twice, until a knife test says they are done-- soft, but not falling apart-- about 15-20 minutes.

heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a large pan over medium heat. place a tortilla in the pan, and line half of it with half of the monterey jack, the squash, the potatoes, and the goat cheese. fold the other half over and cook until golden. flip, cook until the other side is crispy and the fillings are warmed through. repeat with the second tortilla and the rest of the fillings.

serve with tomato salsa.

this recipe has a ton of potential. there may be goat cheese and a potato in every quesadilla i make from here on. i can imagine a number of variations on this dish that would be filling and absolutely tasty, and, if i'm lucky, use up some perishables like it did tonight.

(almost) the grit's vegan black bean chili

there's a restaurant in athens, georgia, the city where i went to college, called the grit. it is cheap enough for students, hip enough for touring indie rockers, and down-home enough for southerners. the twist is that they have an entirely vegetarian menu. the place is enormously popular, perhaps most especially because, though their dishes are meatless, they are soulful and comforting creations that happily and heartily contribute to many a "freshman fifteen."

my brother gave me their cookbook several years ago, and i've had a couple of their recipes make it into the rotation. i'd never tried their chili, but remembered to check into it when we signed up to provide a meal at rob's family reunion this weekend. with a big group like theirs, it made sense to me to offer a meatless option. not coincidentally, i had all the ingredients i needed on hand, including black turtle beans from the farmers market, and tomatoes from our garden.

i changed a few proportions, added some flavors, omitted the bulger wheat to have it be gluten-free, and altered the cook time from the original recipe. here goes.

vegan black bean chili

adapted from the grit restaurant vegetarian cookbook

2 cups dried black beans

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tps ancho chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 large green bell pepper, chopped

kernels from one cob of fresh corn (about 1 cup)

1 carrot, shredded

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 large tomatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1/3 cup tomato juice

kosher salt

1 tsp brown sugar (optional)

prepared hot sauce (optional)

good quality olive oil (optional)

sort, rinse, and soak the beans at least 6 hours or overnight. drain and rinse soaked beans, and add to pot with onion, chili powder, cumin, and oregano. add water to cover beans, plus about 2 inches. bring to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft. add small amounts of water as needed during cook time. start checking them after about a half an hour so they don't overcook.

if the beans are too soupy after they've finished cooking, you can dip some of the liquid out and reserve it in case you need to thin out the chili at a later stage.

in a separate pan, saute the green bell pepper and the celery in olive oil until softened. (you may also want to add the carrots to the saute. i didn't, but might try it next time.) add pepper and celery, corn kernels, and carrots to the beans. stir in tomato juice.

in same saute pan, heat up more olive oil and add the tomatoes, cooking until they are hot and beginning to break down but are still holding some of their shape. scrape the tomatoes and any accumulated juices into the pot of beans and veggies.

bring to a simmer. at this point, start tasting and adjusting seasonings, beginning with adding kosher salt. i probably added close to a tablespoon, but did so at such small intervals that i can't be sure. adjust cumin and chili powder to taste. if it has a slight bitter taste, as mine did, add small amounts of brown sugar to take the edge off. after about a 15-20 minute simmer, or once veggies are softening up and the soup is thickening, turn off the pot and let it sit for about an hour. it will thicken further, and the flavors will marry. i stirred in a dash of prepared hot sauce and a glug of good olive oil to richen it up.

this is a very diverse chili! serve over rice, with cornbread, make into a burrito, make into nachos, or just have in a bowl topped with onion and cheddar cheese.

flour + eggs = pasta

i first decided to try homemade pasta a couple of weeks ago, and it was a JOKE. my first batch of dough was so hard that i was sore for 2 days from trying to knead it. i trashed that batch and started over, getting a much more reasonable density, but had only a glass from the cabinet to use to roll it out. i don't even own a rolling pin. by the time i was done, i had dough that was about 1/8" thick, and any attempt i made to roll it out further was met with the dough springing back onto itself. i made ravioli, and while they tasted okay, they were thick and clumsy and hard. as i said, a JOKE.

so, i bought a pasta machine. the dough is fed through the rollers, and comes out in perfect, paper-thin sheets. but again, trials and errors. after my first try using the machine, i thought, man, have we been fooled! this is almost faster than cooking dried pasta! the next 4 times, however, were disasters. either too crumbly, too dry, or entirely too sticky-- all ended up in the garbage.

i decided to try again, but take it slower this time. i would not be outsmarted by a couple of eggs and handfuls of flour. it happened that i caught an episode of everyday italian on the food network, a show i never watch but perhaps should, just in time to see giada de laurentiis making pasta dough with her aunt. i took careful notes and tried again.

giada's dough recipe made more than i was willing to commit to, so i found a classic pasta recipe on the williams sonoma website. fresh pasta recipe here. it worked! they use the well method, which works fine, but i took a tip from giada and got the dough started in the food processor. just pulse the flour and eggs together until the dough begins to stick to itself. it won't form a ball. turn the dough out on your board, and knead until it's smooth and elastic.

the batch i'd made a couple of weeks ago was filled with ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella, and the sauce was roasted sungold tomatoes with fresh basil. seems williams sonoma had the same idea, and had it published on their site. i followed theirs this time, which added lemon zest to the filling (great touch!) and more olive oil to the sauce. it was delicious! cheese ravioli with cherry tomato sauce.

making fresh pasta may not replace buying fresh or dried. i'm on the fence so far. but, it's a great alternative, and it's right up my alley to know that if i have flour and eggs, i have pasta.

a pound of pasta dough goes a long way, so i had plenty left over. i decided to try two ways of preserving it-- i used the machine to cut it into fettucine, then tossed the noodles in flour so they won't stick to each other and formed them into nests.

one group dried for an hour and went in the freezer, another group dried for 24 hours and went in the pantry. i really have no idea what the results will be, but it seems i'll have the chance to find out.

grilled veggie salad with goat cheese crostini

earlier in the summer we were grilling constantly. but after a freak heatwave had us dealing with temps in the high 90s (and no air conditioning in sight), and then a spell of cool rain and temps in the 60s, i'd nearly forgotten about the grill. thankfully, things seem back to normal this week, so yesterday we pulled it out from under it's shelter, dusted it off, and fired it up.

the inventory after saturday's market trip was as follows: 1 eggplant, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 green bell pepper, 1 sweet onion, 4 zucchini. also had on hand a half log of chevre, and half of a baguette. i can work with that.

i was cooking for 2, so i gave us each 2 slices of the vegetables, and two crostini. obviously, this can be adjusted.

grilled veggie salad with goat cheese crostini

1 eggplant

1 zucchini

1 onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

2 handfuls salad greens

3 Tbps balsamic vinegar

1 tsp honey

1/2 cup olive oil

baguette, sliced

goat cheese

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

prepare grill, medium heat. slice eggplant, zucchini, and onion about 1/4" thick, and cut peppers into chunks or thick strips. brush or drizzle veggies with olive oil, and lightly season with salt and pepper. cook on grill, turning once, about 2 minutes each side, or until they are softening and getting a few charred spots.

meanwhile, make vinaigrette by combining balsamic and honey, and slowly whisking in olive oil to emulsify. season with salt and pepper.

mix the salad greens and grilled veggies in a bowl with the dressing, then stack veggies over greens on serving plate.

prepare crostini by drizzling both sides of bread slices with olive oil, salt and pepper, and cooking at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until they are toasted. (it's easy to overdo these and end up with toast that feels like it will break your teeth, so watch them!) remove from oven, smear tops with generous amounts of goat cheese, and stick under the broiler just until cheese warms through and begins to soften.

serve salad with warm crostini, and drizzle with more of the vinaigrette.

it was delicious, though i did feel like the dressing needed more punch. maybe next time i'll stir a teaspoon of dijon mustard into it. or a clove of garlic. or both! i think the salad could also handle a couple of slices of grilled waxy potato, especially as a main course that needs to be a bit more hearty.

mad men premier!

sunday night was the heavily promoted season 3 premier of mad men, and i thought it would be fun to have a 60s themed dinner to accompany our viewing. given the number of tomatoes i'm trying to get through right now, i took a dish from betty draper's own table and made a wonderful chilled gazpacho. and, as a nod to the decade, and a treat for us after eating so light this summer, swedish meatballs completed the menu.

i've never made swedish meatballs, and after some clumsy web searches looking for authentic 1960s recipes, i gave up and went for one from alton brown. he seems trustworthy. alton brown's swedish meatballs. they were delicious! the gravy in particular was terrific.

i haven't made gazpacho in years, so did a couple of searches and put together a very basic recipe. it turned out great! as a friend said, "it's pretty damn hard to screw up gazpacho." there are tons and tons of variations on this recipe that i'm sure are equally wonderful-- just make sure the tomatoes are ripe, and use a good quality olive oil.

gazpacho

1 lb tomatoes

1 medium cucumber, peeled and seeded

1 medium red bell pepper

1/2 sweet onion

2 cloves garlic

1 cup organic, low-sodium tomato juice

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

kosher salt

fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup diced avocado

finely chop (or chop in food processor) all veggies except avocado. mix all together in a bowl and stir in tomato juice, vinegar, and olive oil. season with salt and pepper. refrigerate for a couple of hours at least. this soup gets better the longer it sits. serve chilled, topped with the avocado.

of course, it wouldn't be mad men without adult beverages. irish whiskey and a french bordeaux i'm sure would have met with sterling cooper approval. this was the end of the mad men authenticity, however. we elected to skip the chain smoking, letting kids play in dry-cleaning bags, the complete and total subjugation of women and minorities, and we limited the number of brazen affairs to zero. but check out that vintage glassware!

another eggplant!

"aw, geez," i thought, opening the crisper and discovering the eggplant i'd forgotten all about. i can not stomach throwing food away, and this eggplant had already been in the fridge for 5 or 6 days. gotta act quick. how about a baba ghanoush? got everything i need for it right here, and while i'm at it, may as well make some pita bread.

for the pita, i followed this recipe exactly. it worked great.

everything was smooth sailing, except that in such a hot oven loose flour begins to get a little smoky. now at least i know that the smoke detector works...

baba ghanoush

1 large eggplant

2 Tbsp tahini

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

broil eggplant 10 minutes. turn a couple of times during broiling. (can also grill.)

reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake another 10 minutes, or until very soft.

let cool, then pull off skin and drain flesh of extra moisture. pulse flesh in food processor to a smooth consistency. remove eggplant puree to bowl.

add tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and salt. mix, and check seasonings. season to taste, according to how much garlic, lemon, and tahini you prefer. top with drizzle of olive oil and chopped parsley. serve with warm pita bread.

so easy, and so very, very tasty. i'd eat this all night if we weren't going out for dinner!