Ratatouille

Nothing says that summer is around the corner or summer is here than ratatouille with its medley of riotously colorful vegetables cut into uniform slim discs and cooked with fresh herbs and tomato sauce to golden perfection in the oven.

The vegetables remind me of a melodious string quartet with the eggplant being the bass of the cello, the tomato the alto voice of the viola and zucchini and squash are the music of the violins. All in perfect gastronomic harmony!

The vegetable slices can be cut very thin or medium sized to make it easier.

You can use any combination of fresh herbs but I prefer the combination of basil and parsley crushed in a bit of olive oil. You could also experiment with thyme, marjoram and tarragon.

I added dried herb de Provence gifted to me by Ms. Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the tomato sauce to add extra flavor.

I created a double layer of vegetable one on top of the other to make a large quantity and stretch it out through the week but it’s harder to cook that way. A single layer is best and most delicious. The line between ambition and greed can get hard to tell sometimes!

I like to serve a tower of the ratatouille vegetables with a golden, sensuous poached egg and slices of crisp, chewy sourdough bread.

It is a labor of love and patience but truly worth the effort as the harbinger of warm weather and sunshine.

Three large zucchini and squash, 3 medium eggplants, 6 tomatoes and 2 bell peppers 

2 bunches of basil, 1 bunch of parsley 

8 clove of garlic and 1 onion and 2 shallots 

2 large cans of tomatoes 

Dried herbs de Provence 

Sauté chopped onion, shallots and garlic 

Add crushed tomatoes, 3 tablespoons of dried herbs 

Add diced bell peppers and cook well 

Cut the vegetable medley into medium sized discs and coat with olive oil and salt

Chop the herbs and crush in olive oil 

Add the cooked tomato sauce to a large pan 

Layer the discs in the string quartet groups of 4

Coat the herbs on top 

Another layer of vegetables is ambitiously greedy which I will not repeat!

Another coating of herbs 

Cook at 400 for 60 min

Serve with golden sensual poached egg and sourdough bread 

                                    Bon Appetit! 
 

Minestrone Soup

 

 Minestrone soup is a rustic Florentine soup like Robolitta and Pasta Fagioli and it’s the very definition of warm and hearty. 

Previously I would add a dollop of homemade pesto to the soup but it made it richer without adding anything special to the flavor. Instead the acidity from a large can of diced tomatoes is the perfect foil for the mildness of the rest of the flavors in the soup. 

The vegetables used are mellow such as cauliflower, Savoy cabbage, spinach, carrots and celery. 

This is combined with the mélange of white beans such as cannelloni, navy, and  butter beans. You could also use chickpeas and fava beans but I prefer the softness in flavor of cannelloni, navy and butter beans.

The queen of this dish is the deep flavor of rosemary. Half the rosemary is stuffed into a bouquet garnii bag and dropped into the soup and the other half is ground in a mortar and pestle with olive oil to extract rosemary oil and then hand squeezed into the pot to finesse its deep essence.

This is not French onion soup with sticky, stringy cheese floating everywhere but to create the richness and earthiness of cheese I use Parmesan rind. The rind holds shape without melting away and provides the soup with a luxurious warmth.

Last but not least don’t dip just plain bread into the soup but a sour rye or a thick toasted tangy sourdough bread and use it to clean up the last drops of soup in the bowl.

Yes, winter is ending and spring is around the corner. This is probably the last time I will make minestrone soup until winter rolls around again. 

Bon Appetit! 

The  vegetables, one head of cauliflower, a bunch of carrots, 3 sticks of celery, 
half a head of savoy cabbage, 2-3 cups of spinach 

10 to 15 cloves of garlic, a bunch of Rosemary 

Three slabs of parmesan rind 

2 quarts of vegetable broth, 2-3 cans of white cannelloni beans, a large can of diced tomatoes 

Add broth, beans and canned diced tomatoes to large soup pot 

Sauté carrots, celery and add to pot 

Sauté cauliflower and add to pot 

Sauté diced savoy cabbage and add to pot 

Take half of the Rosemary and add to bouquet garnii bag 

The other half is ground in a mortar with pestle and olive oil to extract rosemary oil 

Crush the garlic with a garlic press

Cube the Parmesan rind. 

Add the bouquet garnii bag, crushed garlic and parmesan rind to the pot 

The spinach goes in last followed by the rosemary oil which is hand squeezed to extract every drop of rosemary essence  

Let the pot simmer for  30 min

Serve with a sour rye or toasted thick sourdough bread 

Bon Appetit! 

 

Laksa soup

My Laksa soup is a wonderful combination of Indian spices cumin, coriander seeds, black pepper, red chilies and Southeast Asian staples Kaffir lime leaves, lemon lemongrass and coconut milk.

I’ve taken a lot of poetic license and changed this recipe to my liking.  I do not use tomatoes or tomato sauce or the readymade laksa red chili paste to let the lemony tangy Kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass shine through. The heat instead comes from red chilies and black pepper along with cumin and coriander seeds.

The original recipe calls for seafood such as shrimp or mussels  or clams or firm fish but it’s very difficult to reheat the soup with seafood and eat it around the week therefore I keep it vegetarian with firm tofu. 

If you like an oceany flavor adding fish sauce and shrimp paste to the soup is apt. But if the fishy flavor is not to your liking then you can surely skip it. Again to let kaffir lime and lemongrass flavors remain emperor I dropped shrimp paste and fish sauce.

So as to get the maximum flavor of the lemon grass use only the purple circumferenced portion of the lemongrass bulb,  cut it into small discs  and stuff it into a bouquet garnii bag and drop into the soup. Again the soup does not originally contain a lot of vegetables but I make mine as green as possible with green beans, broccoli or Chinese broccoli and bok choy. 

I cut the ginger into larger chunks so that they can be easily removed from the soup while slurping it. Towards the end I also add Thai basil to the bubbling pot. Thai basil is a deeper, richer flavored basil that adds a special touch to the soup. 

The leftover lemongrass I sauté in oil to make it crisp and then garnish the rice noodles which are floating in a large bowl of spicy, tangy, warm soup.

Perfect for a cold winter night!

Bon Appetit!

 

A bunch of Thai Basil, 4 biped leaves of Kaffir lime, a chunk of ginger

                          

4 sticks of fragrant lemon grass

The Indian twist, 2 tsps of black pepper, 3 red chilies, 2 tablespoons of cumin and 2 tablespoons of coriander seeds

A head of broccoli, 2 bunches of bok choy, a bunch of green beans 

2 large cakes of firm tofu, 2 slabs of rice sticks 

2 quarts of vegetable broth, 3 cans of coconut milk 

Roast the dry Indian spices on a pan 

Then grind fine 

Add vegetable broth and coconut milk to pot 

Add the ground spices 

Dice ginger into big chunks or can grate too 

Slice the lemon grass and use only the violet circumferenced portion 

Add the lemon grass to a bouquet garnii bag 

Add lemon grass bag, Kaffir lime leaves and ginger to pot of broth and coconut milk with spices 

Add chopped vegetables to pot 

Cook for 15 minutes 

Add rice noodles to hot water and soak for 10 min 

Drain the water 

Add large cubed firm tofu to pot and cook for another 10 min 

Then the chopped Thai basil 

Sauté left over lemon grass in pan with oil 

Add soup to bowl and drop the noodles in the center and decorate with fried lemon grass 

                                                                     Bon Appetit!