Ratatouille always makes me think of this movie, which in turn, makes me think about my childhood pet rat (Foo). From there, it’s a leap into memories of our old house, my much missed dog Rusty and the enormous frangipani tree that stood in our front yard…
Of course, that has nothing to do with this particular recipe!
Orangette was blogging about food long before I had any idea that there was such a thing as food blogs, and probably about the same time I was living on such culinary delights as two minute noodles and Pizza Hut pizzas (what? I was at uni!). She’s written one book: A Homemade Life, and is in the process of writing another. This recipe is adapted from her Ratatouille recipe in A Homemade Life. It’s slightly different to the one my Mum used to make, which basically just cooked all the vegetables together. This one requires a bit more effort – but you can successfully multitask to save time. Alternatively, you can cook the eggplant the day before which allows you to save on a few minutes.
The finished product was served with a runny fried egg and chunks of crusty bread. Then I enjoyed it again for lunch – it’s one of those dishes that improves over a couple of days. In fact, I may have some more for lunch tomorrow!
Ingredients
- 3 medium Eggplants, sliced into 2cm thick rounds
- Olive oil
- 4 medium Zucchini, liced into 1cm rounds
- 1 medium Onion, thinly sliced
- 1 large Red capsicum, chopped
- 4 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 Tin diced or whole tomatoes
- Handful Cherry tomatos, in half
- 3/4 teaspoon Salt
- 3 Sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1/4 cup Chopped basil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200*.
- Line a baking dish/tray with baking paper and spray with olive oil spray (or coat eggplant in oil in a bowl).
- Arrange the eggplant on the tray in a single layer. Spray tops with olive oil spray.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, flipping halfway. The eggplant should be soft and slightly browned.
- Meanwhile, warm 2 tbs of olive oil in a large deep frypan or dutch oven.
- Add zucchini rounds and fry on a medium high heat until golden on one side. Flip and continue frying on the other side. This should take about 10-12 minutes all up.
- Remove the zucchini from the pan and put to one side. There should be some oil remaining in the pan, but add more if you wish.
- Reduce the heat to medium, and add the onion to the pan.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, being careful not to brown. The aim is translucent - it should take about 6 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, salt, thyme and bay leaf. Stir to combine.
- Reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, your eggplant should be just about done. Pull it out of the oven and cut into small pieces (if you wish - I didn't bother).
- Add the eggplant and zucchini back into your pan, stir, and cover and cook on low until everything is tender (15 to 20 minutes).
- Discard the bay leaf and stir in the basil.
- I served with a fried egg and a side of crusty bread. It also makes a great side for meat (particularly lamb sprinkled with cumin) and a great pasta sauce.
Spring is teasing us at the moment – one day the weather is beautiful, the air is crisp but it’s warm in the sun. The next, it’s blowing a gale, bitingly cold (for Brisbane) and overcast and rainy. I shouldn’t complain too much, at least it’s not sweltering hot yet!
At least spring means fresh produce and one of my favourites is fresh asparagus. Did you know, for the longest time I thought I didn’t like asparagus? Turns out I just don’t liked tinned asparagus (abomination! No offense Mum!).
I was perhaps slightly overzealous when I saw it at the markets and bought up several bunches. I was browsing the internet with a vague idea that I wanted to make a savoury bread pudding (half a loaf of slightly stale sourdough to use up). My searches turned up this, from internet superstar blogger Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks.
I made a few changes (no surprises there) and here is my take on her recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 medium Loaf crusty bread (sourdough)
- 3 cups Milk
- 1 cup Stock (vegetable or chicken)
- 3 large Eggs
- pinch Salt
- Cracked pepper to taste
- 2 cloves Garlic, diced finely or crushed
- 1-2 Sprigs thyme
- 1 bunch Asparagus, wooden ends cut or broken off and cut into 3-4cm pieces
- 100 grams Mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium Leek, washed and sliced
- 1 cup Cheese, grated (I used combo cheddar and parmesan)
Directions
- Preheat over to 180*C.
- Grease a 25-30cm baking pan or casserole dish with butter or oil spray.
- Roughly cut the loaf of bread into 2-3cm cubes.
- In a bowl whisk together milk, stock, eggs, salt, pepper and thyme.
- In a fry pan heat the butter, leeks and garlic over a moderate to low heat (so you don't burn the garlic).
- Throw in the mushrooms and fry off slightly - to make delicious garlic mushrooms!
- Add the mushrooms, bread, asparagus and milk mixture together and fold through.
- Spoon into the baking pan and press down well with the back of the spoon.
- Sprinkle cheese on top.
- Bake for 45 minutes. You want the cheese to be melted and brown on top and the pudding should not be too liquidy (but still moist).
- Let set out of the oven for another 10 minutes and serve with a side salad.
UPDATED: After a bit of a false start, the tickets were eventually won by Deb! Hope you have a great time at the Show!
This is such a novelty! I have a double pass to the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show to give away to one of you, my valued readers (all 3 of you!).
The Good Food and Wine Show is happening at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on the 4th, 5th and 6th of November 2011. This year the Brisbane Show will be showcasing lots of Queensland producers, particularly those who were affected by the floods and cyclones earlier in the year. Some of the affected producers include The Peanut Van (Kingaroy), Barambah Organics (Oxley), Ballandean Estate Wines (Ballandean) and Clovely Estate (Red Hill).
Some of the Show highlights include:
- Riedel Decanter Bar – savour speciality wines with a panel of wine experts.
- Riedel Wine Theatre – get your tastebuds tingling as you sample top drops and master the art of wine/food matching with Australia’s finest viticulture experts.
- CheeseMatters Discover Class – cheese experts step you through a cheese tasting, matched with a glass of fine wine or beer and other accompaniments.
- Sunbeam Academy – cupcakes and coffee, the essentials of life. Tie on an apron and learn to master the making of both with tips from the pros.
- Oxford Landing Estate Restaurant – be transported to South Australia in an instant and enjoy dishes prepared with the best SA ingredients and perfectly complemented with a glass of Oxford Landing Estates wine.
- Barilla Pasta Class – enter the interactive ‘Casa Barilla’ to learn more about pasta – taste it, and try to make the perfect pasta dish yourself.
- Chef Book Signing Sessions – we all have our favourite – and this is your chance to meet them and have your cookbook signed.
Each ticket is valued at $23.50 and can be used on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday (4-6 November 2011). The Show is held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and runs from 10-6 on Friday and Saturday, and 10-5 on Sunday. The competition is open to anyone in Australia, but you’ll have to make your own way to Brisbane for the Show.
To enter, all you need to do is a leave a comment on the blog telling me what local produce you love (only one entry per person please). Make sure that you leave an email address so I can contact you if you win (no spam I promise!). I will leave the competition open until 25 September 2011 and I will announce the winner on the blog.
Good luck!
Full disclosure – we were invited to dine at Medusa and try the new spring menu and we were given a reduced price on the menu. I also apologise for the terrible quality of these pictures – it was quite dim at our end of the table.
Medusa is a new fine dining restaurant in Bardon with an amazing view out over Paddington and South West Brisbane. Brisbane food blogger’s and media types were offered a chance to try their degustation menu (with or without matching wines) for a reduced price. J and I decided to head along, with J trying the matching wines and me sticking to a lemon lime and bitters.
The degustation is $95 for 7 courses, and $155 with matching wines. If J’s meal was anything to go by, the pours of wine are very generous.
Chef Minh Le is passionate about sustainability and sources as much free range, organic and local produce as possible. Our evening was the launch of his spring menu.
I’ll summarise each dish, and my thoughts, but as an overall review, both J and I agreed that the menu felt a bit…complicated at times. The food was all beautifully executed and presented, the seafood in particular was gorgeous and fresh. The kitchen clearly have all the techniques and skills down to a fine art. But, I felt that certain courses tried to do too much – there was too much on the plate, too many elements to work together as a cohesive whole. This could also be a taste/style thing – I do tend to prefer dishes that choose a few elements to focus on, and work with the fantastic ingrediants we have at our disposal here in Queensland. I don’t think the issue is a deal breaker. In fact, I think with a few pretty minor tweaks they could easily fix the issues (assuming of course they want to).
My other gripe on the evening was the fact that we were kept waiting nearly an hour after the start time before beginning. This wasn’t entirely the restaurant’s fault – there were at least 6 people who didn’t show up, and there were some others who were a bit late. Obviously the kitchen was holding out in the hope that everyone would arrive. I understand that they had probably prepared for a certain number of people and were hoping to meet their numbers. I think when it’s 30 minutes after the start time for an event, it’s time to get people started – after all, you can probably catch any latecomers up no? The biggest drawback to making us wait was that we didn’t leave until quite late – after 11pm on a school night!
Spring Degustation Menu
Amuse Bouche – White bean and asparagus soup with truffle. This was a beautiful, smooth, flavoursome soup – I love asparagus and I enjoyed this. The truffle was a treat also!
Course 1
White asparagus with roasted nuts, quinoa and quail eggs. This course had even more going on in it than is listed – it also had truffle, walnuts, wild rice, macademias… The egg was served cold (I believe this was a deliberate choice) but I must admit I found this a bit offputting.
Course 2
Hervey Bay scallops with veal sweetbread, cauliflower puree, chanterelle mushrooms and truffle jus. I was very proud of myself for eating the sweetbreads – I am not normally a big fan of offal, but this was quite tasty. The scallops were absolutely beautiful, but as I said above, we felt there was a lot going on in the dish. Other’s at the table didn’t agree with us on that point though – several people commented that this dish was their favourite.
Course 3
Yellowfin tuna marinated in Thai pesto with Mooloolaba prawns, nasturium leaf, asparagus, buckwheat crumble, quinoa, edamame beans and bonito vinaigrette. My main thought with this course was that the pesto overpowered the tuna flavour, but worked perfectly with the prawns. So I’d probably either prefer just prawns in this dish, or that the pesto be served more as a sauce, so you can add as little or as much as you wish. The tuna was beautiful and fresh.
Course 4
Cured Cape Grim beef carpaccio with morels, baby split peas, quail egg and pommes souffle. This course was J’s favourite, and probably mine too. The flavours all worked really well together.
Course 5
Crispy skin Gooralie pork belly with chilli honey glaze, roasted apple and celeriac puree, sous vide abalone, green papaya crab salad, nuoc cham, edamame beans and salmon roe. Abalone as an ingredient just doesn’t do it for me – and I was a bit confused about why it was in this dish. Each of the elements of this dish had very strong and distinct flavours. They worked better when sampled all together, but on their own were a bit overwhelming.
Course 6
Buche d’Affinois with lavosh, quince paste, muscatels, apples and beetroot puree. I’ve yet to meet a cheese platter I didn’t like.
Course 7
Raspberries with violet curd, raspberry sorbet, brandy snaps and violet crystals. I really enjoyed this dish – some of the other guests seemed to find it a bit tart, but I enjoyed the combination of raspberries and curd.
Medusa Dining
Shop 1, 62 MacGregor Terrace
Bardon
Ph: 0731611858
Web: www.medusadining.com
My forays into breadmaking are rare, and rarely very successful. Perhaps this will change now that I have a Kitchenaid to help me with the kneading?
This was a recipe I had saved in my google reader for several months, waiting for the right occasion to make it. One cool weekend I made a big batch of soup, and I thought these rolls would be the perfect side. Fortunately I was right. They kept quite well also, with J enjoying them for the next few days.
You’ll see in the picture that I may have browned them slightly more than I should have. They weren’t quite burnt but they were on the cusp. One day I will work out this oven! They actually work very well quite browned, it gives them a nice crunch on the outside whilst remaining soft and forgiving on the inside.
The recipe I used is from here. It is a vegan version, but I simply de-veganised it by using 2 tbs of butter instead of the Earth Balance, and an egg instead of the egg replacer.
Next time, I’d like to try using half wholemeal flour. I’m reluctant to use only wholemeal flour as the few times I’ve tried the final product has the texture and density of a brick. If anyone knows how to avoid this please let me know!
I came across a recipe for zucchinis stuffed with a tangy sourdough stuffing and thought I’d give it a whirl for dinner this week. Of course, when I got to the supermarket late on Sunday afternoon, there were only tiny zucchinis left – none even close to big enough to stuff.
Well necessity is the mother of invention after all, so I rethought my approach and adapted the recipe to a bake instead. I think it worked quite well. In some ways it might even be better than the original – surely I’m not alone in always ending up with far too much stuffing for my vegetables? This way, you get to use all the stuffing, without any of the stuffing around (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Originally I had planned on making this for dinner – but somehow stuffed zucchini didn’t sound nearly as filling when converted to zucchini bake. Instead, I served it beside a tomato and feta salad, and a potato and broccoli frittata. This would make a great side to take to a BBQ or as part of a pot luck dinner. I think it tastes pretty good – and I caught J stealing bits of the topping…
Ingredients
- 4 small Zucchinis, sliced lengthways
- 100 grams Butter
- 1 Onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves Garlic, crushed or diced
- 1-2 Roasted red capsicums or peppers
- 3 tablespoons Flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Dried oregano
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 100 grams Sourdough breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup Grated pecorino or parmesan
Directions
- Preheat oven to 180*.
- Slice the zucchini thickly and layer in a greased casserole dish.
- Melt the butter in a large frypan over a medium heat.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add the onion and garlic. Gently fry for a few minutes until the onion is soft but not coloured.
- Add capsicum, parsley, oregano, lemon zest and breadcrumbs and stir until well combined.
- Remove pan from heat and season with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle the zucchini with the stuffing.
- Grate pecorino or parmesan cheese over the top to taste.
- Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until the zucchini is soft and the stuffing browns slightly.
|
|
Subscribe  follow on twitter
 by rss feed
 by email:
|
20.10.11 | 
Of: 
One comment
Share