Ratatouille

Last week was the last week in Don Mills office, work will be at Mississauga office starting from tomorrow!! Since everyone had to clean up the desks/ storage, there were quite a lot of free snacks around work area in the last 2 weeks... and of course I had consumed enough that I would feel guilty even as an extremely undisciplined person. 

That is the reason why I made ratatouille - large quantities of vegetables to detox. My sister said she had her best ratatouille in a restaurant in Tokyo. I have never had an impressive ratatouille before, so I do not know if this is actually a good recipe haha. But I have done some  research on ratatouille recipes online, all recipes are very similar, so I have concluded to this version. I do like it when the vegetables are cooked to nice and soft but not mushy. And it is surprisingly filling! As I have been told, it does taste better on the second and third day. Make it when: you have a lot of time to cut everything into pieces, serve to a big group, 1-2 days ahead. 

Best serve as a side dish with fish or meat, toasted baguette. I like to top it with cheese (cheddar) adding some flavor. 

Side note: Since I have started my blog as a "fruit" blog, I asked myself a question "Is tomato a fruit or vegetable?" So I look it up and find out the definition of fruits:

Fruits = The ripened seed-bearing part of a plant when fleshy and edible.

So, eggplant, tomato, cucumber and zucchini are fruits; Rhubarb, potato, carrots are vegetables.

Recipes (Serve 10)
Ingredients

2 large Italian eggplants

4 zucchini,

2 yellow squash

3 bell peppers, roughly chopped (red/yellow/orange)

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 yellow onions

1 bay leaf

¼ cup loosely packed fresh basil, shredded

4 large tomatoes

Olive oil

Red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) Wash all the ingredients and cube the eggplants, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions into 1-inch cubes. Mince the garlic.

2) In a large pot, sauté the onions with 1 tsp of olive oil with medium-high heat, until soft but before it turns brown (about 10 min). Add S&P. Then add peppers and sauté for another 5 min until soft.

3) Remove vegetables from heat. Use the same pot with medium-high heat, sauté the eggplants and zucchini with 1 tsp of oil until browned and softened (about 10 min). Add S&P. Then, remove from heat.

4) Use the same pot, add in minced garlic with 1 tsp of oil. Add in tomatoes and bay leaf. When the mixture becomes juicy, return all the ingredients from step 2 and 3 to the pot. Stir in basil. Bring to a boil, then turn back to low heat, and simmer for at least another 20 min. Simmer longer if you like softer vegetables. I simmered for 1 hour.

5) I have added red pepper flakes, S&P to taste during simmer. Remove bay leaf before serving.