ML if you have courgettes ( zucchini in Oz) coming out of your ears then it is worth making ratatouille if you can get your hands on the other ingredients. Tinned tomatoes make it easy. Is fresh basil available in your part of the world?
Yes! I have a fantastic recipe for Proper Ratatouille™ from @la vie en rouge for late-summer ratatouille. In fact I am going to put it up here again although it was on last year's recipe thread, because it is that good. I wait until my tomatoes are perfectly ripe, red bell peppers affordable, and the basil abundant.
Proper Ratatouille™
Proper Ratatouille™ is tomatoes, courgettes, aubergine, onion, garlic and peppers of two different colours. What makes it ratatouille is frying each vegetable separately, otherwise it becomes no longer ratatouille but piperade -- perfectly pleasant but without the bite and intensity of flavour of the labour of love which is the genuine article.
Step 1: go to the foie gras land market and buy the appropriate vegetables. Said veg has been ripened on the plant in the sun and brought to the market straight from the farm. The tomatoes are as big as your head.
Step 2: chop and slice everything up. Stick the tomatoes in a big pan and smash them up a bit with a rolling pin. Leave them to cook down slowly with some basil. Now the bit that takes flipping ages: fry each vegetable separately and set aside. When they're all done, put them in the pan with the tomatoes and cook over a medium heat.
Step 3: the magic secret bit only known to excellent cooks in the South of France. Add a couple of spoonfuls of honey to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. Season to taste.
Step 4: sit out in your garden and savour for a late supper - no point eating too early when it's 35°C.'
Yep we can outdo that in Oz. Rataouille used to be the signature dish in my chorister days when we would all assemble chez sojourner after the Good Friday sung liturgy for a vegetarian feed.
@Sojourner, without getting uber-competitive, what do you do differently in your ratatouille? My own preference was always for charred and skinned peppers in the dish.
No competition intended: peppers charred & skinned ( shades of St Bartholomew🙀) zucchini stir fried with onions,eggpant roasted in oven and tomatoes stewed with garlic. The whole lot bunged into large oot and cooked briefly withfrsh basil and oregano.
Have not done a post Good Friday liturgy bash in many years: back in the day usually fed 40.
@Sojourner them's fighting words . Ratatouille is from the South of France. Also tinned tomatoes have no place anywhere near it. I see the appeal of putting certain vegetables in the oven but it makes the purists have conniptions (and in foie gras land, food is somewhat of a life and death matter).
Tartiflette - my first attempt. A surplus of turnips, so I replaced some of the potato, and Taleggio instead of Reblochon. I don't know what it's supposed to taste like, but it was delicious - and I promise you, that's something I rarely say about my own cooking.
@Sojourner them's fighting words . Ratatouille is from the South of France. Also tinned tomatoes have no place anywhere near it. I see the appeal of putting certain vegetables in the oven but it makes the purists have conniptions (and in foie gras land, food is somewhat of a life and death matter).
@MaryLouise Could you give the volumes, please? And how many fritters, or, what would the diameter and thickness of a fritter be? That sounds fantastic - light yet engagingly flavourful.
Tartiflette - my first attempt. A surplus of turnips, so I replaced some of the potato, and Taleggio instead of Reblochon. I don't know what it's supposed to taste like, but it was delicious - and I promise you, that's something I rarely say about my own cooking.
Tartiflette is incredible. I was pointed at a recipe by a pupil years ago - one of the best tips I've ever had! I often use Brie instead of Reblochon and it's still delicious...
@MaryLouise Could you give the volumes, please? And how many fritters, or, what would the diameter and thickness of a fritter be? That sounds fantastic - light yet engagingly flavourful.
This is quite hard to figure out @Pangolin Guerre because I prefer smaller courgettes (zucchini for some) and am thinking about this as a side dish for two or three to accompany grilled lamb. It is light and tasty but you need to get in a good balance of crumbled feta and herbs because courgettes are not bursting with flavour. I make quite small fritters, like slightly flattened golf balls or a little bigger.
And it is important to squeeze out liquid from the courgettes once grated.
Here's a rough guide and sorry not to be more precise.
6 small to medium courgettes
5 spring onions, finely chopped
8 oz. or 2 heaped tbsp crumbled feta cheese
small bunch fresh mint, chopped
small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. paprika or some fresh ground black pepper
1 small cup flour
1 large egg or 2 small eggs, beaten
olive oil, to fry
Season well, sprinkle on some extra chopped parsley, have some lemon to squeeze over.
Note on method: Coarsely grate the courgettes and squeeze out, or wrap the grated courgettes in a tea towel for 20 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients except the olive oil. Season well.
I have a couple of similar recipes, but they call for salting the grated courgette for a while before squeezing out the liquid.
I also make a delicious courgette and rice filo pie, which I believe I have posted here in the past. No need to salt the courgettes for that as the filling is made with uncooked rice, which soaks up the liquid from the courgettes and other ingredients.
@MaryLouise the addition of honey and mint is very interesting - brings to mind caponata. Of course there is a lot of southern Italian and Arab/North African influence in Provençal and Occitan cuisine (and also in Catalan cuisine).
I made Jansson's Temptation today. I recipe I first noted 40-odd years ago and thought "I must try that one day" - and today was the day. It was all right, but not really worth the wait. I wonder if soaking the potatoes beforehand to de-starch them was a mistake. And I used a wide, shallow dish - should perhaps have gone for something smaller but deeper? Any advice, shipmates?
Janssons was something I used to get right, but I seem to have lost the knack. I wish I could get it back. I definitely didn't de-starch the potatoes. I used rollmops and anchovies and I poured the cream on at the end (which has to be right, because one I did with cream in from the start boiled over and I'm still trying to get the burnt remnants off the oven floor).
I feel so Shippie tonight. I finally made KenWritez' Fast & Easy Black Bean Chili. @Mamacita posted the recipe back in 2020. A year-plus later I finally got around to it! It is quite pleasant and flavorful. It took me roughly one hour, start to finish. But I was taking notes while doing it, so that might have slightly delayed me.
One minor quibble: Ken never does get around to saying WHEN to add the black beans. Which, considering that it is called "Fast & East Black Bean Chili," does seem to be a bit of an oversight. For the record, that is NOT Mamacita's fault. I did an internet search and found where KenWritez originally posted the recipe (circa 2009). Mamacita posted it exactly. Same flaw in the original. I didn't bother to see if it was corrected later. I decided to add the beans at the same time that I added the pineapple. But to each your own!
Owing to being stressed witless these days, I managed to fail at cauliflower cheese last night, by inadvertently microwaving the veg to mush. However I still had a saucepan of cheese sauce and some bacon bits, so quick swivel to pasta.
Trying to think of other recipes where you could substitute the main ingredient and still have a dish.
I adore Ken Writez' chilli, but it is a rather curious fact that he never tells you to put the beans in at any point. I usually add them right at the end before the final simmer.
I love the barbecue flavour you get from the vinegar and fruit. It can be enhanced with a bit of smoked paprika.
I adore Ken Writez' chilli, but it is a rather curious fact that he never tells you to put the beans in at any point. I usually add them right at the end before the final simmer.
Americans are divided as to whether beans belong in chili. And by "divided," I mean that Texans will shoot you if you put beans in the chili. They are firmly of the opinion that beans may only be served along as a side dish. Google "should beans be in chili" for a rather spicy conversation.
My husband's grandmother from Oklahoma felt the same, no beans ever. I had to wait until she died to add the beans to her recipe. IMHO it is way better with beans.
We did Cornish pasties, though I cheated and used edible pie dough rather than the family dough recipe which is suitable for making bricks. My ancestors shudder in horror.
We did Cornish pasties, though I cheated and used edible pie dough rather than the family dough recipe which is suitable for making bricks. My ancestors shudder in horror.
Hah, American pie dough is really unique - flaky shortcrust isn't done in that way elsewhere. Traditional Cornish pasty dough was on the tougher side as it was supposed to survive a morning down a mine, but most commercial Cornish pasties here use flaky/rough puff pastry. It's unusual to see the traditional pastry outside local independent bakers in Cornwall.
Janssons was something I used to get right, but I seem to have lost the knack. I wish I could get it back. I definitely didn't de-starch the potatoes. I used rollmops and anchovies ....
Rollmops? Interesting - that seems like a radical change of (what I imagined was) the nature of the dish. But I love rollmops, so will look for a recipe that includes them.
I think I got the recipe from some discount bookshop title like European Favourites, bringing the likes of spaghetti bolognaise and coq au vin to 70s Britain. Probably wildly inauthentic.
Not a recipe, but part of a foody gift we got for Christmas: Saffron and Orange Aioli, described as a Mediterranean Dip and Spread.
I am fairly adventurous when it comes to food, and enjoy flavours from all around the Med, but I was a little dubious about that particular condiment.
In appearance it is like a mustard-coloured hair dressing, and has a sort of semi-solid oily texture, which is unsurprising as it has 66g sunflower oil to each 100g of the product.
I can taste garlic, and orange but, as I haven't had much experience of saffron as a flavouring, and there appears to be more turmeric than the 1% of saffron the taste is probably barely there anyway.
My doubts were not without cause, it seems.Not recommended.
We got quite a lot of beetroot in our veg box this week. I made beetroot houmous which was ok, and we have beetroot and red onion Tarte tatin this evening. Mr FD is not a great fan of beetroot.
I am a beetroot hater in general - it just tastes like soil to me. I haven't tried beetroot in chocolate cake but I think that would help. Beetroot crisps are acceptable, and I think some kind of pakora or samosa application would work well too. Definitely needs strong flavours to disguise the soil-like flavour. I hate it when companies sneak beetroot into berry smoothies because berries are unfortunately not enough to disguise that flavour.
Is beetroot the same thing as what we here in Canada just call beets? Or is it something completely different? (Beets are a root vegetable so I'm assuming the same).
Is beetroot the same thing as what we here in Canada just call beets?
As do we in the US. Yes, my understanding is that beetroot and beets are the UK and North American names for the same thing.
When I was growing up, the mealtime rule in our house was that we had to take at least one bite of everything on the plate and eat it with a smile, or at least without making a face or comment. After that one bite, we didn’t have to eat any more of that food if we didn’t like it.
Beets were one of two foods my mother finally gave up on me being able eat without making a face, however much I tried to hide it.
Is beetroot the same thing as what we here in Canada just call beets? Or is it something completely different? (Beets are a root vegetable so I'm assuming the same).
Yes, beetroot = beets. I believe it's done to distinguish the vegetable from sugar beet, which is grown in the UK.
To paraphrase @Pomona, I am a beetroot lover in general - it just tastes like soil to me. It's
Precisely the earthy quality balanced by its sweetness that I find compelling.
Borshch is one of my favourite soups (two quite different recipes, one hot for winter and one chilled for summer). A risotto made with roasted beet, beet greens or spinach, and studded at the plating with nuggets of Gorgonzola is simply heavenly. Pickled, on my assorted antipasti plate when it's too hot and humid to contemplate cooking, they are a bracing wake-me-up for my palate.
I’m with Pomona on the beetroot; it tastes too earthy. I will eat it if necessary as a pickle and it is okay in houmous and as crisps. I can see it working in pakoras which I would politely eat if given.
Also I don't think the beet family (chard/perpetual spinach are just beets bred for the stalks and leaves rather than the root) is related to other sweet root vegetables like carrots or parsnips or swede (aka rutabagas/yellow turnips) but they all have the same issue of having a strange combination of sweetness plus what I can only describe as a vegetal 'off' flavour. It's different to the sweetness of a sweet potato or a winter squash. The other veg don't have a soil-y taste but there's some flavour there I dislike unless it's well-disguised in a soup or something. I like mushrooms and leafy greens which are both unpalatably bitter and/or earthy to many people so I don't think it's due to being a supertaster or anything like that, and I like sweet-savoury combinations. It's more that the sweetness itself has an odd flavour.
Oh chard (the leaves anyway) is fine to me, as is perpetual spinach. They just taste like other green leafy veg, though I would rather have broccoli - especially sprouting broccoli or Chinese broccoli - or cavalo nero/black kale.
Chinese broccoli aka gai laan is crossed with 'normal' calabrese type broccoli to produce tenderstem broccoli, which I think is actually trademarked - Chinese broccoli is mostly tender stalk and small leaves with a bit of floret at the top, like a leggier sprouting broccoli. You slice it up diagonally like you might do with thicker broccoli stems.
After making a beetroot and red onion tarte tatin that was rejected by MrD and finally by me too, I have asked that we don't have beetroot in the veg box again. This week we have black radish, another vegetable I have no idea what to do with! I think it's going to be mostly grated into coleslaw...
After making a beetroot and red onion tarte tatin that was rejected by MrD and finally by me too, I have asked that we don't have beetroot in the veg box again. This week we have black radish, another vegetable I have no idea what to do with! I think it's going to be mostly grated into coleslaw...
Oh black radishes are intended to be cooked! I mean I'm sure you can eat it raw like a normal radish, but black radishes are winter radishes designed for storage and cooking like other root vegetables (like a turnip I guess). Look up recipes for winter radishes.
Like most Brits, for the longest time the only way I'd tasted beetroot was, as Delia Smith put it, "condemned to a lethal dose of malt vinegar in a pickle jar". I don't mind pickled beetroot (as long as it's isolated from the rest of the salad so it doesn't turn everything purple*), but it can be very nice indeed when not pickled. I have fond memories of a toasted sandwich with beetroot and goat's cheese - delicious!
* At church fork-suppers in rural Newfoundland there is usually a rather alarming-looking concoction that looks as if it ought to be a sort of blackberry fool, but is in fact a mashed potato salad with beetroot juice - well worth avoiding, imho!
At church fork-suppers in rural Newfoundland there is usually a rather alarming-looking concoction that looks as if it ought to be a sort of blackberry fool, but is in fact a mashed potato salad with beetroot juice - well worth avoiding, imho!
Ah yes, that staple of the Newfoundland cold-plate -- the bright pink potato salad full of beet juice. Also the classic three pieces of beet (I honestly don't know if it's pickled or not) on a plate next to the other cold-plate items. It's a really popular item here but one of the many staples of our local cuisine that I absolutely cannot stand.
Beets look like they should taste like stained glass looks, in the sense of being beautiful and jewel-like, but in my experience they don't.
I was once forced to eat beetroot sandwiches as a child. I haven’t touched beetroot since, except in a delicious chocolate cake recipe my daughter used. I couldn’t tell it had beetroot in it but I prefer my chocolate cake to be unadulterated.
I love pickled beets, and the family treat for Easter was and is always eggs, picked in beet juice. This turns the white of the egg purple and leaves the yolk yellow.
I made a rather nice carrot cake yesterday, but I am now faced with the prospect of eating it all as neither Mrs Feet nor Little Miss Feet like it. I used this recipe: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/
But used just demerara sugar and added a bit of ginger while leaving out the nuts.
I made a rather nice carrot cake yesterday, but I am now faced with the prospect of eating it all as neither Mrs Feet nor Little Miss Feet like it. I used this recipe: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/
But used just demerara sugar and added a bit of ginger while leaving out the nuts.
Beets look like they should taste like stained glass looks, in the sense of being beautiful and jewel-like, but in my experience they don't.
Only too true. When we were growing up, fresh beetroot was not common at the greengrocer's, and so the canned stuff was what we normally got. The vinegar based canning liquid was about all you could taste.
I made a rather nice carrot cake yesterday, but I am now faced with the prospect of eating it all as neither Mrs Feet nor Little Miss Feet like it. I used this recipe: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/
But used just demerara sugar and added a bit of ginger while leaving out the nuts.
I like beets more than I used to, particularly since there are more varieties available than when I was a surly kid staring down a pile of boiled red blobs. I find golden beets very tasty when scrubbed well, roasted in foil then served cold in a vinaigrette.
Heaven spare me any overly-precious preparations; I still have nightmares about a particularly deadly work banquet where the appetizer was a beet “carpaccio” consisting of three rubbery slices sprinkled (very) sparingly with particles of goat cheese and a minuscule dill frond. This was supposed to sustain us until the main course arrived some 45 minutes later. I seriously contemplated chowing down on the flower arrangement, which in retrospect would have been more palatable.
Like LC, I volunteer to help with any and all carrot cakes. (I live to serve😉)
Comments
Yes! I have a fantastic recipe for Proper Ratatouille™ from @la vie en rouge for late-summer ratatouille. In fact I am going to put it up here again although it was on last year's recipe thread, because it is that good. I wait until my tomatoes are perfectly ripe, red bell peppers affordable, and the basil abundant.
Proper Ratatouille™
Proper Ratatouille™ is tomatoes, courgettes, aubergine, onion, garlic and peppers of two different colours. What makes it ratatouille is frying each vegetable separately, otherwise it becomes no longer ratatouille but piperade -- perfectly pleasant but without the bite and intensity of flavour of the labour of love which is the genuine article.
Step 1: go to the foie gras land market and buy the appropriate vegetables. Said veg has been ripened on the plant in the sun and brought to the market straight from the farm. The tomatoes are as big as your head.
Step 2: chop and slice everything up. Stick the tomatoes in a big pan and smash them up a bit with a rolling pin. Leave them to cook down slowly with some basil. Now the bit that takes flipping ages: fry each vegetable separately and set aside. When they're all done, put them in the pan with the tomatoes and cook over a medium heat.
Step 3: the magic secret bit only known to excellent cooks in the South of France. Add a couple of spoonfuls of honey to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes. Season to taste.
Step 4: sit out in your garden and savour for a late supper - no point eating too early when it's 35°C.'
Have not done a post Good Friday liturgy bash in many years: back in the day usually fed 40.
Fortunately it’s a life only issue here in Oz😜
Tartiflette is incredible. I was pointed at a recipe by a pupil years ago - one of the best tips I've ever had! I often use Brie instead of Reblochon and it's still delicious...
This is quite hard to figure out @Pangolin Guerre because I prefer smaller courgettes (zucchini for some) and am thinking about this as a side dish for two or three to accompany grilled lamb. It is light and tasty but you need to get in a good balance of crumbled feta and herbs because courgettes are not bursting with flavour. I make quite small fritters, like slightly flattened golf balls or a little bigger.
And it is important to squeeze out liquid from the courgettes once grated.
Here's a rough guide and sorry not to be more precise.
6 small to medium courgettes
5 spring onions, finely chopped
8 oz. or 2 heaped tbsp crumbled feta cheese
small bunch fresh mint, chopped
small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. paprika or some fresh ground black pepper
1 small cup flour
1 large egg or 2 small eggs, beaten
olive oil, to fry
Season well, sprinkle on some extra chopped parsley, have some lemon to squeeze over.
Note on method: Coarsely grate the courgettes and squeeze out, or wrap the grated courgettes in a tea towel for 20 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients except the olive oil. Season well.
I hope that helps.
I also make a delicious courgette and rice filo pie, which I believe I have posted here in the past. No need to salt the courgettes for that as the filling is made with uncooked rice, which soaks up the liquid from the courgettes and other ingredients.
One minor quibble: Ken never does get around to saying WHEN to add the black beans. Which, considering that it is called "Fast & East Black Bean Chili," does seem to be a bit of an oversight. For the record, that is NOT Mamacita's fault. I did an internet search and found where KenWritez originally posted the recipe (circa 2009). Mamacita posted it exactly. Same flaw in the original. I didn't bother to see if it was corrected later. I decided to add the beans at the same time that I added the pineapple. But to each your own!
Trying to think of other recipes where you could substitute the main ingredient and still have a dish.
I love the barbecue flavour you get from the vinegar and fruit. It can be enhanced with a bit of smoked paprika.
Americans are divided as to whether beans belong in chili. And by "divided," I mean that Texans will shoot you if you put beans in the chili. They are firmly of the opinion that beans may only be served along as a side dish. Google "should beans be in chili" for a rather spicy conversation.
Hah, American pie dough is really unique - flaky shortcrust isn't done in that way elsewhere. Traditional Cornish pasty dough was on the tougher side as it was supposed to survive a morning down a mine, but most commercial Cornish pasties here use flaky/rough puff pastry. It's unusual to see the traditional pastry outside local independent bakers in Cornwall.
I am fairly adventurous when it comes to food, and enjoy flavours from all around the Med, but I was a little dubious about that particular condiment.
In appearance it is like a mustard-coloured hair dressing, and has a sort of semi-solid oily texture, which is unsurprising as it has 66g sunflower oil to each 100g of the product.
I can taste garlic, and orange but, as I haven't had much experience of saffron as a flavouring, and there appears to be more turmeric than the 1% of saffron the taste is probably barely there anyway.
My doubts were not without cause, it seems.Not recommended.
When I was growing up, the mealtime rule in our house was that we had to take at least one bite of everything on the plate and eat it with a smile, or at least without making a face or comment. After that one bite, we didn’t have to eat any more of that food if we didn’t like it.
Beets were one of two foods my mother finally gave up on me being able eat without making a face, however much I tried to hide it.
Yes, beetroot = beets. I believe it's done to distinguish the vegetable from sugar beet, which is grown in the UK.
Precisely the earthy quality balanced by its sweetness that I find compelling.
Borshch is one of my favourite soups (two quite different recipes, one hot for winter and one chilled for summer). A risotto made with roasted beet, beet greens or spinach, and studded at the plating with nuggets of Gorgonzola is simply heavenly. Pickled, on my assorted antipasti plate when it's too hot and humid to contemplate cooking, they are a bracing wake-me-up for my palate.
Chinese broccoli aka gai laan is crossed with 'normal' calabrese type broccoli to produce tenderstem broccoli, which I think is actually trademarked - Chinese broccoli is mostly tender stalk and small leaves with a bit of floret at the top, like a leggier sprouting broccoli. You slice it up diagonally like you might do with thicker broccoli stems.
Oh black radishes are intended to be cooked! I mean I'm sure you can eat it raw like a normal radish, but black radishes are winter radishes designed for storage and cooking like other root vegetables (like a turnip I guess). Look up recipes for winter radishes.
* At church fork-suppers in rural Newfoundland there is usually a rather alarming-looking concoction that looks as if it ought to be a sort of blackberry fool, but is in fact a mashed potato salad with beetroot juice - well worth avoiding, imho!
Ah yes, that staple of the Newfoundland cold-plate -- the bright pink potato salad full of beet juice. Also the classic three pieces of beet (I honestly don't know if it's pickled or not) on a plate next to the other cold-plate items. It's a really popular item here but one of the many staples of our local cuisine that I absolutely cannot stand.
Beets look like they should taste like stained glass looks, in the sense of being beautiful and jewel-like, but in my experience they don't.
https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/
But used just demerara sugar and added a bit of ginger while leaving out the nuts.
Cake freezes well...
Only too true. When we were growing up, fresh beetroot was not common at the greengrocer's, and so the canned stuff was what we normally got. The vinegar based canning liquid was about all you could taste.
I'd make the sacrifice and help!
Heaven spare me any overly-precious preparations; I still have nightmares about a particularly deadly work banquet where the appetizer was a beet “carpaccio” consisting of three rubbery slices sprinkled (very) sparingly with particles of goat cheese and a minuscule dill frond. This was supposed to sustain us until the main course arrived some 45 minutes later. I seriously contemplated chowing down on the flower arrangement, which in retrospect would have been more palatable.
Like LC, I volunteer to help with any and all carrot cakes. (I live to serve😉)