[Intro music] Ratatouille is a vegetable stew like originating from Provence. The recipe calls for the ingredients that would typically be found in the South of France. Ratatouille can be served hot, cold or at room temperature either as a side dish or as an appetiser. To make a ratatouille, you will need onions, tomatoes, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, zucchinis, egg plant, garlic, basil, fresh rosemary, thyme, tomato paste, salt, pepper and olive oil- extra virgin of course. Egg plant is a great vegetable. It is widely used in many cuisines from the Mediterranean basin. To prepare and use eggplant, its very easy. Let me show you how to do. So move the stems away, those leaves, cut the stems off. Here we go. Trim the end off. Then cut the eggplant into cubes or slices depending on your recipe. But for us today we are going to cut it in cubes for our ratatouille. Cut the slices about ¾ of an inch thick. Good. Then cut the eggplant into sticks and then into cubes. So try to have everything cut into ¾ of an inch cubes to one inch max. Then place your cut eggplant into a bowl. Here we go. Add the salt; about a tablespoon of salt per eggplant. So I am using rock salt. Mix well. You want to make sure the salt is well distributed into the eggplants. Then transfer the eggplants into a colander or sieve with the salt. Here we go. And place the sieve or the colander over the bowl for the water to drain. Eggplant is notorious to absorb huge amount of oil. Thanks to the salt, the eggplant is going to sweat and the water is going to drain out, limiting the absorption of oil when cooking. Leave the eggplant like so for about 45 minutes and I will show you later on, the sweating. First of all, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Then heat two skillets on medium heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil on each. And sauté the vegetables. So I am going to start by the onions here. And I am going to put the bell peppers in that one. You can put the green and red together. Sauté the onions. Sauté your vegetables for about 8-10 minutes until they are soft and slightly golden. It’s starting to smell, very nice. Then season each pan with salt and pepper. Sauté. I am using two skillets because its much faster. Then transfer the vegetables into a colander. Add an extra tablespoon of olive oil. Disperse the oil. And add the zucchinis. Do the same for the bell peppers. Add a tablespoon of olive oil again, that was a good tablespoon. Add the tomatoes. And the garlic. Season again. So salt here; again here. Pepper. Turn off the heat under the tomatoes and drain in the colander. Sauté the zucchinis. Turn off the heat under the zucchinis after 8-10 minutes and drain over the vegetables. Now let’s check the eggplants. It’s been 45 minutes. Our eggplants are drained. See the water and we are going to discard the juice. Then wash the eggplant under cold water to remove the salt. Then pat dry them. Now your eggplant is ready to be cooked and it shouldn’t absorb too much oil. In a pan, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. 1, 2. On medium high heat, make sure your eggplants are dried. And add it to the pan. Sauté the eggplant. And cook it for about 10 minutes. As you can see the eggplant is not sticking, thanks to the sweating process we did earlier. Season the eggplant with salt, pepper and cook for about 5 more minutes or a total of 8-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and drain the eggplant. Good. All the vegetables are sautéed, so let’s go to do the dish. As you can see, some water has drained out from the vegetables along with the oil that we used to cook them. So it is a very healthy dish. Place a layer of one inch of vegetables in a saucepan or a large pot. Then chop the basil into chiffonade. Let me show you. So make sure your all the herbs are washed. Separate the leaves from the stems. And if you have any flower like this one, cut it off and do not use that. Stack the leaves together from the biggest ones to the smallest ones. Then roll them like a little cigar and slice it. Pick it up and sprinkle over the vegetables. Do the same for the aromatic herbs which are the rosemary and the thyme. So separate the leaves from the stem. Never use the stems of rosemary or thyme because that will bring bitterness to the dish. It’s wood and we are not wood pecker. So do the same for the thyme. Separate the leaves from the main stem. Today I am using the twp types of thyme. This one is lemon thyme and this one is regular French thyme. Why? Because its there in the garden and it looks beautiful. Then with a chef knife, chop those herbs finely. So the thyme and rosemary must be finely chopped. If fresh herbs are not available, you may substitute the thyme and rosemary by dry ones. But please, stay away from dry basil. It’s better not to put any that use dry basil. Because it sticks like hay. Collect half of the thyme-rosemary and sprinkle over the vegetables. Add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste over. 1, 2. And add another layer of vegetables. And repeat the operation again. Here I made a cuban cigar...Romeo y Julieta Cigar may be. Sprinkle the basil again over the vegetables. Add the tomato paste. Another 2 tablespoons- 1,2 and 1 for the pot. Add the remaining vegetables. Cover the pot with a lid. Bake the ratatouille at 325 degrees F for 3 hours. We will show you the ratatouille in one hour. It’s been one hour. Let’s have a look. That’s fine. Place the lid back and return to the oven. Ready? Nice. Make sure the ratatouille doesn’t stick to the bottom, that it’s fine. Place the lid back and cook the ratatouille an extra hour. Wow! Very fragrant! Beautiful! Taste the ratatouille. I am sure it going to be hot. It needs more seasoning. Salt and pepper. Come have a look. So it’s pretty cooked. And this is the ratatouille. The ratatouille is an earthly dish. All the vegetables should be like overdone. That it should cook very slowly. Imagine we cooked those vegetables for 3 hours. So when I see in modern cuisine the ratatouille served crunchy, it makes me mad. A ratatouille should be well done. Ask chef Gusto. He will agree with me. Drain with a colander, the ratatouille. And serve it in a platter. Ratatouille is a perfect side dish for roasted chicken, a roasted leg of lamb, some scramble eggs. Even with fish! And for the last touch, garnish with fresh herbs. Here I am using the lemon thyme. And serve your ratatouille hot, cold or at room temperature. It’s up to you. Another way to serve ratatouille is individually in the plates. So drain your ratatouille. Place a ring on the centre of the plate. Fill the ring with the ratatouille. May be not much because this is a big ring on a small plate. Lift it up. Garnish with balsamic vinegar reduction. Then garnish with basil oil, and a stem of basil leaves. Ratatouille Niçoise. Welcome in Provence. Bon appétit!
