Meatless Monday - Ratatouille

I've made this before but my recent harvests rather demand it. One keen eyed observer even predicted it! But with tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, crooked neck squash, basil and parsley all from the garden it would be harder to justify not making it rather than repeating from a year ago.

I follow the suggestion from the  Gourmet cookbook and cook the components separately before combining them for a final simmer. The results are worth it!

Ratatouille
Ingredients:
2-3 pounds of tomatoes roughly chopped - If you want you can peel them first, but I don't bother
2 big onions sliced thinly
2 lbs each of zucchini and eggplant cut into bite size chunks - I used crooked neck squash instead of zucchini
3 bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1" chunks
1 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
1 handful of basil leaves torn in half - about 20
6-10 cloves garlic thinly sliced
1+ cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon  fresh ground pepper
salt

Directions:
In a large pot over medium heat, add the chopped tomatoes, garlic, parsley and basil and 1/3 cup of olive oil. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer about 30 minutes until the tomatoes break down.

Meanwhile.... put the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Place over a pan or in the sink while it drains.

In a big saute pan heat 3 tbs olive oil. Add the onions and a pinch of salt, cook until soft - about 10 minutes  - remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon.

Repeat procedure with peppers, crooked neck squash (or zucchini) adding olive oil and salt each time.

Finally, blot dry the eggplant, add another 3 tbs of olive oil (no salt) and the eggplant - cook until soft about 10-12 minutes.

Add all the cooked vegetables and black pepper to the simmering tomatoes. Simmer for another hour or so until the vegetables are very tender.

Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as needed.

Serve hot, warm or room temperature with some crusty bread. It's like summer in a bowl!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging! 

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - @gastrogardener
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Meatless Monday - "Ratatouille" Panini

This time of year is great with all the produce in the garden or farmers market. One of my favorite things to make is ratatouille, that delicious vegetable stew featuring eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes.

I had picked up some nice bread at the market, and thought, why not use those same flavors and make a sandwich, a toasted sandwich. A Ratatouille Panini!

Here in the States panini is used to denote a grilled sandwich, but the word comes from the Italian panino, meaning little roll. Panini is the plural form. So while the word is bastardized here in North America, it conjures an image of toasty crusty crunchy deliciousness. And when the stars of the sandwich come from your own garden? Well, it is only so much the better! I won't give exact measurements since I don't know how big you want your sandwich, and, being a sandwich it is a highly flexible "recipe." See what's fresh and take it from there!

Here's what I did.


Ingredients:
Good bread
2-3 Tomatoes sliced 1/3" thick
Eggplant sliced into rounds
Zucchini sliced into rounds
Bell pepper, preferably red or yellow sliced into sections
2 Garlic bulbs, separated into cloves and peeled
olive oil
Herbs de Provence
salt
softened goat cheese (optional)
Rosemary sprigs (optional)

Directions:
In a small sauce pan add garlic cloves and rosemary. Add enough olive oil to cover. Cook over very low heat, don't boil. Simmer for about an hour. When the garlic cloves are very tender, remove from heat and let cool.

While garlic poaches, prepare the vegetables.

Preheat oven to 225-250F.

Put cut vegetables on cooling rack over a cookie sheet, sprinkle eggplant and zucchini with salt to draw out moisture. Allow to sit for 30 minutes, blot moisture with paper towel. Turn the vegetables over and repeat the process.

Sprinkle the vegetables with the Herbs de Provence.

Put vegetables in slow oven until tender and slightly dry. Check at 1 hour, then every 30 minutes after that.

Here's what I had after the slow roasting.

I have and used a panini press but you could use a ribbed skillet or even a grill outdoors. Work with what you have.

Remove the garlic cloves from the oil.

Grill the vegetables (except the tomatoes, they will bee too delicate) brushing with the garlic infused oil.

Assemble the sandwich.  Smear the tender garlic onto one side of one of the pieces of bread.  Smear the other piece with the goat cheese. These are the inside part of the sandwich.

Layer the vegetables onto one of the pieces of bread.

Put the other piece of bread on top. Brush the top with a generous amount of the garlic infused oil. Put the  sandwich oiled side down on the panini press or skillet or whatever you are using. Oil the other side.

Grill until toasty and starting to char in spots.  Remove from press and allow to cool slightly before cutting in two. This  served two.

It was absolutely delicous, crunchy bread, tender vegetables, the garlic mellowed by poaching. A perfect summer dinner.

What vegetables do you have on hand?

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - @gastrogardener
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener
email: thegastronomicgardener at gmail dot com

Meatless Monday - Garden Thai Curry

After last week's pork-fest, let's get back on track. The harvest in the garden is starting to come in, I was late getting home, so what to do. Just did a stir-fry, OK I'll make a curry.

It is completely flexible but here is what I did.

Ingredients

Coconut milk
Chili paste
Banana pepper (garden)
Spinach (garden)
Carrots (some from the garden)
Crooked neck squash (garden)
Tomatoes
Red Onion
Minced Garlic
Minced Ginger
Basil for garnish
Oil
Salt

Start  rice

Heat the oil in a wok
Add the garlic, ginger and chili paste, stir fry for 15 seconds
Add the coconut milk
Add the vegetables except for spinach.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover.
Simmer gently until eggplant is tender.
Add spinach

Stir to combine.
Serve over rice, garnish with basil leaves.

Fast, simple and satisfying. And hot! - Adjust chili paste to your taste.

Until next time, Eat Well and Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Meatless Monday - Tomato Eggplant Ragu over Polenta with Roasted Red Pepper Coulis

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a Meatless Monday dish. So hopefully I can make up for it with this simple yet elegant  dish.

Last summer I put up some Tomato Eggplant Relish. While it is good on toasted slices of baguette, it is outstanding warmed up over pasta.  For tonight I'm going to switch it up and instead of pasta, I'll make a creamy cheese polenta, and top it off with a drizzle of pureed roasted red peppers! If you don't have any relish, a saute of summer vegetables and a bit of tomato sauce would work just fine as well. Zucchini, eggplant, peppers all would be great. Feel free to mix it up!

Ingredients:
Tomato Eggplant Relish
1 cup Tomato Sauce - from the garden last year

For the Polenta:
1 1/2 cups polenta or yellow cornmeal
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups milk
water as needed
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For Roasted Red Pepper Coulis:
1.5 cups roasted red peppers - If using canned - rinse the off and pat  dry

Directions:
In a large pot add milk and cream bring the milk and cream mixture up to a simmer and gradually pour in the cornmeal in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly.

Once the milk is completely absorbed, lower the heat and set a timer for 20 minutes.

Continue cooking, whisking often, until the timer goes off, add water if the mixture is too thick (it should be similar creamy mashed potatoes). I ended up adding almost 1.5 cups of water during the cooking time.

When the timer goes off the polenta should be thick and smooth. Finish with butter, grated cheese, salt and pepper.

While the polenta was cooking, I added the Eggplant and tomato sauce to a pan, and heated gently.

In the midst of all this I pureed the roasted red pepper using the immersion blender - a regular blender would work just fine too.

To serve, add a portion of polenta, top with the eggplant tomato mixture, and drizzle on the red pepper puree.

The polenta is stick-to-your ribs filling, rich and cheesey, and serve as a nice counter point to the acid tomatoes. This dinner can be on the table in under 40 minutes which makes it a delicious weeknight meal,

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Eggplant Parmesan in a Skillet.

I am on holiday in southern Texas, so in order to stay up to date with meatless Monday I'm going to reprint  an article from last August. Enjoy......

I have eggplant from the garden,  and some recently canned tomato sauce.This is a different take on the classic baked Eggplant Parmesan. Using only one skillet, it is a quick summer meal. This recipe skips the normal salting and draining of the eggplant. If you have it this is a great place to let your canned tomato sauce shine.


Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds eggplant, unpeeled, sliced into rounds
3 eggs beaten
1½ cup season breadcrumbs
4-6 tbs olive oil
1 pint tomato sauce (more if you like it saucy, but this was plenty saucy)
½ tsp salt
2 tsp Italian seasoning (or just mixed dried oregano and basil 50/50)
Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
4-6 plum tomatoes, chopped I used golden ones - they are what I have and I like the color contrast
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan

Directions:
Add beaten eggs to shallow bowl, dip eggplant into eggs.
Coat egg washed eggplant with breadcrumbs
In small bowl mix Italian seasoning, salt, pepper flakes, and tomatoes.
Heat 2 tsp olive oil in skillet over medium heat.
Add breaded eggplant to pan, sauté until brown, turn and brown other side.

Transfer browned eggplant to plate, continue until all the eggplant is browned. As you can see I used two types of eggplant, globe and Japanese. I don't think it matters much.

Wipe out skillet, add 2/3 cup marinara sauce to skillet.

Arrange half the eggplant slice in a layer in the skillet.

Spoon half of tomato & herb mixture over eggplant.

Sprinkle half the cheese on top and add 2/3 cup sauce.

Repeat layering eggplant, tomato, cheese and sauce.

Cover skillet and simmer until tender – about 20 minutes.

It looks about the same but it the cheese is melted.

Supper is ready! It was better than I expected. A bit wet but the eggplant was tender and the flavor quite good. The nice thing is you could do this on a side burner on a grill outside and not heat up the house oven.

Until next time Eat Well & Keep Digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
My garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
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Apple Butter - a taste of autumn preserved!

Yesterday the DW and I went out to an apple orchard to walk around, get some apples, and some apple cider donuts. The doughnuts were sublime, light, fluffy and warm, they almost melt in your mouth, but I digress.

We ended up with 1/2 a peck each of Jonagold and Honeycrisp. DW prefers the Jonogold, I like the Honeycrisp. That's about 20 lbs of apples.  It is unlikely we'll eat that many out of hand so I immediately started looking in my canning book for recipes. I decided to make some apple butter, if you are not familiar with it, it is like very thick and highly spiced applesauce - great on toast for breakfast instead of jam or jelly. I used the Honeycrisp for this  recipe.


Canned Apple Butter  - Makes 3 pints.

Ingredients:
4 lbs apples, peeled, cored and quartered.
2 cups water
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove

Honeycrisp are large heavy fruit - here is the 4 lbs!

Using the super peeler, (no I don't feel like I am cheating) all I have to turn the crank! This makes very short work of the apples. All peelings go right out to the compost pile.

To make the apple puree, put the prepped apples into a large pot with 2 cups of water. 

Simmer until soft.

Run the cooked apples through the food mill with the largest screen - you want a puree not liquid.

Return the puree to the pot, add the sugar and spices.

Cook over medium head until thickened and puree will round up on a spoon. That is, if you scoops some out, it has enough body to be a small mound on a spoon.

Prepare your jars for canning following manufacturers instructions. Here is my filling station.

Fill jars, remove any air bubbles, leave 1/4" head space, adjust 2 piece lids, and process in hot water canner for 10 minutes.

As I had the water canner  already setup and had all the ingredients on hand, I went ahead and  made another batch of the Eggplant Tomato Relish. - another 6 1/2 pints.

As you can see, by this point it was dark outside. I cleaned up and called it a night.


Until next time, Eat Well & Keep digging!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt

http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Eggplant stuffed tomatoes

A reader send me a recipe for zucchini  stuffed tomatoes. Well, with today's harvest, I decided to take that recipe and give it a twist to make use of what I had on hand.

Ingredients:
2 Japanese eggplants medium dice
1 small onion diced
1/2 cup diced mushrooms
7 tomatoes,

4 cloves garlic finely diced

1 tsp Herbs De Provence

2 tsp olive oil + more for drizzling

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan (I know the picture shows mozzarella, but I changed my mind at the last minute.

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F
Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions.

Cook until onions are soft, stirring often.

Add eggplant and mushrooms and a pinch of salt and grind of pepper.

Cook over medium heat until eggplant browns stirring often. Add herbs.

While eggplant cooks, cut top third of tomatoes off and remove veins, seeds and pulp. Repeat with the rest of the tomatoes.

Add half the Parmesan and bread crumbs to the eggplant mixture, stir to mix.

Stuff the tomato shells with the eggplant mixture.

Mix the remaining bread crumbs and cheese. Sprinkle over the top of each stuffed tomato. Drizzle each with a little olive oil.

Put in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, change oven to broil, and broil for 3-5 minutes until tops are browned.

Enjoy!


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
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Eggplant tomato relish

I had eggplant, tomatoes, onions and basil from the garden. So I decide to make this relish.

I got this recipe from the Wednesday July 28, 2010 Chicago Tribune, Good Eating section. Originally, it comes from the Williams-Sonoma "The Art of Preserving" by Rick Fields and Rebecca Courchesne with Lisa Atwood.

It is an updated version of caponata, a Sicilian antipasto. Serve with crusty bread or stirred into linguine or spaghetti.

Ingredients:
2 lbs eggplant sliced 3/4 thick
1/4 cup salt
1.75 lbs tomatoes, peeled, cored, cut in 3/4" dice
4 tbs olive oil
1 onion cut in a rough dice
2 cloves garlic minced
1/3 cup Kalamata Olives
3 tbs lightly toasted pine nuts (these are ridiculously expensive, so much so, that I consider them optional)
2 tbs capers
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup finely sliced basil
salt and pepper to taste

Put eggplant in a colander, sprinkle with the salt, allow to drain for 1 hour. Rinse under cold water, cut into 3/4 inch dice.

Heat 3 tbs oil in large sauce pan. Cook eggplant in batches, stirring often, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes, transfer to plate.

Add remaining oil to pot, reduce heat to medium low, add onion and cook until tender - about 10 minutes.

Add garlic, cooking stirring often for 2 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, olives, pine nuts, capers, and vinegar.

Raise heat to high and bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, gently stir in eggplant and basil, simmer until heated through.

Season with pepper (salt if needed, but olives and capers provide salt)

Ladle hot relish into  sterilized jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe rims clean and adjust two piece lids.

Process jar in boiling water canner 20 minutes for 1/2 pints, 25 minutes for pints.

Cool jars, test seals, store. If seal fails, refrigerate that jar for up to two weeks.

I got 2 pints and 1 half-pint from this recipe, plus a little left over. It was delicious with pasta.

Use it up!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!.


The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com//
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener