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.
I mentioned your recipe to my husband @la vie en rouge and he muttered he found ratatouille bland. I'm sure he wouldn't say that of your recipe. When I have a day to spare I might attempt it and see what he thinks. Do you think maple syrup would work instead of honey to keep it vegan? I guess that's not something you have to consider much in fois gras land.
BF - I think your preference might be called English ratatouille. Are you avoiding the nightshade family?
All this talk of ratatouille has me thinking that I might make it for tomorrow's dinner. With a nice Tavel. (Is there any other Tavel, but a nice one?)
LVER, I'm interested in your (and anyone else's, for that matter) opinion of the version that I use.
The Keller recipe looks very delicious, although not entirely authentic. Cooking the vegetables in the oven must concentrate the flavours nicely.
I approve of the Tavel.
@Sarasa I can't see why maple syrup wouldn't work to sweeten the tomatoes, although it might not bind the sauce quite so well. Being sweeter than honey (or so ISTM) I would only use a fairly small amount.
Hair has been chopped, and as S. was having her toenails painted at a salon round the corner from where I was, I went and met her,and we went to the Balerno Inn for a ridiculously decadent lunch. Chicken parfait with onion relish, Cullen Skink fishcakes and berry mess for me, and tomato salad, seriously good fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding for S.
We didn't really mean to have three courses, but they sort of happened ...
Maybe I'd better not buy a smaller size of trousers after all.
Looking for something tasty for lunch, I glanced at a recipe for Chickpea and Tuna Patties, and didn't entirely take on board that the tomatoes went with rather than in the mixture. Retrieved resultant wet and sticky mess with breadcrumbs and fried them up. Surprisingly good, and IMO improved on the original.
I love making and eating ratatouille, but have never tried it with honey. My preference is to add balsamic vinegar right at the end of the cooking period.
Went to Broomhill sculpture park in North Devon today and it was a really lovely way of spending an afternoon. Jolly good sandwiches in the cafe before too. We spent the evening having a family Mario Kart tournament on the Switch in which I consistently came last place.
Fish and chips from a good chippy are indeed yummy.
Welcome home, Boogie!
----
Having had such a big lunch, we wanted a lightweight supper. There was ready-cooked salmon in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so I put together a salad and hard-boiled a few eggs and chucked it all in a big bowl with French dressing for the greenery and mayonnaise for the eggs and salmon, and it was really rather good.
I'm trying the 5:2 eating plan, so on a fast day all this talk of fish and chips, ratatouille ( not so bad) and three course lunches is difficult to read. I have poached egg on dry toast planned for lunch, and then a big veggie filled salmon salad for dinner. Plus a banana. No breakfast.
I'm trying the 5:2 eating plan, so on a fast day all this talk of fish and chips, ratatouille ( not so bad) and three course lunches is difficult to read. I have poached egg on dry toast planned for lunch, and then a big veggie filled salmon salad for dinner. Plus a banana. No breakfast.
I did 5:2 a few years ago and successfully lost weight; more importantly it taught me good habits about dealing with hunger and how much food your body actually needs. By far my best dieting was going carb-free for 2 months a la Michael Mosley’s Blood sugar diet - I lost 10% of my body weight in 2 months and carried on low carbing afterwards (I had lost a total of 20% by 6 months). I still watch my carbs 3 years later to maintain it.
All these salmon salads sound delicious, especially with boiled egg. I’m still away so my eating is somewhat haphazard. Lockdown has also been difficult with everyone home all day as usually I just have an omelette for lunch (a habit from my 5:2 and carb-free days) but the teenagers need filling up with bread.
I'd have terrible trouble trying to be low-carb: I like pasta, rice, potatoes and bread far too much for that. Having said that, I must be doing something right for the trousers that fitted last summer to be so loose now - and I can see a difference in my face as well.
Today's excitement is going to be Going To A Supermarket - S. has decided that we're going to have to do it some time, and today is going to be that time. It may sound daft, but I'm actually looking forward to it (apart from the mask-wearing, which'll be rather uncomfortable, but necessary).
I'm pleased with my haircut - I posted before-and-after pictures on Facebook and got lots of nice comments. I might well end up Embracing the Grey - although I have a few of what the hairdresser elegantly calls "wisdom streaks", they don't look too bad.
We had salad nicoise for lunch, albeit with tinned tuna. I think that reaching my mid thirties my metabolism is starting to slow a tad, as my weight had gone up a bit last year, whereas when I was breastfeeding the Dragonlets I did have problems with it dropping a bit too much. (I'm tall and slim and my BMI spent most of the last decade at the lower end of healthy.)
I think Mr Dragon and I are eating a bit more healthily at the moment though, because although we do sometimes have ready made stuff from the supermarket, we probably have had more lunches from scratch with me being home, rather than having to pick something ready made up in a hurry at work or whilst commuting.
Lunch was Random soup - potatoes with a b/b of 28 June, elderly carrot, sprouting onion, borderline tomatoes - just add enough turmeric, chilli and cheese.
I'm pleased with my haircut - I posted before-and-after pictures on Facebook and got lots of nice comments. I might well end up Embracing the Grey - although I have a few of what the hairdresser elegantly calls "wisdom streaks", they don't look too bad.
I hadn’t realised that’s what they were called! I have a badger streak of pure white off-centre, it started with a few strands in my 20s but in my 40s my chestnut hair darkened, my white streak became wider so it is very prominent and I have lots of other white hairs too. When I do re-enactment most of my hair is covered so people often just notice the white and think I am older than I am (especially in my matronly Victorian crinoline, bonnet and shawl).
If I dye my hair chestnut I lose about 10 years.
Today was spent climbing (and descending) some steep hills looking over the sea and dramatic cliffs. My sons trotted down like the nimble goats that they are while my husband assisted the slightly overweight and far from nimble old mare.
Off to a thatched pub for dinner tonight.
Speaking of thatched houses - there are a lot of rather lovely documentaries on the BBC these days, perhaps especially so for those wishing to educate themselves even now!
I watched two of Dan Cruickshank's 'At Home with the British' episodes, and especially the one about cottages was very illuminating. The fascinating thing is that the more you watch programmes like these over the years, the more insights you get, as another series may look at the same thing from a different angle, like in 'Hidden Killers in the [period] home'.
Piglet - Two female friends of mine embraced the grey many years ago (now both in their 50s). The one who first did so (~25 years ago) looks like a much more attractive Susan Sontag. The second friend followed first friend's lead, and has never regretted it. On the other hand, two male friends of mine (62 and 74) do touch up their hair.
I have loads of friends who have embraced their grey (and white) during lockdown, and also some who did shortly before. I think the fashion for shiny grey hair as part of the fashion for brightly coloured hair in younger women encouraged them.
I really like Dan Cruikshank, he has a friendly face, and the one about British homes is very interesting. I have a book on the Victorian home which had a plan of a working class house which was clearly the same as the Victorian terrace I inhabited in Shoreditch next to the flower market; our bathroom and toilet were where the scullery and outside loo had been. This led me to look at the history and I discovered the streets next door which were now modern had been the Nichol slum, a notorious area knocked down by the Victorians as it was so awful. The pretty Victorian terraces which survive were the houses where the better off working classes such as artisans lived. When I lived in a rented house in the terrace in the mid-90s my neighbours were working class locals but the area was gentrifying and fashionable people started moving in; Patsy Palmer from Eastenders moved in next door but one.
The Home Of My Yoof was a former shop (an off-licence, I believe) in a looooooong terrace facing north onto the railway coal sidings and engine shed! A rather dusty, dirty environment, especially in the days of steam (right up to 1966).
The coal sidings and engine shed were replaced by car parks and industrial units many years ago, but the houses still stand - fetching astronomically high (IMHO) prices. Handy for the station (40 minutes to London), I suppose.
Re hair that's changing colour - I'm reminded of an old music-hall song, which refers to 'silver hairs among the gold'. Another rather neat way of expressing it!
I found my first gray hairs at 14, had a distinct "Mallen streak" at 21, was reminded I was better off than my Great Aunt Lizzie who had been completely white at 21 and have just slowly got grayer ever since.
When I worked in a mainstream FE college, the fact I had hair which had never had anything more drastic done to it than cutting, washing and occasional conditioner, meant the hairdressing students fought over who was going to cut my hair if I'd booked an appointment as they just never got to handle hair like mine! Staff also knew I was always good for an emergency assessment cut if anyone was missing my kind of cut for their qualifications. I kind of miss those days, but not the time it used to take!
I have some grey appearing around the sides. I don't care, I'm not going to do anything about it. I don't like having my hair cut - I have a style which means it's cut maybe twice a year under normal circumstances, and I'm not exactly queuing for a post lockdown trim yet. As far as I can tell, if you go down the dying route, you're also getting locked into having the roots done pretty frequently to maintain the illusion. And that's much more often than I want to go to a hairdresser! So let the grey encroach as it will!
On an entirely different topic: the veg box has brought me beetroot. I've already done the roasted with walnuts & Goat's cheese thing - any other suggestions? I have 3.
Handy for the station (40 minutes to London), I suppose.
Hardly! The all-time record is just under 37 minutes (and that was from London Bridge, on a Sunday when there were few other trains around), the fastest "Brighton Belle" non-stop time was 55 minutes. At the moment it's a whole hour because of the Gatwick Airport station upgrade!
I don't have grey but I think I'd prefer that to the rapid retreat of vanquished follicles I'm currently experiencing. I do notice that partisans do seem to be staging some sort of resistance around my eyebrows.
Handy for the station (40 minutes to London), I suppose.
Hardly! The all-time record is just under 37 minutes (and that was from London Bridge, on a Sunday when there were few other trains around), the fastest "Brighton Belle" non-stop time was 55 minutes. At the moment it's a whole hour because of the Gatwick Airport station upgrade!
Not Brighton, but a busy junction station about 30 miles SE of London...
I've definitely got a Mallen streak, and the overall colour is getting decidedly lighter. I'm really not sure whether I'm going to do anything about it - I'll give it a few more days before I decide.
I've had a really nice day - my brother and sister-in-law phoned in the morning to say they were going to East Linton, and did S. and I want to come too, so we did, and had a lovely lunch in the courtyard outside a cafe, went for a walk and then back to theirs for an Indian takeaway.
On an entirely different topic: the veg box has brought me beetroot. I've already done the roasted with walnuts & Goat's cheese thing - any other suggestions? I have 3.
I make a beetroot/carrot/red cabbage slaw, with a raspberry vinegar dressing.
Would you be interested in cake recipes? Or a chutney? Or a beetroot, cumin and carrot crumble? Or a Beet Bourguignon ?
I like Russian salad: beetroot, potato, carrot and hard boiled egg served warm with a vinaigrette. You can also use mayonnaise but that's too heavy for my taste.
Sorry, but if the Tomato is the Fruit of Satan, then the Beetroot is His Satanic Majesty's Vegetable.
(I wonder if it's something to do with the colour of beetroot? I quite like most of the green vegetables you'd put in a salad, but anything red, yellow, or maroon - such as tomato, peppers, or beetroot - put me right off. Pickled red cabbage, however, I am inordinately fond of, and have just purchased a new Jar thereof.)
On an entirely different topic: the veg box has brought me beetroot. I've already done the roasted with walnuts & Goat's cheese thing - any other suggestions? I have 3.
One of my favourite soups is beetroot and carrot, with a swirl of cream, or a dollop of yogurt. The colour is intense, and it's very pretty.
I don't have a fixed-quantity recipe, it depends on what's in the veg box. It's a basic soften onion, add cubed carrot and beetroot with a small amount of stock, till everything is soft, whizz up with blender, add the rest of the stock till you get to your preferred consistency, pour into bowls and be creative drizzling cream.
I've also got a beetroot and chocolate cake recipe.
Agreed - though it only seems to be available in Excessively Large Jars (well, in Tesco, at least). Maybe I ought to try a Polski Sklep*?
*Polish shop - we have several in this town, though they're not exclusively Polish. I usually buy a jar of nice Georgian (I think) soup, with lots of pearl barley in it, for the winter.
Tatze is not at all happy because she’s ‘stuck’ on her chair (it’s the wrong way round). The lip licks, grumbles and yawn - and even the stiff tail wags are all signs she’s not happy about the situation!
(PS - I did turn it round after I took the video!)
Poor Tatze - hope she feels better very soon!
Supper this evening is likely to be chicken in a slightly creamy mushroom sauce, with broccoli and fresh peas - assuming that any of the peas actually make it into the saucepan as opposed to being eaten raw ...
We were able to meet up with son, d-i-l and grandson today for the first time since January. Only for an hour, at the grottiest service area in the kingdom, but still worthwhile.
I loathe beetroot in all shape and form!!
And I'm white all over, letting it grow, saves me a lot of money having it cut!
And Taize is gorgeous, wrong way round or not!!
Its salmon fillet tonight, with cavolo nero, possibly stir fried, with Jersey potatoes and butter!
Chicken stir fry tonight, home made of course. Haven’t done one for ages as we have been inundated with more traditional veg in the veg box which I have now cancelled.
Comments
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.
May I have some bread and CHEESE instead, please? And a pickled onion or several?
All this talk of ratatouille has me thinking that I might make it for tomorrow's dinner. With a nice Tavel. (Is there any other Tavel, but a nice one?)
LVER, I'm interested in your (and anyone else's, for that matter) opinion of the version that I use.
Now, where's the CHEESE? If I scrape the greenish bits off, it should be OK...
I approve of the Tavel.
@Sarasa I can't see why maple syrup wouldn't work to sweeten the tomatoes, although it might not bind the sauce quite so well. Being sweeter than honey (or so ISTM) I would only use a fairly small amount.
la vie en rouge, Ship's ratatouille consultant
We didn't really mean to have three courses, but they sort of happened ...
Maybe I'd better not buy a smaller size of trousers after all.
It certainly felt safe and we wore medical grade N95 masks.
It’s good to be home, ‘tho we’ll miss the little family.
Tatze is home and we are picking Echo up tomorrow. 🐕
Welcome home, Boogie!
----
Having had such a big lunch, we wanted a lightweight supper. There was ready-cooked salmon in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so I put together a salad and hard-boiled a few eggs and chucked it all in a big bowl with French dressing for the greenery and mayonnaise for the eggs and salmon, and it was really rather good.
All these salmon salads sound delicious, especially with boiled egg. I’m still away so my eating is somewhat haphazard. Lockdown has also been difficult with everyone home all day as usually I just have an omelette for lunch (a habit from my 5:2 and carb-free days) but the teenagers need filling up with bread.
Today's excitement is going to be Going To A Supermarket - S. has decided that we're going to have to do it some time, and today is going to be that time. It may sound daft, but I'm actually looking forward to it (apart from the mask-wearing, which'll be rather uncomfortable, but necessary).
I'm pleased with my haircut - I posted before-and-after pictures on Facebook and got lots of nice comments. I might well end up Embracing the Grey - although I have a few of what the hairdresser elegantly calls "wisdom streaks", they don't look too bad.
I think Mr Dragon and I are eating a bit more healthily at the moment though, because although we do sometimes have ready made stuff from the supermarket, we probably have had more lunches from scratch with me being home, rather than having to pick something ready made up in a hurry at work or whilst commuting.
I hadn’t realised that’s what they were called! I have a badger streak of pure white off-centre, it started with a few strands in my 20s but in my 40s my chestnut hair darkened, my white streak became wider so it is very prominent and I have lots of other white hairs too. When I do re-enactment most of my hair is covered so people often just notice the white and think I am older than I am (especially in my matronly Victorian crinoline, bonnet and shawl).
If I dye my hair chestnut I lose about 10 years.
Off to a thatched pub for dinner tonight.
I watched two of Dan Cruickshank's 'At Home with the British' episodes, and especially the one about cottages was very illuminating. The fascinating thing is that the more you watch programmes like these over the years, the more insights you get, as another series may look at the same thing from a different angle, like in 'Hidden Killers in the [period] home'.
I really like Dan Cruikshank, he has a friendly face, and the one about British homes is very interesting. I have a book on the Victorian home which had a plan of a working class house which was clearly the same as the Victorian terrace I inhabited in Shoreditch next to the flower market; our bathroom and toilet were where the scullery and outside loo had been. This led me to look at the history and I discovered the streets next door which were now modern had been the Nichol slum, a notorious area knocked down by the Victorians as it was so awful. The pretty Victorian terraces which survive were the houses where the better off working classes such as artisans lived. When I lived in a rented house in the terrace in the mid-90s my neighbours were working class locals but the area was gentrifying and fashionable people started moving in; Patsy Palmer from Eastenders moved in next door but one.
The Home Of My Yoof was a former shop (an off-licence, I believe) in a looooooong terrace facing north onto the railway coal sidings and engine shed! A rather dusty, dirty environment, especially in the days of steam (right up to 1966).
The coal sidings and engine shed were replaced by car parks and industrial units many years ago, but the houses still stand - fetching astronomically high (IMHO) prices. Handy for the station (40 minutes to London), I suppose.
Re hair that's changing colour - I'm reminded of an old music-hall song, which refers to 'silver hairs among the gold'. Another rather neat way of expressing it!
Linky (the song goes back to the 1870s, but was recorded by a variety of artists):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=twkgyMtA_fo
When I worked in a mainstream FE college, the fact I had hair which had never had anything more drastic done to it than cutting, washing and occasional conditioner, meant the hairdressing students fought over who was going to cut my hair if I'd booked an appointment as they just never got to handle hair like mine! Staff also knew I was always good for an emergency assessment cut if anyone was missing my kind of cut for their qualifications. I kind of miss those days, but not the time it used to take!
Not Brighton, but a busy junction station about 30 miles SE of London...
I've had a really nice day - my brother and sister-in-law phoned in the morning to say they were going to East Linton, and did S. and I want to come too, so we did, and had a lovely lunch in the courtyard outside a cafe, went for a walk and then back to theirs for an Indian takeaway.
I make a beetroot/carrot/red cabbage slaw, with a raspberry vinegar dressing.
Would you be interested in cake recipes? Or a chutney? Or a beetroot, cumin and carrot crumble? Or a Beet Bourguignon ?
Sorry, but if the Tomato is the Fruit of Satan, then the Beetroot is His Satanic Majesty's Vegetable.
(I wonder if it's something to do with the colour of beetroot? I quite like most of the green vegetables you'd put in a salad, but anything red, yellow, or maroon - such as tomato, peppers, or beetroot - put me right off. Pickled red cabbage, however, I am inordinately fond of, and have just purchased a new Jar thereof.)
One of my favourite soups is beetroot and carrot, with a swirl of cream, or a dollop of yogurt. The colour is intense, and it's very pretty.
I don't have a fixed-quantity recipe, it depends on what's in the veg box. It's a basic soften onion, add cubed carrot and beetroot with a small amount of stock, till everything is soft, whizz up with blender, add the rest of the stock till you get to your preferred consistency, pour into bowls and be creative drizzling cream.
I've also got a beetroot and chocolate cake recipe.
*Polish shop - we have several in this town, though they're not exclusively Polish. I usually buy a jar of nice Georgian (I think) soup, with lots of pearl barley in it, for the winter.
(PS - I did turn it round after I took the video!)
https://youtu.be/JxGbqjbHAnU
Supper this evening is likely to be chicken in a slightly creamy mushroom sauce, with broccoli and fresh peas - assuming that any of the peas actually make it into the saucepan as opposed to being eaten raw ...
And I'm white all over, letting it grow, saves me a lot of money having it cut!
And Taize is gorgeous, wrong way round or not!!
Its salmon fillet tonight, with cavolo nero, possibly stir fried, with Jersey potatoes and butter!