Ratatouille, Madrileño-style

I've loved ratatouille ever since I studied abroad, when Esperanza, the woman I lived with in Madrid, introduced me to it. I recently came across this recipe on Smitten Kitchen that looked like fun, and decided to adapt it. I wanted to make this a full dinner, so after a little debate, I settled on chickpeas to add protein, feeling inspired by another dish Esperanza used to make, chickpeas cooked in a tomato sauce. And the best part is, as impressive as it looks when it's finished, it took me 30 minutes to get it completely prepped and into the oven.

Recipe: Ratatouille Madrileño-style
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's "Ratatouille's Ratatouille"

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced, then chopped
14-oz can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant, if you like. I didn't have one, so I skipped the eggplant altogether.
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 red bell pepper (look for one of the longer, thinner ones)
1 14-0z can garbanzo beans
Whatever herbs you have around -I was out of fresh and used "italian seasoning" herb mix - rosemary, thyme and oregano.
Salt and pepper

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees.

Pour the tomatoes into a baking dish (mine was about 9x13) and mash with a wooden spoon or potato masher, just to break the large pieces into smaller ones and release some pulp. Mix in the chopped onion, garlic and one tablespoon of olive oil.

Next, slice the squash, zucchini and red pepper. I used the slicer on a box grater to speed up the slicing of the squash and zucchini. Slice the pepper as thinly as possible.

Next, start building your dish. Begin in one corner of the baking dish and start stacking the vegetables, one of each kind, then repeating, overlapping them so that only a small amount of the previous vegetable shows.

Continue around the corner. I ended up cutting a bunch of my pepper slices in half to make it fit better. At the end, when you've gone all the way around, you may want to add in more pieces if you have leftover and there seems to be space.

Fill the center of the dish with chickpeas. Sprinkle the remaining olive oil over all the vegetables, and salt and pepper the whole dish. Add the herbs. If you are using dry herbs, as I did, crush the flakes in the palm of your hand before adding them; this releases the flavors.

Cover the whole dish with tinfoil and bake 50 minutes. The mixture will be bubbly and the vegetables should look cooked but not limp. Serve over rice, making sure to spoon the tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish over the ratatouille. Bon apetit!

Button Soup On the Town: Blanco Bowling Club Cafe

I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled recipes to tell you about the best pie I've had recently. Blanco Bowling Club Cafe, folks. If you find yourself in Hill Country looking for a place to eat, check this place out. Yes, it's actually in the back room of an old-school bowling club. It's on 4th street in Blanco, TX. The cheeseburgers were solid, but the real winner of the night was the pie. Sadly, they were out of chocolate and coconut cream, but we had blueberry and lemon meringue.

As you can see, we weren't too disappointed.

Just-like-at-the-sushi-restaurant Ginger Dressing

In my admittedly East-Coast-Centric opinion, there's a serious dearth of good (and casual) sushi bars in Austin. Don't get me wrong - sushi is everywhere - but it's a "water water everywhere and not a drop to drink" situation, if you get my drift.

One of the things I miss most about my frequent trips to Kiku and Mikado in Philly is the salads with the bright, tangy ginger dressing. I looked at a few recipes and adapted one to the ingredients I had, and it came out amazingly good. These quantities will make enough dressing for about 4 salads.

1/4 cup canola oil
1/6 cup apple cider vinegar (I eyeballed this with a 1/3 cup measure)
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, chopped
A one-to-two inch chunk of carrot, or a couple of baby carrots
An inch-long chunk of ginger, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
Pinch of salt and pepper

Throw it all in the blender and puree until smooth. I used this dressing on a salad of crunchy romaine, diced carrots and cucumbers, carrot shavings, and avocado for a potluck. I think it was well received, but I'll leave the final judgment up to the other guests...

"So good you'll forget the leaves don't change color in Austin" Fall Squash Soup

After a string of cloudy, muggy days, the humidity broke, and a cold front brought rainy, chilly fall weather to Austin. Not that I'm complaining - my East Coast friends and family have been tolerating this weather for a month already. And let's be honest - I see most things as an opportunity to cook or eat, weather changes included. So I woke up to the gray drizzle this morning, and thought soup was in order. This soup is easy and tastes luxurious, in spite of actually being very healthful. The milk makes it velvety, rich and perfect for a cold afternoon.

Thanks for Rachel for inspiring this recipe. She told me she had made an easy sweet potato-zucchini soup, so I adapted her recipe to the ingredients I had in the refrigerator. Don't be afraid to get creative with ingredients or garnishes. Rachel added cannellini beans for protein to make a meal out of the soup; I like chopped jack cheese stirred into mine. Salty crumbled bacon would offset the sweetness of the squash nicely, or stir in al dente orzo to add texture and bulk.

Ingredients:
-Olive oil for sauteeing
-1 large yellow onion, chopped
-Butternut squash (about 2 lbs), peeled, seeded and cubed
-Any other squash you have lying around -I used a local sunburst squash - peeled, seeded and chopped
-1 orange bell pepper - quartered
-1 clove garlic, chopped
-1 cup chicken stock, or vegetable stock if you want a vegetarian soup
- 2/3 cup milk (I used skim with a splash of half and half - you could go richer or lighter depending on the milk you use, but if you use cream, you must add it after the blending step! It will curdle if you simmer it.)
- Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a large nonstick pot. Saute onion over medium-low heat until translucent. Try to avoid browning the onion at this point. **Tip: To sweat onions faster, add a sprinkle of salt - the salt draws moisture out of the onion!
2. Add the squash, zucchini, bell pepper, and garlic. Sautee on medium-low heat until soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
3. At this point, pull out the bell pepper quarters, and peel them. The peel should come away from the flesh easily. Return them to the pot.
3. Add the milk and stock. Stir, reduce heat to very low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Don't worry if the milk separates a little - when you blend the soup, it will all be integrated.
4. Pour the whole mixture into a blender, or use an immersion blender if you have one. Blend until completely pureed.
5. Garnish and serve!

"I didn't know I liked zucchini" Mac & Cheese

This is one of my staple summer recipes, for a quick meal when zucchini is available in abundance. While water is boiling for orzo, I shred (or chop) zucchini, and while the orzo cooks, saute the zucchini with lots of garlic and onion. By the time the pasta is ready, the veggies are too. Mix them together, add a generous pour of extra virgin olive oil and a few handfuls of shredded mozzarella, and serve. I've made a lot of variations on this - You can experiment with different pastas, mixing yellow summer squash with the zucchini, or adding leftover shredded chicken or crumbled bacon.

I originally got this recipe from Barbara Kingsolver's great book, Animal Vegetable Miracle, which I recommend to anyone interested in knowing more about where their food comes from and what to do with it. You can see the recipe on her site here.