Blogging While Cooking

Matt is out tonight so I have the computer and the kitchen at the same time. I am going to see if I can use this to keep track of my cooking tonight. What I usually do is keep my notes in a notebook and then try and find some time to transfer them later. Tonight there is no editing.

Roasted Ratatouille from Andrea Immer's cookbook is the basis of the meal but the goal is to use up everything in the refrigerator.

While the camera battery is charging I will get down the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees and put rack in the center.

Mix the following in a non stick roasting pan:
1 eggplant unpeeled (1/2 inch dice)
2 zuchinni unpeeled (1/2 inch dice)
2 yellow squash unpeeled (1/2 inch dice)
1 green pepper (1/2 inch dice)
1 red pepper (1/2 inch dice)
1 yellow pepper (1/2 inch dice)
6 very small shallots (coarsely chopped)
1 fennel bulb (coarsely chopped)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper ground
1/2 tsp dried oregano

Put in oven and roast, stirring about every 15 minutes.

Here are the vegetable after just a few minutes in the oven.

At 30 minutes when the veggies are starting to brown stir in:
1 can of white beans drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp olive oil

(I would rather have red beans but I have white beans. I added the additional oil because when I typed up the earlier ingredients it sounded like the vinegar was a bit out of proportion).

I am going to serve this on hominy grits since I forgot to start the polenta. So at 30 minutes start the water for the grits. From the package that is 4 cups of water to 1 cup of grits.

Chop up
1 bunch of parsley leaves
1 bunch of chives
4 sundried tomatoes dried of their oil

At about 50 minutes when the veggies are browned, stir in the above along with 1/2 tsp of salt.



Add 1/2 tsp of truffle oil to the grits.

Serve 1/4 of the grits covered with 1/4 of the vegetables.

This is very bland. It needs more cooked onions/shallots and/or garlic. I am going to eat it but I can't recommend it.

Of course Immer's recipe has artichokes, and pancetta, and goat cheese so don't think ill of her because my version is lame.


I ended up drizzling some balsamic vinegar and griding on some salt and pepper and enjoying it with some zinfandel. When I slowed down and tasted it I ended up liking it enough to go back for seconds. After we eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow I will give my final opinion but right now with a little wine it seems quite fine.