Ratatouille - C'est très savoureux et délicieux :D

Last Friday while I was having a momentary break from work, I chatted with my friend (who should be sleeping since there's a 12 hour time difference between us) who suggested that I try something international instead of sticking to American foods... this got the wheels in my brain turning. I later had lunch with a couple of my colleagues and, through food discussions, I decided to go French. One of my colleagues had just moved here from France and I asked her what authentic French dish I could make that she thought I wouldn't mess up on. We settled on Ratatouille... Remember that movie? No... I never watched that one either.. x.x

So at the end of the day, I use my trusted source (i.e. Google) and searched for recipes. I showed my co-worker the recipes that I found and she just starts laughing and says no (>.<)

Here is the recipe I followed (minus the chicken): Ratatouille

Just in case you can't read French, here's what I did:

1. Went to the market and filled my basket with 1 eggplant, 2 zucchinis, 3 onions, garlic, 6 tomatoes, and 2 bell peppers (1 green and 1 red).

2. Washed all veggies and cut the eggplant and zucchinis into pieces so that they are about 2 cm in length.

3. Cut the tomatoes and bell peppers in a similar fashion and remove the middle white parts for both. I thought 6 tomatoes were a little excessive so I only used 5.

4. Chop the onions and garlic.. I used 2 onions instead of 3 because I was crying too much at that point (I forgot to put them in the fridge... cold onions = no tears)

*So... the recipe says the preparation of cutting everything should take about 20 minutes... it didn't take me 20 minutes.. it was more like.. oh.. an hour... I'm gonna blame it on my sore back and shoulders x.x

5. Heat the olive oil in a pan then add the eggplant and sauté for about 6 minutes.

6. Remove the eggplant

7. Add the zucchini to the pan and sauté for another 4 minutes.

8. Remove the zucchini

9. Add a little bit more of the olive oil and then add the chopped onions, garlic, and bell peppers and sauté for another minute

10. Add everything else, and add the salt and pepper (the amount is really up to you) and gently mix everything together.

11. Slowly cook for about 25-30 minutes.

I covered the veggie mix for about 10 minutes and you do get more juice by covering it. I was told it wasn't supposed to be like a soup... but there is a lot of water juice that comes out at the end...

You can eat it with bread or rice. The juice is awesome with bread...

I think the meal would have been better if I had time to grill some chicken or something. I made enough Ratatouille for 6 people so basically I made like 2 meals out of this for the family. Had this for lunch today too.

I really like this site and I want to try making Rouleaux croustillants de légume sometime in the future.