Last night's dinner

For dinner last night I made ratatouille and with crepes.  Ratatouille is a traditional French dish of stewed vegetables mainly eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and onions.  It’s considered a provincial dish, from the region of that name and is located in the southeastern corner of France on near the Mediterranean.  Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish but can be a main course as well.  Crepes filled with ratatouille make a great main dish; light but definitely filling!!

Ratatouille:

Makes 10 portions for crepe filling (enough for yummy leftovers!)

1 medium eggplant, small dice

1 medium zucchini, small dice

6 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped

3 small yellow onions, medium dice

3 medium tomatoes, peeled and medium dice

3 bell peppers (any color but I recommend using green for one of them), small dice

1 loose cup of fresh basil, chiffonade

1 loose cup of fresh flat leaf parsley

3 tablespoons olive oil

¼ c dry white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Start by dicing the eggplant and lay them out on paper towels in a single layer.  Sprinkle lightly with salt; let them sit for about 20 min.  Next let’s peel the tomatoes.  First boil some water in a small saucepan.  On the bottom of the tomato, cut a small X with a knife and put into the boiling water for about 30 seconds or until you see the edges of the skin start to peel off.  Take the tomatoes out of the water; immediately shock the tomatoes in ice water and let sit for about a minute.  Take the tomatoes out and the skin should almost fall off, if not don’t worry, just gently peel the skin off.  After the tomatoes are peeled and diced, heat up a medium saucepan over medium heat while adding 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to the saucepan.  Add the chopped garlic, tomatoes, half the parsley and half the basil plus about a tsp of black pepper.  Let them stew while you prepare the bell peppers and onion.  Take the diced bell peppers, onion and sauté them with 1 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium heat until they are slightly browned.  Add them to the stewing tomatoes.  Now let’s take on the eggplant and zucchini.  Blot the eggplant with paper towel while heating up the sauté pan adding the last tablespoons of olive oil.  Next add the eggplant, zucchini and sauté them until they are slightly brown like the onions and bell peppers.   Now add them to the stewing vegetables, let them simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.  After the 40 minutes, add the white wine, the rest of the basil, parsley and salt to taste, cooking another 5-7 minutes.  Lastly, strain the excess liquid from the ratatouille, put it into a small saucepan and reduce the liquid by half.  Add it back into the vegetables and enjoy!!

Crepes:

Makes 6-8 crepes

2 c flour

1 ¼ c milk

6 tbls melted butter or vegetable oil

3 eggs

Whisk ingredients together adding milk in a slow steady stream.  Mix well and set aside in the refrigerator for about 20 min.

Heat a nice non-stick pan over medium-medium low heat, melt about a teaspoon of butter on the pan and let it heat up.  When the butter starts bubbling take a small to medium ladle and pour the crepe mixture over the pan.  Quickly tip the pan in a circular motion to spread out the batter keeping it in a round shape.  When the edges start to cook, take a spatula and flip the crepe over to cook the other side for a bout 15 seconds.  Gently slide the crepe onto a plate.

Putting it all together:

Lay out the crepe gently onto a plate.  Spoon about a cup of ratatouille onto ¼ of the crepe area.  Fold the remaining crepe in half and then in half again forming a triangle. 

Another way you can plate a crepe is add more ratatouille so it covers half the area of the crepe then simply fold the remaining crepe area over the ratatouille.

I hope you enjoy this dinner idea; the crepes should be light and the ratatouille flavorful. 

P.s. Tabasco is a delicious way to spice up the dish!!

Keep eating!!

*photos by Adam McCleery