Innocent
Banned
Right, having been previously quite comfortable, now I'm a stoodent at the age of 64, have no damned money, and have to go back to my stoodent days, and try to survive. So I'm asking all of you to join me in a cheapo recipe fest. And do please try to be slightly serious!
It's a serious thread. BG asked me for bowls of ratatouille, and this is the recipe I got in 1960, in St Trop, when I was a mere 15-year-old slip of a dunnowhat, and overwhelmed by my first foray into Europe, to stay with an amazing family, who had never encountered a Brit teenage girl before. Their children were all boys. They had the only villa on the only beach in St Trop, and it's still an amazing and dream-like memory for me. It lasted three weeks, and it lasted my lifetime. I have never forgotten that experience of an alternative lifestyle.
Madame wanted to teach cuisine to a girl. I wanted to listen. She was a damned sight better than my mother, who really was and is an old fart.
So here is Madame's recipe, which she gave me, for ratatouille, and which I always follow. It is always amazing.
Right. Adapted to Leicester.
Go to Leicester Market. Buy a 50p bowl of onions, a 50p bowl of assorted peppers, a 50p bowl of courgettes, a 50p bowl of cherry tomatoes, and a 50p aubergine. Cheap as chips.
Get a deep pan, and in it put loads of olive oil, and then chop the onions into this, while including some chopped garlic - to taste. Cook the onions until they are caramelised (slightly browned). This is important, because it gives sweetness. Keep moving them around. Then add the peppers, cut into strips. Mix and allow to cook before adding the courgettes. Slice these lengthways in two, then four, then across into four again, so you have longish pieces. And add to the pot. Then cut the aubergine into halves, then quarters, then into slices about half an inch thick. Aubergines turn into mush if you're not careful.Be gentle with them.
After you've introduced them to the oil and got them slightly soft, add a pound (at least) of cherry tomatoes, and keep turning. They will turn into a sauce. You can put lid on the pan after you've added mixed herbs, salt, celery salt, coarse black pepper, and chilli flakes and whatever else you fancy.
Let that simmer for as long as.......
Ratatouille is great tepid or cold. Never eat it hot. If you're serving it cold, you can dress it with more olive oil and balsamic vinegar, if you want to. You can serve it warm as a pasta dressing, or as a dressing for baked potato, or as an omelette filling. You can serve it as a salsa with burgers, as a veg, or as a baguette filling. It's great as a baguette filling and weighted down overnight so that the salsa spreads into the bread. That is scrummy.
It's a week's food for a stoodent but also an impressive dinner party fest if it's stuffing mushrooms, or if it's doused with parmesan or baked (with cheese topping and bacon) as a main course.
Next week - the stoodent guide to very cheap korma.
Week after - loads of stuff to do with crap mince.
It's a serious thread. BG asked me for bowls of ratatouille, and this is the recipe I got in 1960, in St Trop, when I was a mere 15-year-old slip of a dunnowhat, and overwhelmed by my first foray into Europe, to stay with an amazing family, who had never encountered a Brit teenage girl before. Their children were all boys. They had the only villa on the only beach in St Trop, and it's still an amazing and dream-like memory for me. It lasted three weeks, and it lasted my lifetime. I have never forgotten that experience of an alternative lifestyle.
Madame wanted to teach cuisine to a girl. I wanted to listen. She was a damned sight better than my mother, who really was and is an old fart.
So here is Madame's recipe, which she gave me, for ratatouille, and which I always follow. It is always amazing.
Right. Adapted to Leicester.
Go to Leicester Market. Buy a 50p bowl of onions, a 50p bowl of assorted peppers, a 50p bowl of courgettes, a 50p bowl of cherry tomatoes, and a 50p aubergine. Cheap as chips.
Get a deep pan, and in it put loads of olive oil, and then chop the onions into this, while including some chopped garlic - to taste. Cook the onions until they are caramelised (slightly browned). This is important, because it gives sweetness. Keep moving them around. Then add the peppers, cut into strips. Mix and allow to cook before adding the courgettes. Slice these lengthways in two, then four, then across into four again, so you have longish pieces. And add to the pot. Then cut the aubergine into halves, then quarters, then into slices about half an inch thick. Aubergines turn into mush if you're not careful.Be gentle with them.
After you've introduced them to the oil and got them slightly soft, add a pound (at least) of cherry tomatoes, and keep turning. They will turn into a sauce. You can put lid on the pan after you've added mixed herbs, salt, celery salt, coarse black pepper, and chilli flakes and whatever else you fancy.
Let that simmer for as long as.......
Ratatouille is great tepid or cold. Never eat it hot. If you're serving it cold, you can dress it with more olive oil and balsamic vinegar, if you want to. You can serve it warm as a pasta dressing, or as a dressing for baked potato, or as an omelette filling. You can serve it as a salsa with burgers, as a veg, or as a baguette filling. It's great as a baguette filling and weighted down overnight so that the salsa spreads into the bread. That is scrummy.
It's a week's food for a stoodent but also an impressive dinner party fest if it's stuffing mushrooms, or if it's doused with parmesan or baked (with cheese topping and bacon) as a main course.
Next week - the stoodent guide to very cheap korma.
Week after - loads of stuff to do with crap mince.
