| Anthony's Ratatouille Recipe ~ Hey! It's vegetarian too! :-) |
How to make the Ratatouille Recipe...
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*Please email any comments/questions you may have to:
anthony.d.baker@gmail.com |
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OK, are you ready? Here we go....
First...
You will want to wash all of your vegetables. Wash them good; don’t just run water over them. Scrub them with a wash rag or sponge; you just don’t know where these vegetables have been!
Next...
Get your eggplant, cut off the ends. Then peel the eggplant with a potato peeler. Get off all the skin. Now you want to slice them and then cut the slices in half, then place then in a colander. Put the colander on a large plate. Then put a smaller plat on top of that. Then put a tea pot full of water and place it on top of the small plate. This will act as a press to squeeze out excess water from the eggplant. This is “Anthony's Eggplant Wonder Press Machine!” (You will see this machine used also with the Eggplant Parmesan recipe). Let this sit for a couple of hours. So you will want to do this before you do anything else. You might want to do this early in the on in the day you are going to have this meal.
Next...
Slice up your zucchini’s, keep the skin on. Make the slices about ¼” to ½” thick. Set them aside. At this point you will also want to slice up your green peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms and chop up the garlic and Italian parsley. Set all this aside. Wait! Forgot to mention, chop up your garlic first, place some nice olive oil in a pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan completely, then toss in you finely chopped “fresh” garlic into the olive oil then heat up your pan to low heat. Let the garlic bath in the oil for a good 5 minutes or so, keep the heat very low, you “do not” want to burn the garlic. While the garlic is marinating in the oil, then proceed to prepare all your vegetables.
Next...
After the oil and garlic have been cooking (on very low heat) for a good 5 – 10 minutes or so, put in your chopped green peppers. Cook these on low heat for a while (oh, ok – about 4 minutes). Stir well; let the oil and garlic mix well with the green peppers. At this point add a dash of salt and some fresh ground pepper.
Next...
A add in the zucchini, mix well, let cook for another 4 minutes, then add in the mushrooms, tomato’s and Italian parsley, mix well cook for another 5 minutes, then add the eggplant. Ok, that’s all your vegetables. Now stir this all well. By the way, you are going to need a very large pan for this.
| ...OoPs. Rice! Did I mention rice? I like to have this with rice. When the Ratatouille is all finished you put a bunch of it on top of rice in a wide bowl. Lovely! So now would be a good time to make your rice. How do you make rice? You buy a bag of it and follow the direction on the bag. Hint: It will involve a pan and some water ;-) Rice usually takes about 20 minutes to cook, so if you start it now it should be ready the exact time your Ratatouille is ready. |
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Next...
Now that everything is in the pan cooking and looking pretty, keep stirring it well. Pour some more olive oil, how much? Oh I don’t um… 4 table spoons or so maybe? Mix it all up well again. Now get a round cookie sheet and place on top of the pan, then get a tea pot full of water and place it on top of the pan. This is “Anthony's Steam Trap Wonder Machine!”, it took years to design. Now let it simmer for about 10 minutes on med-low heat.
Next...
After 10 minute have passed, take off the cookie sheet and stir every thing up good. See how it’s going, you should start to be getting a little liquid in the mix, like a vegetable sauce, oh this is good stuff! (See photos for further explanation). At this point, throw in some more parsley and fresh ground pepper. Stir well and cook some more, another 10 minutes maybe.
Next...
You want to eat this while it’s fresh and hot! Put your rice in a wide bowl, and then dish out the Ratatouille on top of the rice. Be sure to get some of the juice in the pan too and pour this over the whole thing. Serve immediately. Get everybody to the table and tell them it’s time to eat NOW!
That's it you're done........ Easy as Pie.
