Oven-Baked Ratatouille

I remember one particular meal when I was living in France. The elderly lady with whom we did our home stay prepared a simple meal of baked fish with a wonderfully flavorful sauce of some kind. I had never tasted it in America and begged her for the recipe. Like many Parisians, my host knew a shortcut or two, and after some coaxing, she revealed the - gasp - jar her sauce had come from. It was nothing more than store-bought ratatouille, which I now know to be a famous Provencal vegetable stew and a great way to use up summer garden produce.

The version I made at home this week in an effort to recreate that moment comes from the popular Chocolate and Zucchini blog, the author of which lives in Montmartre, one of my favorite parts of Paris. It was a great use not only for our homegrown herbs, tomatoes, zucchini and farmer's market eggplant, but a fantastic excuse to use my Le Creuset. We served it over couscous for a light, flavorful dinner.

Ratatouille Confite au Four
- 2 onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 eggplant (if you want to make the traditional ratatouille from Nice, hold the eggplant)
- 1 zucchini
- 2 green peppers
- 8 small tomatoes
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
-1 T. chopped basil
- olive oil
- salt, pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Peel and slice the onion and garlic. Rinse the remaining vegetables, trim and slice them. Rinse the herbs. Combine everything in an oven-proof dish. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil (about two tablespoons). Toss a little more to ensure even coating.
Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. At this point the vegetables should be cooked but not colored, and there should be cooking juices at the bottom of the pan.
Remove the foil and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, keeping an eye on the progress, until the cooking juices have evaporated and the vegetables have taken on a nice roasted aspect.
Remove the sprigs of herb, and serve immediately, or at room temperature, or cold. It gets even better the next day and the day after that.

Family Cioppino Fest

My mom's family is 100% Portuguese. Coming from the islands of the Azores where the local diet contains significant portions of seafood, they enjoy the fruits of the sea. My grandpa occasionally invites the extended family over for a big Cioppino Fest, and this weekend we were lucky enough to enjoy this special treat.

This year, BBQ-ed oysters were also on the menu...

Served in the shell with a tiny squirt of hot sauce.

As the food was being prepared under the covering of a sturdy patio covering, we watched the rain pour down. Portions of the roads in his neighborhood were flooded due to the inordinate amounts of precipitation. But grandpa soldiered on despite the weather.

Do you know how delicious a huge pot of steaming Cioppino broth smells on a cold, rainy day? MMM!

It only gets better once you start adding king crab legs...

Mussels and clams...

Dover sole fillets...

Calamari...

And finally, the jumbo shrimp!

Now give it a good stir with a special Cioppino spoon...


Now ladle your Cioppino into the largest bowl you can find,
and enjoy with fresh sourdough bread smothered in garlic butter!

As you can see, my grandpa makes a mean Cioppino! Many thanks to him for a great weekend, and thanks to the Portuguese and Italian fisherman of San Francisco for coming up with the idea of this delicious, fragrant, filling stew.

Azorean Beef Stew

I recently read an article about a woman who blogged her year of cooking dinner every night for a year in her slow cooker. I decided to check out her blog and I found this interesting recipe for an international twist on beef stew.
I felt a connection to this recipe because my grandmother (from my adopted family) came from the Azore Islands in Portugal when she was a little girl, and I grew up with stories and food from there. The combination of sweet and savory is a classic feature of the cooking from that part of the world, as in perhaps their most celebrated dish of Sopas (beef cooked in a spiced broth, then ladled over bread and topped with sprigs of mint). Other typical dishes are cod (lots of fishing in the islands), sweet bread, and Coconut Tarts.
My husband (who also has relatives from the Azores) raved about this dish, and loved the bold flavors of the sauce. Allspice, cinnamon and garlic will help warm you up on a cold winter's night! I recommend planning to be out of the house while this cooks, because the wonderful smell may drive you mad if you have to wait a full 8 hours before eating it.

Azorean Beef Stew

1 lb beef chuck stew meat
5-6 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
2 potatoes, chopped in 1 inch chunks
1/2 c. onion, chopped
3 cups beef stock
2 large chopped tomatoes, or 1 cup canned tomatoes
1/2 T red pepper flakes
1 tsp all spice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cumin
2 cinnamon sticks, broken
Directions:

Put the meat into your crockpot. If you are using frozen meat, it's fine, just know it will take longer to cook and get tender.

Add the broth. Chop up the tomatoes, potatoes, onion, and garlic. Throw them in.

Stir in the salt, red pepper, all spice and cumin. Float the bay leaf on top and add 2 cinnamon sticks.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for about 6. Stew tastes better the longer and slower you cook it.