Rat-tat-tooie

As part of our quest to eat healthier and keep things interesting, we recently signed up for a local produce delivery service, Oahu Fresh. Once a week, we get a bag of locally grown fruits & veggies. There are always some kind of greens and tomatoes, plus other veggies and fruits, some exotic, some run-of-the-mill.  Everything is super-fresh (as in, picked yesterday), most of it's organic, and we're supporting local farmers. Since we live on a tropical island, the growing season here is different than many other places, and only certain items are available locally.  The grocery stores mostly carry produce that's been shipped in, which means it's usually at or past it's prime by the time we can get it on the table. Before we signed up for Oahu Fresh, I threw away so many veggies and fruits that went bad within a day or two of purchase. Now, I've got greens in my fridge that came in last week's bag and are still crisp and fresh as they day they arrived. I've also got a great excuse to cook & eat veggies I might have never bought on my own, and in the process, discover new favorites.

So, for the last two weeks, we've gotten eggplant in our produce bags. They're smaller than the ones I'm used to, about the size of a grapefruit. We also got zucchini this week, and as soon as I saw those two things on the list, I knew what I was going to make for dinner - ratatouille!  In case you thought that was just a Disney movie, let me explain. Ratatouille is a traditional French dish made with garden veggies like eggplant, zucchini, and bell pepper. It's hearty like a stew, but you eat it with a fork, not a spoon.

Like so many French dishes that sound intimidating, making ratatouille isn't actually very hard. You do have to know what the heck to do with an eggplant, though.  Eggplant is a dense veggie, and very spongy.  If cooked wrong, it can be very slimy and not appetizing at all. So, to avoid that, you have to get some of the moisture out of it before you try to cook it. For this dish, I was going to cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch - 1 inch chunks, so I sliced them into thick rounds first, and laid them all out on a cutting board.  Then I took salt and pretty much just poured it over the rounds.  There's no real measurement, you just cover them, like this:

Then you let it sit. 10 minutes or so oughta do. The moisture practically pours out of the eggplant and just pools on top. You'll know it's done because there will be a puddle on top of each round. Take the piece and run them under cold water to rinse all the salt off. Pat them dry with a paper towel, then chop them into chunks.  Then cut up the rest of your veggies. Zucchini gets halved, then sliced. I like to cut mine a little thick so it holds its shape and texture. Bell pepper gets cut into strips, and the onion and garlic get sliced.

Saute the onion, garlic, and a bay leaf in a little olive oil, then add the eggplant and cook it for 6-8 minutes. I like mine pretty meaty, so I usually cook less rather than more. Then add the rest of the veggies and a little salt, stir, and cook until everything's nice and tender. Add some basil chiffonnade (stack the leaves, roll them up, then slice into little ribbons) and ground black pepper to taste. Don't forget to take out the bay leaf.

Like I said, I tend to just eat mine in a big bowl, but I had a friend coming for dinner, and my mom taught me that a meal has 3 things, (not to mention I hadn't had much to eat today besides chocolate chunk muffins & coffee, so some nutrients were in order) so I also cooked up some chicken and sliced it thin, and served it alongside some quinoa (a grain, kinda like couscous). Tasty, no?