food orleans

eat local challenge: ratatouille to the rescue!

By foodorleans · June 14, 2013 · 0 Comments ·

For my second local-food recipe this week, I've gone as simple as you can, when it comes to dealing with all the squash, eggplant, and tomatoes we have running around here right now: ratatouille. There's nothing better for taking advantage of our currently booming crops like this simple, homey, ultra-satisfying melange of eggplant, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and herbs. Moreover, ratatouille is highly adaptable and very versatile! You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks; you can eat it as a main dish, over rice or potatoes, with cheese or without, or as a side dish to just about anything (I busted out some roasted chicken for this one, but sauteed shrimp or baked fish, or even grilled sausages would be super). You can also add or subtract ingredients as you wish, but keep in mind that this is basically a quick-cooking stew of soft, mildly flavored, yet colorful vegetables, so you might not want to add, say, beets. They'd just bloody everything up.

Because most of the vegetables used in ratatouille are rather "shyly" flavored, you'll want to use a good dose of herbs for flavor. Rosemary, thyme, basil, and oregano are all typically French and typically perfect in ratatouille. You'll also need salt, and vinegar or wine really helps brighten things up at the end. If you're not opposed to a non-local ingredient, you can throw some kalamata olives in there and boost the flavor quite a bit. Cook ratatouille as long as you like for the desired consistency: I like the eggplant to get really soft and velvety but I like a little bite left in the squashes, so I throw everything in together and just let it work itself out. But if you like more assertively textured eggplant, you might want to add it after the squash gets going for a bit.

after cooking about 10 minutes, everything together

after cooking about 20 minutes. It looks like there are olives in there, but that's really just the bits of skin I left on the eggplant.

ratatouille

3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, or other oil
1 medium eggplant, peeled if desired, diced in 1" cubes (I peel half the skin off so I can keep some purple color)
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 or 5 summer squash, any variety (I used 1 zucchini, 2 yellow crooknecks, and 1 large white pattypan), diced
salt and pepper to taste
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved, or 1 or 2 medium tomatoes, diced
2 to 4 teaspoons chopped fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, in any combination)
1 teaspoon cane vinegar or 2 teaspoons white or red wine

Heat a large saute pan with high sides over medium-high heat and pour in the oil.
When the oil is hot, add the eggplant, red bell pepper, squash, and garlic, along with 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grinding of black pepper. Stir and saute for a few minutes, then reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until things start to get soft.
Add the tomatoes and herbs, stir well, and continue cooking over medium heat for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. It will stick a little no matter what. When things are getting really soft, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking another 10 minutes, or until the texture is to your liking and everything is tender. Add in the vinegar or wine at the last second and stir to combine.
Taste and adjust seasoning; you may need more salt (I used about 3 teaspoons total).

serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side dish

Tagged with: squash, summer, garlic, tomatoes, vegetarian, eggplant, Side Dish, herbs, ratatouille, eat local challenge

summer's last stand: shrimp and okra stew with a secret

By foodorleans · August 1, 2011 · 0 Comments ·

Before the intense heat of this summer drives us all inside to eat nothing but cold sandwiches and ice cream, and before every last tomato has been incinerated by the sun, I want to share a special creation with you that we concocted at the beach: shrimp and okra stew with a secret. The secret is chipotle pepper. (Italics is the typist's whisper). Not that chipotle peppers in adobo sauce haven't been popularized in recent years--they're showing up in everything from hot wing sauce to salad dressing--but they're not indigenous to New Orleans cuisine. But they really put this shrimp and okra stew over the top, I tell you! Wowza!

Tagged with: summer, rice, cheese, shrimp, garlic, tomatoes, bread, onion, pepper, Stew, okra, grits, jalapeno, Chipotle

gazpacho salsa, and grooming your vegetables

By foodorleans · July 3, 2010 · 2 Comments ·

I'm a lucky girl. Lynn Becnel, my co-worker and an excellent cook, often shares fresh lemons from her trees, rosemary and basil from her garden, and even the bounty that others have brought to her from their gardens. Recently, I left work with bags of okra, squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers she'd brought from a gardner friend with a bumper crop. And when I see fresh cucumbers and tomatoes and it's hotter than hades outside, I think gazpacho. This recipe started out as soup, but when I tasted the vegetables, before adding the tomato juice that would become the "broth," I stopped tinkering. It was good. It tasted like a handful of garden--who was I to cover up all that gorgeous flavor? So gazpacho salsa was born.

Tagged with: salsa, garlic, garden, tomatoes, onion, Cucumbers, cilantro, quesadilla, jalapeno, bell peppers

naughty but nice: fried green tomato caprese

By foodorleans · June 14, 2010 · 0 Comments ·

I don't know why I had to take one of the healthiest appetizer/salad/snack concoctions on the planet and fry it, but I'd do it again. In a heartbeat.

See those white edges? That's fried mozzarella oozing out of the breading, because I breaded and fried the cheese, too. I've already decided that I'm going to be grounded for the week and I must eat nothing but wheat bread and carrots until I understand the consequences of my actions.

Tagged with: cheese, salsa, snack, tomatoes, fried, appetizer, mozzarella, caprese, green tomatoes

my green heaven

By foodorleans · May 16, 2010 · 4 Comments ·

Creole tomatoes are in their green state these days, which is fine with me. For one thing, I know that the ripe red creoles are just weeks away; for another, I love fried green tomatoes. Love them.

The use of green tomatoes on a BLT has been a bit of a lunch trend in the city--La Petite Grocery offered a BLT with green tomato jam last spring, for instance, which was outstanding. The tarter, "greener" flavor of a green tomato plays well with smoky bacon, and just feels like spring, to me. At last week's Saturday market, Paul found baby green creole tomatoes, about the size of limes. They were so cute, and their slices so perfectly round, that they just seemed to be crying out for the starring role in a BLT. So that's what we had--cocktail-sized fried-green-tomato BLTs. Hooray!

Tagged with: bacon, sandwich, tomatoes, blt, french quarter, creole tomato festival, fried green tomato

riz jaune to the riz-scue

By foodorleans · February 6, 2010 · 2 Comments ·

Riz jaune has appeared in my life right when I really needed a new "dinner magic" kind of recipe--something cheap, on-hand, and easy to adapt to all sorts of quick dinner fixes. Riz jaune (say "ree zhahn") is basically a Cajun version of fried rice. You make a sort of trinity-plus-Pope concoction (that's onion/celery/bell pepper + garlic), add veggie bits or leftovers you have around the kitchen, ditto with meats (sausage is especially nice), and then you stir in cold cooked rice and eggs. Mix everything up, cook till the egg is firm and scattered all throughout, then eat it as-is or in dozens of other ways that I haven't even thought of yet. Here's what we have had: Riz-jaune-and-red-bean burrito, and gumbo served over riz jaune instead of plain rice. Good stuff. I can also see this being a great stuffing for vegetables or an interesting bed for some gravied chicken or pork.

Tagged with: Eggs, mushrooms, rice, tomatoes, pope, Sausage, eggplant, gumbo, leftovers, burrito, trinity

hot child in the city

By foodorleans · July 2, 2009 · 0 Comments ·

Believe me when I tell you that a couple of weeks ago, when I was dead-set on filling out a nice, long post with photos of the Creole Tomato/Louisiana Seafood/Cajun-Zydeco festival throwdown, I had no idea that it would be so hot down in the French Quarter.

It was too hot to take photos. Seriously, the camera kept slipping out of my hands.

I managed a few, though:

I love these little guys. I ate them.

Cajun fish taco. I asked for a small portion of slaw so I could really taste the fish. It's a lightly fried tilapia filet, dusted with just a bit of Cajun seasoning (like a mixture of cayenne, garlic powder, thyme, salt, pepper). Really nice and simple-tasting, a good thing to eat in the heat.

Shrimp-and-crab-stuffed Creole tomato. This was the perfect dish to "marry" the two food festivals together. Creole tomatoes are the jewels of the summer season here in Louisiana--people talk about them all year, either how much they miss them or how much they love them. They don't really look different from regular tomatoes, to me, but the taste is something special. Denser, sunnier, redder. I devoured every last seed of this tomato.

We had some other yummies--crawfish sausage, hurricane sno balls--but they didn't make it to the photo stage. If you can stand the heat, this festival trio, known as the "Vieux To Do," is really something. Tons of food, great vendors, fun music. This year it was held the weekend of June 13-14, so I'd assume next year it will be sometime close to that.

Tagged with: seafood, Hot, music, tomatoes, festival, french quarter

parts of a whole

By foodorleans · March 8, 2009 · 3 Comments ·

I wouldn't call myself a fan of green beans. There's something about them I just don't really care for--too much "green," too much "bean," too much of each of those combined. And green beans and potatoes? There seem to be many calls for these two items together, in curries, stews, or pasta dishes, and I just don't get excited. For whatever reason, though, I can abide them both in a good, solid niçoise. Perhaps it's the way, in a niçoise, they are two components among several others which are all considered important and equal. Perhaps it's the relentless individuality they retain when grouped this way, much like the way people on a team know, deep inside, that even though there's no "i" in "team," there's a "me."

A niçoise is a pretty forgiving square meal. It's meat (traditionally, tuna), veg (green beans), and potatoes, along with various accompaniments that kind of add up to a plate of hors d'oevres, and it's meant to be served at room temperature, which is always a comfort when you're not really up to finishing several different cooking times at once. There are some steps, but they're basic as basic can be: boiling, steaming, baking, and vinaigrette making. It can be served over greens or not, tossed or not, and made expensive or not (one of the perks of living in New Orleans is freshly caught catfish). It can even be seafoodless and still be very satisfying. There's hardly even a recipe to follow, once you've got the basic idea down.

A More Local Niçoise

4 portions of seafood (something inexpensive and local, if possible): shrimp, scallops, catfish, crawfish, tuna, salmon, bass, etc.)
12 small red boiling potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
2 big handfuls green beans, trimmed
1 large ripe tomato, or 1 pt. cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup pitted olives (preferably niçoise, but kalamata are fine too)
4 eggs
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 lemons
2 cloves garlic
a few teaspoons of wine vinegar (white, red, or champagne)
1-2 teaspoons Dijon or grainy mustard
salt & pepper
salad greens (optional)

Make the vinaigrette first, which is the unifier of this dish: Mince the garlic and place in a bowl or measuring cup large enough for a whisk to move around in. Juice the lemons and add the juice to the garlic. Shake in a little wine vinegar and plop in the mustard. Start whisking this mixture with one hand, and with the other hand, slowly pour in the olive oil. This doesn't need to be perfectly emulsified; you'll keep whisking it every time you use it. Taste it, and add salt and pepper and additional vinegar until it tastes like a strong salad dressing. I like it slightly overseasoned, because the potatoes and beans are going to break it down a little.
Potatoes: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and boil them whole until a knife will almost go into the center of one easily. Take them off the heat, drain, and return to the pot and add the lid. Let them steam in the pot (no fire underneath) for another 10 minutes to finish cooking. Let them cool for a bit, then quarter or halve them, depending on size. Toss them in a bowl with some of the vinaigrette and set aside.
Green beans: Put about 1 cup water in a medium saucepan, salt it, and bring to a boil. Add the beans and cook them the way you like them: really crunchy, slightly crunchy, soft, or cafeteria-soft. Drain them, cool them for a long minute, then toss them in a separate bowl with some vinaigrette.
Seafood: Decide how you want to cook it: bake, broil, grill, saute, poach, etc. Season it with salt, pepper, and anything else you like (I used catfish & some seafood grill seasoning I had on hand). Drizzle it with a bit of olive oil (or another kind of oil) and cook it the way you like it (I baked it at 400 for about 12 minutes) and let it rest for about five minutes for most of the heat to leave.
Eggs: Hard-boil, cool, peel, and halve.
Tomatoes: Cut into 8 wedges (if you have cherry tomatoes, you can halve them or leave them whole) (as you might notice in the photo, I forgot to buy tomatoes).
Olives: Snack on a few and then just keep them at the ready.
Greens (if using): Make these ready to use as a bed for the other ingredients: wash & tear the greens and toss them with some of the vinaigrette, as you would for any salad.
Compose: On each plate, place greens, potatoes, green beans, two egg halves, two tomato wedges, several olives, and a portion of seafood. Drizzle a little more vinaigrette over the whole dish and serve.

Serves 4.