Oven Roasted Ratatouille

This is healthy and delicious version of a french classic. It makes a great side dish and is quick and easy. Leftovers can be stirred into pasta for another meal so that you can cook once but eat twice. The traditional method is a vegetable stew that is made on the stove top. It's not complicated but I prefer to make this in the oven. I like that I can prepare an accompanying dish at the same time that this is cooking in the oven. Also I prefer the use of olive oil instead of the butter called for in the traditional version.



Many recipes say that salting melongene (eggplant) before cooking makes it less bitter but I don't bother. I have never found eggplant to be a particularly bitter vegetable and the family never complains when I cook it. However I must warn you that I generally don't entertain complaints when I cook. If it's not charred beyond all recognition, it's considered edible. Furthermore, if you didn't stand around in a hot kitchen but sat in front of the television waiting for your dinner - you are not entitled to an opinion. Just kidding, everyone is entitled to an opinion. I run a very democratic houshold but trust me, under the aforementioned set of circumstances you are better off keeping your opinion to yourself!

This is one of those dishes where I don't use measured amounts of anything. I just toss stuff together until it looks to be enough. Feel free to use a little more or a little less - whatever.



Oven Roasted Ratatouille ( serves 6)

Ingredients

* 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
* 3/4 lb eggplant, cut in chunks
* 1/2 lb zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
* 1 lb plum tomato, seeded and cut into 4 wedges
* 1 sweet red pepper, cut in large strips
* 1 yellow sweet pepper, cut in large strips
* 2 tablespoons Herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 red bell pepper, diced
* 1 green bell pepper, diced
* 1 yellow bepper, diced
* 2 small zucchini, diced
* 2 red onions, quartered
* 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
* 1-2 teaspoon Herbs de provence or mixed Italian herbs

# Place all vegetables and garlic in an ovenproof dish.
#
2
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle herbes de provence or Italian seasoning. Mix well to coat vegetables.
#
3
Bake at 400.c for approx 45 mins until vegetables are tender, check after 1/2 hour and stir to ensure even browning.
#
4
If your vegetables are particularly juicy you may need to drain a bit of liquid off half way through cooking.

If I am doing it, I prefer a quickie

It's true. I love food. I love to eat. But I do not love the daily chore that is cooking. (Gasp!) But wait, you have a food blog, you say. To which I reply, yes the occasional foray into food preparation and creating a healthy, satisfying or at times an extravagant, feast pleases me. Having to do it everyday - does not. The duty bound, run of the millness, everydayness; what the French call le train-train quotidien,of cooking can exhausting and as dull as dirt. So like many home cooks, I have developed routines and quickie cheating versions of kitchen tasks that help me cope.

Case in point, let's examine a hugely popular cooking method the world over. There is some evidence to suggest that barbecue was transported to the rest of the world when Europeans observed the manner in which Amerindians smoked and prepared the meats on a grill called a buccan. Wild game was cured with salt and spices, then covered with wet leaves and cooked on a grill of local wood over an open fire pit. This early method of barbecue was adopted by the French and the word boucaniers buccaneer)was used to describe persons who prepared their meats this way. The term eventually came to describe pirates who I can only surmise found this a convenient cooking method that served their swashbuckling, beach lifestyle.

Convenient though it may have been for early colonial settlers. It's a pain in the butt for a working mom of three - maybe four (counting the days when DH might be acting like a kid himself). Here is my big tip for preparing this popular meal: get your significant other to do it for you:-) Easy enough since the modern day grill seems to draw out a man's primal need to rustle with coals and giant slabs of raw meat which must be tamed with secret marinades, spice rubs, slapped with special sauces and then charred, uhmm I mean grilled. Even if the self same guy doesn't know where to locate a fork in his own kitchen (yes M I am talking about you), he will no doubt be the owner of the Mercedes Benz of outdoor backyard grills. What's more he will be more than willing to show you how to use it with swashbuckling flair. BTW gas grills are for sissies, he'll declare through a cloud of smoke thick enough to keep all but the dragonfly sized mosquitoes away.

I love BBQ. Mr H and I tend to get all dewy eyed when we taste meat that has been smoked to a sweet, smoky, succulent, sticky perfection. Spare ribs at Pussers Marina Cay - we'll be back. Unfortunately, the chances of me hauling out a grill, fanning hot coals under an already sweltering Caribbean hot day, getting smoke in my eyes and my hair are really - NEVER! Instead, when friends invite me to a barbecue, I will ask if it's okay to bring extra meat and whatever extra ingredients the cook might need. These extras are grilled and I take them home for later on in the week. Roll your eyes all you want Marguerite Gorden you have never taste my friend J's barbecue.

Finally, as I say in the title to this post, If I'm doing it I prefer a method that does not sacrifice flavour but at the same time gets lunch or dinner on the table in quick time. Oven BBQ chicken is a very popular cheat version that appears often on the table for Sunday Lunch in many homes. There are many variations to suit personal preferences. The only must here is that your herbs should be fresh. Okay so the purists out there are probably firing up their own grills now to roast me for deigning to name my baked chicken, bbq. All I can say is so long as you have that grill lit, May I come over with a few extra pieces of meat ;-)?

So here it is my quickie version of BBQ chicken done in the oven better known as (It's too damned hot to BBQ Chicken recipe! Or for those of you approaching Winter in your country feel free to swap out the word hot for cold.)


3 1/2 - 4lbs chicken, cut up
1 lime
1 tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs spoons green seasoning
2 cups Hunts bold (or your favourite babbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup (optional)
splash Lea and Perrins worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Caribbean pepper sauce ( made with scotch bonnet or Congo peppers)


1) Wash chicken with lime. Squeeze one lime in 3/4 cup of water. Add to bowl of cut up raw chicken and mix. Pour off the lime water.

2) Season chicken with salt, garlic and green seasoning. Leave in the fridge overnight of at least 1/2 hour

3) Place skin side up on a foil lined baking dish. Discard marinade. Sprinkle some additional green seasoning over chicken. Mix the ketchup, barbecue sauce and the pepper. Cover chicken with this sauce and bake for 35 - 40 mins at 325 degrees F.

4) Remove from the oven. Coat chicken with additional barbecue sauce and return to the oven.

5) Cook until done about 15 mins more, basting occasionally until chicken has a nice colour and the sauce is a thick gravy. You could always add a little water to it for a thinner sauce. We like a cooked sauce and this saves us the extra step of cooking one on the stove.

Okay lets talk green seasoning. This is the key to this dish. Cynthia over at Tastes Like Home has already blogged extensively on it so I will point you to her site. So click here to read more about it. I make my seasoning using chives, celery, Spanish, French and Portuguese thyme, Trinidad seasoning peppers, chadon beni and garlic.











<

I wanted to love you but sorry I only like you.

When you are in love, research has shown that a large part of the cerebral cortex which is responsible for judgement and reasoning is deactivated to the point where you do stupid things. It can be argued that the same thing happens when one is inebriated. In my case it's just my innate weirdness gene and neither of the aforementioned that made me decide to grow my own mint for the sole purpose of making my own mojitos.




Years ago, my good friend D introduced me to the mojito and I fell in love. Unfortunately, it isn't very often that I find a place that serves mojitos due to the fact that fresh mint is only sporadically available here - if at all.

Finding a mint plant was easy. The garden shops have a good supply of a few varieties, spearmint, chocolate mint, ordinary mint. Growing it is not so hard. It doesn't do well in our full Caribbean sun. It seems to prefer filtered light and doesn't like it when the soil dries out. Water well. It bounces back easily from periods of drought i.e when you have forgotten to water it.






Why then is this a post about ice-cream and not a highball glass, beaded with condensation from a lovely cold mojito? In short, dear friends, I do not own a muddler. In the event that you even care about my mojito dilema let me describe one for you. As much as I am tempted to use the term to describe a particular Minister who sought to defend his Ministry's purchase of a 2 million dollar flag - a muddler is not a politician. Even if said politician attempted to clarify for the public that the flag itself only cost $18,000 and the design and engineering of the pole could not be considered to be part of the cost of the flag, but was a separate cost entirely. Mr. Minister further muddled the issue by suggesting that citizens should not protest the asstronomical cost (not a typo). Instaed we should rejoice with the national pride that this flag was meant to inspire. Befuddled are we?

Let me clarify.

This is a muddler
Yes you may consider gifting me with one. (D are you listening?)



This is NOT a muddler (though it may behave like one)


As much as one is tempted to think otherwise - a muddler is in fact a doohicky that one uses to bruise the leaves to releases the oils of the mint into your drink. In my quest to become my own mojito barrista, I discovered that processing mint leaves in a blender does not work. Also, your loved ones will not tell you that you have leaf bits stuck between your teeth, preferring instead to make jokes to get you to smile even more.


Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice-cream

2 1/2 cups light cream, half-and-half or milk (whole or skim), or a combination

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

3 cups of fresh mint leaves (not stems), rinsed, drained, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 quarter cups chocolate chips

1. Put the mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with 2 cups cream, half-and-half or milk, in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat until just steaming (do not let boil), remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Reheat the mixture until steaming add the sugar and salt. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 more minutes.

2. Strain the milk cream mixture into a bowl, pressing against the mint leaves with a wooden spoon to get the most liquid out of them. Return the milk cream mixture to the saucepan. In a bowl, blend cornstarch with remaining 1/2 cup cream, half-and-half or milk; there should be no lumps. Add cornstarch mixture to pot. Cook, stirring, until it starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce heat to very low and stir for 5 minutes or so until thick. Stir in vanilla extract.

3. If mixture has lumps, strain it into a bowl. Chill until cool, When cooled, pour into an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add chocolate chips according to the manufacturers instructions - usually in the last 10 - 5 mins of churning.

Yield: 1 generous pint. ( A pint is only 2 cups!)

Okay so for the ice-cream I consulted with my BIFF (Best Internet Friend's for life) Mark Bittman, David Lebovitz and Elise Bauer. Awwright, Awwright so these people don't actually know that I exist but I visit their sites often enough. Funny how social networking has legitimized stalking. Anyway my BIFFS inspire me with their recipes and I am in awe of their curiosity about and skill with food. These guys have such a large following of fans, that I am a little bit afraid to be anything less than adoring. Still, friends tell friends the truth don't they? So here is how our conversation went....

Elise says, "The taste of the ice cream using fresh mint really is out of this world, so if you can get your hands on fresh mint, I highly recommend using it for this ice cream."

Wizzy: " Elise, now you know you are my girl and fresh ingredients are usually best but in this instance I prefer my home-made not gourmet so it's peppermint oil for my ice-cream the next time.

Dav-ee-d says: Strain the mint-infused mixture through a mesh strainer into a medium saucepan (the milk will be a lovely shade of emerald.)

Wizzy: Dav-ee-d. Mah boy! I hope jewlery is not on your signifiant other's christmas list! No it doesn't.

David: W - ee -zy, I don't want to say that you are culinary challenged but maybe maybe your mint was just a little bit chlorophyll challenged.


Robin Lee : It couldn't only be for me that eating fresh mint ice cream killed the desire to eat the regular stuff that I grew up on ever again.

Wizzy: Girlfriend, I tried to go there with you and Dav-ee-d. You are my BIFF after all. Sadly it was not to be. Fresh mint tastes like grass. Fresh minty grass but there is the unmistakable grass flavour which in my very unimportant opinion ( only have 45 followers ) while you no doubt have thousands. is just so wrong in any dessert.

Wizzy: Marcos, your cornstarch recipe liberated me from the drama that was pudding. thanks but I'll not be taking you up on that offer for ice-cream at your house. Your cornstartch recipe has made me a star man but a pint cannot be descibed as generous. It's just two cups, man.


A muddler I need a mojitoegineering of the pole and twhea dohicky used to here Such was my love for the drink that I decided to for months after I ( maybe in part due to insobriety)I'll admit but I was smite to the point where. Yes I decided to ot due to insobrietyin love (n but One major difference between love and hate appears to be in the fact that large parts of the cerebral cortex – associated with judgement and reasoning – become de-activated during love, whereas only a small area is deactivated in hate.. Why do I grow my own mint?

When Bread is Not the Staff of Life

Can you imagine a life without bread ? The history of bread goes back to ancient times and anthropologists tell us that wheat has been cultivated by man since before recorded history. The ancient Greeks and Romans ate bread as a staple food. The Lord's prayer asks God to "Give us this day our daily bread" - the bread here symbolizing moral sustenance as well as satisfying physical need. If there is one food unites the world it is a love and appreciation for bread. Be it leavened or unleavened all cultures consume some version of this food; in Jamaica there is a Hard Dough bread; Barbados, has Salt Bread; Guyanese, love their tennis Rolls, British Virgin Islands has Dumb Bread while Trinidadians crave Hops bread and Roti in it's various forms. If there is one food that the world can agree upon, it is the love and appreciation of bread in all forms.

So what happens if you are allergic to wheat the fundamental ingredient in bread?

As a mom, it's my job to stay informed and make the best dietary decisions possible for my family. This is even more important when someone in your family has a food allergy.

Although he was breastfed for 10 months, we realized early on that Little Bear had problems digesting his food. I had to eliminate all peas and beans from my diet as they made him uncomfortable and gassy. Certain foods also aggravated his eczema. It was difficult to pin down exactly which foods in my diet were the culprits and for the first year we struggled to determine the likely offenders. A few thousand dollars in doctors bills and dietary adjustments later we have determined that he is sensitive to tomatoes, melongene (eggplant), ochros (okra) and gluten. Gluten causes the most severe reaction. Not only does it flare up his eczema but he also gets allergy like sniffles and painful tummy cramps. His stomach gets rock hard. He screams for hours and is inconsolable.

Celiac Disease is a digestive tract disorder. When people with celiac disease eat foods which contain gluten, it creates an adverse reaction that damages the small intestine so that nutrients from food are not properly absorbed. While his doctor hasn't diagnosed celiac disease, we have been advised to keep his diet gluten free (for now anyway). My fingers are crossed that it will be as the doctor says and he may very well outgrow this sensitivity. In the meantime I have set about learning about gluten free food so that I can feed Little Bear stuff that doesn't make him ill and cause him pain. I am trying to remain hopeful that as he grows and his digestive system matures, things will work themselves out.

It is a challenge to maintain a gluten free diet because gluten is the protein found in wheat, oatmeal*, barley and rye. Wheat is the fundamental ingredient in bread; a food so universally important in the diet of so many cultures it has been described as the staff of life? But what if you are allergic to this staple food and all the other foods made with wheat flour like , pies, pizza, pastries, cookies, cakes, roti, doubles, dumplings, pasta, macaroni pie, noodles, lasagna, fried chicken, muffins, and pancakes? And those are only the obvious gluten containing foods.

More difficult to avoid is the 'hidden' gluten that is often present in commercially prepared foods. Wheat flour is often used in processed foods as a binder, emulsifier, and a filler. Here are are some foods which may be a source of hidden gluten: sausages, luncheon meat, soy sauce, snacks, malt and malted milk, icings, baking powder, some curry powder powders, some types of cocoa, some seasonings where flour is used as a flow agent, Ovaltine, Milo, baked beans (there may be gluten in the tomato sauce), textured vegetable protein, yogurt, chewing gum, potato chips, popcorn, ice cream cones, beverage mixes some pharmaceuticals and even some toothpastes.


Initially it was easy to avoid gluten because in the Caribbean we are blessed with a wide variety of starchy foods that can be substituted for cereal. Little Bear's first foods were primarily porridges of sweet potatoes, eddoes, tannia, dasheen, breadfruit, green figs, yams, and cassava. Many parents today start their babies on rice cereal followed by barley, oatmeal and wheat. It is easy to forget that this is a fairly new dietary change brought on by our convenience food culture. These cereals do not grow here and have only recently become staples. Many West Indians still choose to start baby on our fresh, local foods which are nutritionally superior than anything coming out of a box that was packed with preservatives and shipped halfway around the world. Listen I am not saying I don't keep a box of baby rice cereal flakes in the cupboard for emergencies but for the most part I don't find it at all difficult to boil a root vegetable and smash it with a fork with a bit of milk.

Little Bear is a 'big' boy now and the proud owner of 4 spanking new teeth. These teeth need substance. No more mushy mush for those bad boys. Biting (not always food related) is almost an obsession with him. I suppose chewing will come later. Sigh. At times it's alarming the huge chunks of food that he bites into and swallows without chewing. He bites everything. Furniture, toys, his clothes, paper, a grasshopper ( well almost - we got to poor Jiminy in the nick of time).

Time for some toast so small man can gnaw his way to biting nirvana. I used the only gluten free flour available to me, Doves Farms flour Gluten and Wheat Free Brown Bread Flour. At $7Us it's not cheap. I have made this twice and both times it produced a dense loaf with a depression in the middle. I am a bit puzzled by the picture of the well risen, loaves shown on the Doves Farm site since mine sagged in the middle. The recipe on the website mentions that the dough should be pressed inwards and upwards to form a domed top. I did not do this as it was not mentioned on recipe on the the package of flour. So maybe that's the reason. In any case the center depression in my loaf makes it look like the bread is smiling when you cut it, don't you think? It has a nice crust but the texture is rubbery. If you don't expect this to taste like bread then you won't be disappointed with the flavour, which isn't off putting. It's just very bland. Think of it as a delivery method for your sandwich fixings. If I was gluten intolerant it would be an acceptable substitute for a sandwich but I can't see myself rushing to eat a warm buttery slice of this bread straight from the oven. It's not bread; just an acceptable substitute.

Gluten Free Bread
16 oz Brown bread flour (Doves Farms)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Quick yeast
2 tbs Sugar
12 floz warm milk
1 tsp vinegar
2 eggs
6tbps oil

Mix together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. In a large bowl beat in the milk, vinegar and eggs. Add the flour and mix to form a sticky dough. ( Looks wet and spongy). Continue mixing adding the oil. Place the dough in an oiled 2 lb bread tin, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40- 45 mins 425 degres F


*Oats on their own do not contain gluten. However, they are not gluten free because of the potential for contamination during growing and processing.





My fingers are crosseddecision possible, but it's irritating when you wonder if your server really knows if there is a dollop of cream, or butter in your dishWe dined out often when my first son was a toddler Beers brewwed the tradiyonal way contain gluten .roti! doubles, pizza, fried chicken. Great but eating out I don't Just to be sure I called up gfree


Chefs are not dieticians but ceratinly restaurants have a responsibility to be knowlegedebale about food allegies and knowlege of ingredients so as to guide inform patrons food choices. I onnec had a friend end up in the Er shelfish allery. It turns out that cross contamination occured when the cutting board used to prepare her dish had been used earlier to prep shrimp.
A call to one of the country's ptremier restaurants revealed the extent of
Good evening. Do you offer any gluten free meal options on your menu.
Uhmm gluten free. Everything in this restaurant is gluten free.
uhhh huh. Yes mam please hold while I check that wit the chef for you.
The chef assures me that he doesn't cook with gluten and everything is gluten free. . Do you serve pasta? Yes we do.

I'm already frustrated at how little servers know about the food they are serving. I haven't even dined out that often with our little boy, )

You do know that pasta contains gluten
Does it?
Thanks for your help good evening.

Tips fpr dining out. Okay then.

Clearly
my favourite restaurant

It's been a while since I penned a blog entry for this site and it's been something I've missed. I intended to post something in June, but the gluten-Gods had something else in mind for me, and on June 20th I was seriously gluten-poisoned while eating out at an Italian restaurant - and have been suffering the serious physical and mental consequences ever since.

As much as I love home-cooking, I certainly also enjoy a nice meal out and the social life that usually accompanies dining outside the home. Since being diagnosed as a celiac disease nine years ago, I've learned to navigate through many restaurants safely and with confidence, yet on the other hand, there have also been many times when the message of cooking gluten-free was not properly transmitted from server to chef, and I've paid the serious price for their lack of awareness via a very sick body.

This past incident, however, has made me really angry and that's not like me - but when a restaurant so blatantly goes to great lengths to advertise and serve homemade gluten-free pastas on their menu, in my opinion, they are announcing that they have not only the understanding but the full awareness of exactly what gluten-free food preparation entails - this was so sadly not my experience on that lovely June evening. In fact, I went to great lengths to speak with the restaurant staff, and server five times from when the reservation was made on line, to a phone call, and throughout my meal. What more can a paying Celiac customer do to ensure their safety?

As it turns out, the special gluten-free pasta that I ordered ahead of time was then prepared with a basil cream sauce that was mixed with wheat flour, and then poured all over my delicious pasta and served to me. I instinctively asked the server as the beautiful plate of too-good-to-be-true pasta was placed in front of me, "okay so this meal is 100% gluten-free, correct?"...."Yes, enjoy!"....I was told.

It's this kind of negligence, and lack of understanding about how Celiacs and gluten-intolerant folks truly have to eat to ensure safety, that really incenses me.

I'm sure there are many of you out there who have experienced similar situations, and hopefully survived to tell about it. Our voices need to be heard and in my opinion when gluten contamination of food in a restaurant happens, it's not simply a stomach ache that ensues...there are serious symptoms involved that restaurants all across this nation need to be educated about. It's really a matter of life and death.

Malt vinegar Outcast outsider Please God don't let my baby have celiac disease. Other food allergies Dougnuts, bakery cookies, pies, pastry's, pasta (although wf is not that bad, it's just trying to convinve my parents to eat it), chicken noodle soup, ice cream in a cone, pretzels, raisin bread, sultana cake and basically the freedom of eating out without having to order salad after salad. with themit is understandable that breakfats is a bit of a challenge. It would be nice to break up the monontony of breakfast with the occaisiona l sandwich, or pancake or muffin. i had to look for agluten free bread for sandwiches, pancakes
Dougnuts, bakery cookies, pies, pastry's, pasta (although wf is not that bad, it's just trying to convinve my parents to eat it), chicken noodle soup, ice cream in a cone, pretzels, raisin bread, sultana cake and basically the freedom of eating out without having to order salad after salad.

At 4500 for of flour that yields two breads! Ouch it's a good thing he is the only one eating them Here is my bread lover opinion. Do not expect it to taste like bread. It has anice crust but the tecture The texture is somewhat rubbery.

This is my second attempt at this bread and bothe times the results were tthe same. NOw he eats from the family meals. I have struggled with finding a bread substiturewas especially frustrating since and we have to wait untilmost time

America has Julia we have Sylvia

Perfect crumb
not to heavy not to light.