Sunday, September 13, 2009

Shrimp Ratatouille

I made the BEST lunch! Shrimp Ratatouille! Everything but the shrimp
and spices were from the garden--our garden at the Rolandale Silk
Creek Retreat Center. Yesterday we picked several POUNDS of
vegetables from the garden and I transformed them, with BB's help
peeling and chopping, into a big pot of shrimp ratatouille! I don't
want to brag, but it came out FABULOUS! We had it for lunch today.
It was so good!

5 comments:

a/k/a Nadine said...

Awesome! That's quite impressive.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

It was fab! For dinner, I made andouille Ratatouille, with a slightly different set of veggies--but it was equally yum. It's a lot of work cutting everything up, but it sure is good!

Andrea said...

OMG!! This looks DELISH! Do you think you could mail me a bowl? No, prolly not. How about your recipe?

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I almost never use a recipe for anything, Andrea--ONLY if I am trying something new and have no idea what should be in it. I sometimes do a little RESEARCH first, but then, by guess and by gosh!

Here's what I did--I harvested a bunch of veggies from my garden and there were lots of tomatoes. Ratatouille is made with tomatoes, zucchini veggies and spices.

Tomatoes are a key ingredient, with garlic, onions, courgettes (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant), bell peppers (poivron), marjoram and basil, or bay leaf and thyme, or a mix of green herbs like herbes de Provence. People debate on how to make a traditional ratatouille. One method is to simply saute all of the vegetables together. That's what I did, basically.

What I did was boil some water in one pan, put cold water and ice in another and in a third pan, start sauteing the vegetables (Other than the tomatoes) [yellow and green squash, okra, broccoli] with garlic, onions, shallots and mushrooms.

Meanwhile, I dipped the tomatoes in boiling water--I put in about 5 at a time--left them a minute and then put them in cold water and then slipped off their skins. I whacked them up and tossed them into the stirfry. I added white wine twice, once early to soak into the mushrooms, once late to flavor the broth.

I added a little parsley, basil, dry mustard, salt, pepper, cayenne, celery greens (just a few for flavor) and cooked it just enough so that the vegies were getting tender and the tomatoes were cooked through but partially intact. Scoop up and serve.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

OH, the shrimp go in three minutes before serving--to remain tender and not get rubbery.

It can be served vegetarian or with any kind of protein you like.