Remi's Ratatouille ..

Overview : 

So, my project of this year was this gorgeous dish, rather presentation. I am sure many cooking enthusiasts who have watched this movie  "Ratatouille" must have fallen in love with the rat "Remy" and must have definitely fantasized preparing Ratatouille and savoring it just like "Anton Ego". I fantasized too and read about it. It didn't seem to be a tough job after all, considering also the fact that I go gaga over French/Italian food. But the presentation they showed in the movie was so elegant that I could not help giving it a try..

So, I made a fully vegetarian presentation, with vegetables like yellow squash, Italian eggplant, zucchini and red bell pepper. Here it goes..

Cooking time: 50 minutes, excluding dicing vegetables. Serves 2-3 

Ingredients :

• 1/2 onion finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves (Grated)
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small Italian Eggplant
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 small yellow squash
• 1 long red bell pepper
• Fresh or dried Thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper
• Mozzarella cheese and little  tomme de chevre cheese

Recipe : 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree F or 190 degree Celsius.
2. In a large/longish baking tray(approx) 10 inches in length (regular corelle dish) , spread the tomato puree evenly. Add salt and pepper generously over the puree and add the grated garlic and chopped onion. Mix 1 tbsp olive oil and stir the sauce. Sprinkle chopped parsley if you have, but its not necessary.
3. Sprinkle some Mozzarella and  tomme de chevre cheese over it.
4. Now slice all the vegetables in the cross-section across width, into thin slices.. The slice should be half a centimeter thin.
5. Arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a little edge of each flat surface is visible. Do that by alternating vegetables.
6. Spread the remaining olive oil over vegetables and season them evenly with salt,pepper and dried thyme leaves.
7. Sprinkle some fresh mozzarella finally and cover the dish with a parchment paper that is cut in exact size as that of top of the baking dish. Paper should be put and cut in such a way that, it covers the vegetables exactly and doesn't sag inside them.
8. Now put the dish in preheated oven and bake for 50 minutes. Do not over-bake, otherwise the vegetables can burn and flavor may be spoiled. La Ratatouille is ready for presentation !!

Presentation:

Serve in a platter with any way you like. Its a presentation dish, so you can be very creative with it. I like the movie presentation. But it can be served with Rice/Pasta as well. I personally feel it tastes awesome with rice..!!

Chicken Do-Pyaaza

Overview :

A very aromatic, North - Indian style chicken curry. Its famously called as Chicken "Do-Pyaaza" because of the technique of marination of chicken. Its kept in onion-ginger-garlic paste twice(one time in marination and other while cooking) and hence called "Do-Pyaaza". "Do" is Hindi for "twice". It is actually a Mughal legacy.

Cooking Time : 30 mins including pre-cooking preparation.

Marination :  6-7 hours. Plan your cooking accordingly. The chicken needs to be marinated for this much time atleast.

Ingredients :

• 4 lbs ( roughly 2 kilogram) of  your choice of  boneless chicken 

• 2 big onion, one big piece of ginger and 7-8 cloves of garlic, few green chillies blended together.

• flavor spices : 3 big black cardamom(badi elaichi), 2 Bay leaves(tej-patra), 2 small Cinnamon sticks(Dalchini), salt to taste

• dry spices : 4 tbsp coriander powder, 2 tsp red chilli powder

• 2 tbsp cooking oil.
• MDH Chicken curry masala for additional fragrance.
• salt as per taste
• 3 tbsp tomato puree

Recipe : 

1. Wash chicken properly and cut into smaller chunks, say 3X3 inches.
2. In a bowl, take half of the blended onion-ginger-garlic mixture and add 2 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder and 2 tsp chicken curry masala. Add 2 tsp salt and mix well. Now add all the chicken pieces and mix gently. Set aside for 7 hours. So you have to plan the cooking accordingly.
3. Heat oil in a large vessel with cover or a pressure cooker on high flame and add all the flavor spices like black cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks etc.  Now add the rest of the onion-ginger-garlic paste and saute until dark brown.
4. Lower the flame to medium and add the rest of the spices like 2 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, salt to taste and 1 tsp chicken curry masala to the sauteed mixture. Stir evenly and add the tomato puree.
5. Now add all the marinated chicken and keep the flame on medium low. Add 3-4 tbsp water and cook covered for around 15 minutes, till the chicken has completely cooked. It may take additional 10 minutes to cook it completely.
6. If using a pressure cooker, let go just 1 or 2 whistles and then turn the heat off. By this time you will definitely come to know how aromatic this particular recipe is.

Presentation:

Serve hot garnished with cilantro leaves and green chillies. Enjoy with rice or chapatis.

Asian Shrimp Fried Rice

Overview :

Another quick, easy and tasty Asian recipe using shrimps, red and green bell peppers,onions and scallions.

The best things about Asian cuisine is that a regular flavor is obtained with a little spices. Its a game of sauces actually. 

Cooking Time : 30-40 mins including pre-cooking preparations, Serves 3-4

Ingredients :

• 3 cups plain boiled rice ( preferably brown rice).  Authentic Asian recipes use more brown rice than white.
• 3 grated garlic cloves
• 1 cup finely chopped red pepper.
• 1 cup finely chopped green pepper
• 1 bundle finely chopped scallions
• 15-20 washed medium sized shrimps
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp red-chilli garlic sauce
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tbsp lemon juice for final acidity.
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• Salt as per taste
• 1 tbsp sugar

Recipe : 

1. Heat the cooking oil in a medium/large skillet over high flame and add the grated garlic. Saute until golden brown.
2. Add all the chopped vegetables and stir-fry gently. Add salt and 1 tbsp sugar generously all over the vegetables.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and keep covered for a minute.
4. Now add the mentioned amount of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic sauce to veggies. Stir gently. You will notice that the color of the gravy has changed to a darker brown.
5. Now add the lemon juice and the washed shrimps. Stir gently. The shrimps will loose some water. That is a normal thing to happen. Reduce the flame to medium low and cook opened.
6. Now stir well one last time. There will be a little gravy left in the vegetables.

Presentation :

Mix the vegetable-shrimp gravy with brown rice and serve hot. You can even make a presentation with rice by any contrasting way you like :-) . For spicier gravy, add more red-chilli garlic sauce or add some chopped green chillies as well.