Ratatouille with a Kale-Walnut Pesto

So, from where did the inspiration for this version of ratatouille come? Well, a friend asked me if I could do a version of it on my blog, since he likes the dish, he was interested in my take. Well, ass it happens, there is a story behind this dish, for me at any rate.

You see, I had always wanted to be a chef. I cooked at home all the time. If I had a party at my house, I was famous for disappearing, only to return bearing culinary creations for everyone to eat. In an interesting chain of events, that began with me getting a job as a banquet steward in the kitchen at the Cloister on Sea Island, with the hopes of getting into their culinary apprenticeship program. After a year of working in Hell, (we used to call it Sea Hell Island), I decided that if that was what being a chef is all about, then I wanted no part of it. Thus, I put in my two weeks notice with no job prospect in sight.

One day I wanted to ask a friend a question, a friend I had fed many times in the past, and he wasn't at home. This was back in the day before cell phones, so if they weren't at home, they must be at work, and if they weren't at work, then you were just SOL. So I called the restaurant where he was working and asked the guy who answered the phone if my friend was there, to which he replied "no." I was about to hang up when the voice on the other end asked me who I was. When I told him my name, he said my friend always talked about how well I cooked and he wanted to know if I wanted a job as part-time day prep and pastry cook.

I accepted the position, knowing full well I had no idea how to make deserts, but that's a story for another time. So after a few weeks goes by, the chef asks me to come up with a new vegetable for "veg of the evening." I can't remember how exactly I arrived at ratatouille, but I made it with no recipe, just tossing in ingredients I knew, or thought, the dish was made from, and cooked up a batch. It was a hit and eventually became a menu item.

So doing this dish was an homage to the first recipe I ever created that made its way on to a menu.

That brings me to the presentation of the dish. One of my favorite movies is Pixar's Ratatouille and I had the presentation from the movie in mind, since it is based on Anthony Bourdain's actual recipe and presentation. I considered duplicating the presentation, but with my own twist, but then I decided to be creative and do something I had never seen before. I would love to try this out in a commercial kitchen, since the presentation could be much improved by fresh herbs, some micro greens, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, maybe a basil infused oil, etc...

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Serves 2

Skill Level: Intermediate

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minuets

Ingredients:

• 1 package of yellow squash
• 1 package of zucchini
• 1 Eggplant
• 1/2 Large yellow onion
• 2 Roma tomatoes
• 1/2 cup walnuts.
• 1 bunch kale
• 1/4 cup mozzarella c
• 1/4 cup parmesean cheese
• 1 tbls minced garlic
• 1 tsp Italian herbs
• Red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tlbs butter (See note)
• 1 tsp basil
• 2 cups chicken stock (or bullion in 2 cups of water). 

Note: Vegetarians, omit chicken stock and substitute vegetable stock or a 50/50 mixture of white wine and water with a little salt added or just some salted water. Additionally, margarine or coconut oil can be substituted for butter.

Tools Needed: 

• Chefs Knife
• Birds beak paring knife or standard paring knife.
• Food processor 
• Sautoir Pan (Like a sauté pan, but with side walls perpendicular to the bottom, usually 3 inches high.
• Small sauté pan
• 1/2 Sheet pan or cookie sheet.
• Medium bowl
• Saucer
• Glass of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the ends off the eggplant, stand on end, and use a chefs knife to slice away the skin.

Cut the peeled eggplant in to two, making sure they way you cut it results in halves that are roughly the same size. Since the eggplant isn't cylindrical, you'll have to use your best judgement on how to cut it.

Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds, making eggplant cups. Save the seeds, we are going to use them later.

Eggplant can be bitter. Some say the bitterness is from a very mild poison in the meat of the fruit, since eggplants are in the nightshade family. But whether they are poisonous or not, it's the bitter flavor we want to minimize, so we salt and soak the eggplant for about a 1/2 hour. Use a plate and a glass of water to keep the eggplant fully submerged. After soaking, the water will be a dark brownish color, almost like iced tea.

Strain the eggplant and let dry on paper towels. 

After the eggplants are dry, put them in a bowl and rub with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Bake on a greased 1/2 sheet pan for 35-40 minutes, until the eggplant turns golden. 

Quarter the squash. Then use your chef's knife to remove the seeds, leaving only the flesh behind. Discard the seeds.

Your squash should look like this when done.

Baton cut (1/4 inch wide by 3 inches long) the squash.

Note: Baton cut is commonly know as a french fry cut.

Now small dice (1/4"x1/4") the squash. 

Prepare the zucchini the same way.

Since I have already shown the technique of dicing onions in an earlier post, I wanted to illustrate the correct way to peel an onion. As you can see in the photo, you use the tip of your paring knife. NEVER EVER use your finger nails, as that is just gross. 

Small dice about 1/2 the onion.

Sweat the onions. Adding a little salt. 

I used to have a chef that would ask me questions like, "Do onions come from the farm seasoned?" Meaning, you must season all ingredients separately as you add them to achieve the best flavor.

After the onions have sweated a bit, add the garlic, and a little salt, because, "does garlic come from the farm seasoned?"

Sweat for about 2 more minutes.

Add the zucchini and squash and cook until they begin to get a little color.

Now add about 1/2 cups of crushed condensed tomatoes and the chicken stock or a veggie stock or even just some salted water.

Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the mixture thickens up a bit.

In a pan with some olive oil and salt, toast the walnuts.

Place kale and olive oil in a food processor. I use a immersion blender with a processor attachment for small jobs like this. Puree.

Now add walnuts and parmesan cheese. Puree.

Now adjust the flavor with salt, pepper, maybe some more cheese.

Since I need the processor again, it is a good opportunity to mention that a rubber spatula is a cooks best friend. Not only will scraping out every little bit of food out of various containers make washing them later easier, you will save money by not throwing away what can be a surprising amount of food that is stuck to the side of the container. 

Prep the Roma tomatoes just like the zucchini and squash. Discard he seeds.

Note: I ended up only using the tomatoes as a garnish, so they will get worked into some other dish.

Note: After you have quartered and seeded the tomatoes, use your knife to remove the stems. Doing it this way is far less wasteful than cutting the ends off.

Put the roasted eggplant seeds and scraps in the processor with 1/2 tlbs of butter and some salt and papper. Puree.

Because this is mostly seeds, it resembles caviar, hence it is called eggplant caviar.







Note: If you proceed with with recipe as written, you will invariably have to reheat the eggplant prior to serving. But, if you wait until the eggplant goes into the oven, then begin the other parts of the recipe, you'll  find that by the time your done, the eggplant will be done, and you can assemble everything immediately.

Spoon the zucchini, squash, and tomato mixture into the eggplant cup. Put a dollop of eggplant caviar on top, then sprinkle with mozzarella. Stripe the Kale pesto across the plate and garnish with red pepper flakes. 

Enjoy