STEEMIT CULINARY CHALLENGE #38: Ratatian - Ratatouille Tian

Hello everyone,

Summer is on as well as zucchini and some other vegetables. Yesterday I got some homegrown zucchinis from my mother in law's garden. She has 3 or 4 plants of zucchini and it gives us loads of zucchini. Luckily, I live not far from her house (about 1 km from my place) so when I need one, I can grab some.

For this week's theme, Vegan Dishes from Around The Globe, I'd like to share with you my Ratatouille Tian, a French Provençal stewed vegetable dish served in a beautiful way. The first time I tried Ratatouille was in Marseille, made by my host mom. I lived in France for about 2 years so I am familiar to this dish and it's been one of my favorite French dish.

By the way, I received my new mandolin slicer this morning so I was thinking to make use of it :-D It was way faster than using knife. Dont worry if you dont have one, you may use knife but it will take more time. The first time I made Ratatian, I didn't have mandolin but it was okay. The result was as beautiful as this one.

My tips: try to use the same size vegetables to get even layer.

Ingredients

• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 medium summer squash (yellow zucchini)
• 2 small graffiti eggplants (you may use any kind of eggplant)
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 branch fresh rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil to drizzle

Methods

• Wash all the vegetables and pat dry.
• Using mandolin or knife, slice all veggies into 1.5 mm thick. The thinner the better. Save the scrap for later. Set aside.

• Cut the onion and bell pepper into thin slice, then chop garlic.

• In a pan, heat cooking oil over medium high heat, stir fry onion and garlic for about one minute. Add in bell pepper and the scrap. Cook until soft for about 8-10 minutes.

• Once cooked, transfer into a blender, add water pulse until smooth.

• Add in fresh rosemary, salt and pepper. Pulse again until it becomes purée.

• Spread 5 tbsp of sauce on the bottom of ceramic baking dish. Dont put all of the sauce.

• Preheat oven to 200°C. Make a stack of the vegetables and arrange a few stacks at a time into baking dish in a circular motion. Drizzle some olive oil on top. I used up my tomatoes for my the outer circle. There will be some veggies left, you may cook it on a second baking dish.

• Put a parchment paper on top the Ratatouille and bake for about one hour.

• Ready to serve

This dish is perfect for summer and everyone will like it. The veggies are just melting in your mouth because of its thin layer. I dont know what to say, it's just delicious. I wish I could share with you guys.

Before signing off, as always, I'd like to say thank you to everyone involved in SCC, the host, the sponsors, the judges, all participants and everyone who always support SCC. Thank you and thank you :-)

So, if you like my post, please dont hesitate to upvote and resteem.

Many thanks,

*All photos are mine and were taken with Nikon P610.