Vegetables from the Griddle Pan

Dear all, I wrote an article about easy, slimming recipes recently. My griddle pan played a prominent role. For me, it is one of the best instruments for producing dishes that tick all the necessary boxes: They are easy to do, fast to execute and taste delicious. So far, I have never presented any recipes from the griddle pan in my newsletter – time to remedy this omission.   Easy grilling with a griddle pan A griddle pan mimics roasting on a charcoal grill without the fuss of setting up the BBQ-grill and lighting a fire. It has ridges that make contact with the food and leave the desired signs of roasting – a great flavour enhancer, although it might be a bit carcinogenic.   Acrylamide: Low levels in vegetables The keyword here is acrylamide, a potentially carcinogenic substance. It is formed when food is cooked with high heat. Especially potato chips, French fries and brown toast contain a lot of acrylamide. However, I could not find anything about acrylamide levels in grilled aubergines and zucchinis although I discovered information about grilled carrots and onions. These levels are so low that I think our bodies can deal with this tiny bit of acrylamide – considering that eating zucchini and aubergines gives you plenty of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.   Any vegetable can hit the griddle pan Basically, you can throw any kind of vegetable on the griddle pan. I prefer zucchini and aubergines. You can also prepare yellow or red peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, asparagus and even carrots the same way. Low-fat chicken breasts taste great when griddled. The only rule to follow is: You do not oil the pan; you oil the food. Keeping this in mind, you cannot go wrong. Especially aubergines profit from this kind of preparation. This vegetable soaks up oil like a sponge during frying. I salt and pepper the vegetables after roasting them and garnish with mint and parsley. If you like your food spicy, you might want to chop up some fresh chilli. Red ones deliver a lovely colour contrast. Lemon or lime juice adds a bit of zing. Wishing you happy cooking, always!   Kornelia Santoro with family   Vegetables from the Griddle Pan   Ingredients (for 4 servings): 2 medium zucchini 4 small aubergines 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon Fresh mint and parsley (or any other kind of fresh herb) Salt Pepper Method: It is important to slice the vegetables evenly so they cook at the same time. So far, I had always sliced zucchinis and aubergines lengthwise. For the newsletter I wanted to test if the cutting technique makes any difference. It does not affect the taste. However, lengthwise slit zucchini slices deliver grill marks more evenly. On the other hand aubergines are preferably cut into rounds. The reason: Their skin is quite hard. Slicing them lengthwise results in two end pieces with a lot of skin. After cutting your vegetables, place them into a bowl and coat them with olive oil. The easiest way to achieve this is rubbing the oil with your hands over the slices. Having written this: Just do whatever floats your boat. Because zucchini are quite long, I chop them in the middle. That makes slicing them lengthwise easier.   Heat your griddle pan: You need high heat to achieve roast marks in a short time. Place the vegetables in the griddle pan and let them sizzle for at least three minutes on one side without touching them. When you move the slices around, you will not attain clear grill marks. After they have sufficiently roasted on one side, flip them over. The second side takes a bit less time to cook because the vegetable is already hot. After roasting, place the vegetables on a plate. Salt and pepper them evenly, squeeze lime juice over them and garnish them with the fresh herbs and/or chilli pieces. Serve immediately.

Layered Ratatouille

Dear all,

Back from the holidays, I felt like tying up loose ends before the end of the year. One of these loose ends is layered Ratatouille, my recipe for this month.

When I watched the movie Ratatouille, I was astonished to see a beautifully layered dish.

I had known Ratatouille as tasty peasant food from the south of France. It originated in the area around Nice and its name means 'tossing food'. You get the idea? The original used only zucchini, tomatoes and bell peppers. Later aubergines were added.

In the movie, Ratatouille looked very sophisticated. Ratatouille producer, Brad Lewis, had asked the American celebrity chef Thomas Keller, consultant for the movie, how he would prepare this dish if he had to serve it to the most famous food critic in his restaurant.

Keller suggested the layered Ratatouille. Of course, he fanned the vegetables with a palette knife and made two different sauces, one a pipérade (made from roasted peppers) and the other one a tomato sauce.

By the way, I love Pixar movies. Especially Ratatouille is close to my heart; the rat with gourmet taste makes me smile every time.

As you know, I don’t aspire to serve Michelin star dishes in my kitchen. I decided to combine the pipérade and the tomato sauce and I arranged my vegetables by hand in layers. The result might not look as perfect as the Ratatouille in the movie – but it tastes and looks attractive enough for any dinner party.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

Layered Ratatouille

Ingredients:

• 1 medium yellow zucchini
• 1 medium green zucchini
• 3 medium aubergines
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 2 red bell peppers
• 5 cloves garlic
• 200 ml tomato puree
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
• salt
• pepper

Method:

To achieve an aesthetically pleasing result, you need to have vegetables with roughly the same diameter. I use differently coloured zucchini for effect. If you find only one colour, never mind. If you don’t have Herbes de Provence use any herbs you like. This mixture of dried herbs usually contains rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory and marjoram.

A normal Ratatouille contains bell peppers. Because you cannot layer bell peppers, I have included them in the sauce. Roast the bell peppers by holding them into a flame. They should darken all around and the skin should blister.

Place the roasted peppers into a bowl and cover them with cling film so they keep steaming while cooling down.

Rub away the darkened skin. You might need to rinse the bell peppers under water.

Clean them and blend the flesh to puree.

Mix the blended peppers with the tomato puree, the herbes de provence, two teaspoons salt, pepper and two tablespoons olive oil.

Wash and cut the zucchinis, the aubergines and the tomatoes into thin slices.

Spread the remaining olive oil over the bottom of a pie form.

Cover it with the tomato sauce. Arrange the slices on top of the sauce in a fanlike manner.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the slices and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for one hour.