Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Cooking Tip

You don't get many of these from me. My idea of cooking is putting a packet in the microwave. Once they were invented, I saw the advantage of preparing a meal in five minutes and having half an hour to eat it, instead of vice versa, and I've never looked back.

Anyway, in 1970, as a sweet seventeen-year-old, I won a 10-week scholarship to France. I stayed for one month of that time on a farm in the Loire Valley, where the owner ran a children's summer camp. She taught me the wonders of:

Ratatouille
(properly pronounced ra-ta-too-y[er], not ra-ta-too-i )
She would make a huge amount in a pressure cooker, and then over the next few days, would add other bits and pieces and reheat. It was wonderful on the first day. By the time it was all gone, it was DIVINE!
So today, instead of throwing away the remaining stock from the veggie stew I've been eating the last two days, I added another bag of stew veg (you didn't think I'd cut them up myself, did you?) and some extra stock, and Bingo! A delicious meal.
Not being a meat eater, I don't know how safe this would be with meaty stews.
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10 comments:

  1. SnarkAngel6:11 pm

    I'm sure it's very tasty, but a friend of mine from college days used to make this, as well. He called it "slop," and yes ... it was made with meat. LOL

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  2. JoJo6:27 pm

    That looks sooooo good. My mouth is watering.

    LOL Snarkangel! My dad used to call his mixture of all the leftovers "slops" too. He stopped though, after my 1st grade teacher asked what each kids' family's fave food was and I announced to the class, "Slops". She thought it was a hoot and called my parents to tell them what their hilarious 5 y/o said. My parents were MORTIFIED.

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  3. judith7:18 pm

    its called "scraps" in our house and it always seems to be me who gets them!!

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  4. Anonymous7:24 pm

    Val, one of my favourite foods EVER!! It's great whatever the weather, we always have with BBQ's and I love it on it's own or with steak. Yumyum, making my mouth water. It does indeed get better each day.

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  5. Améthyste8:28 pm

    ah la ratatouille!!! It's the good side to grow in France we love to cook!!!!!!!

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  6. Eliza9:04 pm

    Glad your idea of cooking includes pre-prepared veg...mine does too!

    We have something similar, although made with meat..I just chuck everything we have in the store cupboard in and cook it really slowly..and it always tastes better on the second day :-)

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  7. fuzzytweetie2:22 am

    Well, where's the recipe???

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  8. Music Wench4:49 am

    I've had this dish with meat. Very tasty. :-)

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  9. VivB10:25 am

    That's my type of cooking Val, it looks very tasty, I think I'll try this out on the family tonight :)

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  10. Anonymous9:54 am

    It looks soooooo good......

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    Vince

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