Thomas Keller's...er...I mean Remy's Ratatouille (from the movie!)

[KristiB]

Someone here needs to make this!

I tried to find a screenshot from the movie with no luck. Gumbeaux? Are you there? If it's out there you can find it!

Thomas Keller's Ratatouille
Serves 4

For piperade:

1/2 red pepper, seeds and ribs removed
1/2 yellow pepper, seeds and ribs removed
1/2 orange pepper, seeds and ribs removed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
3 tomatoes (about 12 ounces total weight), peeled, seeded and finely diced, juices reserved
1 sprig thyme
1 sprig flat-leaf parsley
1/2 bay leaf
Kosher salt

For vegetables:

1 zucchini (4 to 5 ounces) sliced in 1/16-inch rounds
1 Japanese eggplant, (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds
1 yellow squash (4 to 5 ounces) sliced into 1/16-inch rounds
4 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/16-inch rounds
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/8 teaspoon thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Assorted fresh herbs (thyme flowers, chervil, thyme)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make piperade:

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place pepper halves on a foil-lined sheet, cut side down. Roast until skin loosens, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest until cool enough to handle. Peel and chop finely.

Combine oil, garlic and onion in medium skillet and cook over low heat on stovetop until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, their juices, thyme, parsley and bay leaf. Simmer over low heat until very soft and very little liquid remains, about 10 minutes, do not brown; add peppers and simmer to soften them. Season to taste with salt and discard herbs. Reserve 1 tablespoon of mixture and spread remainder in bottom of an 8-inch ovenproof skillet.

To prepare vegetables:

Heat oven to 275 degrees. In center of skillet arrange 8 alternating slices of vegetables, 2 each of zucchini, eggplant, squash and tomatoes, over piperade, overlapping in a circle so that 1/4 inch of each slice is exposed. Continue alternating and overlapping vegetables in close spiral that lets slices mound slightly in center. Repeat until pan is filled; all vegetables may not be needed.

Mix garlic, oil and thyme leaves in bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle over vegetables. Cover skillet with foil and crimp edges to seal well. Bake until vegetables are tender when tested with a paring knife, about 2 hours. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes more. (Lightly cover with foil if it starts to brown.) If there is excess liquid in pan, place over medium heat on stove until reduced. (At this point it may be cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. If desired, reheat in 350-degree oven until warm.)

To make vinaigrette:

Combine reserved piperade, oil, vinegar, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

To serve:

Heat broiler and place byaldi underneath until lightly browned. Cut in quarters and very carefully lift one quarter onto plate with offset spatula. Turn spatula 90 degrees, guiding byaldi into fan shape. Drizzle vinaigrette around plate.


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[cookieee]

Thanks KritiB, maybe if the grandkids know where this is from, maybe they might eat it. Good way to get veggies in them

[patissac]

Too cool! Kristi where did you find this? How about a recipe for that Soup he made?

[KristiB]

I found it on an article on how Thomas Keller consulted for the movie.

No soup recipe listed.

I think Joe should make this and out it on his blog! He's seen the movie and he can make it look like Remy's!

[___Rhianna___]

Thanks for posting this. DD and I started looking for a recipe for ratatouille after seeing the movie yesterday, but I got sidetracked and never did find one. In the movie Collette is surprised that Remy picks this one to serve to the critic because it's "peasant food." Looks like pretty good peasant food to me!

[zackaboo]

Oh...how fun! Ironically, I am making ratatouille right now. I didn't even give any regards to the movie when I opted to put it on the menu for this week. I was attracted to the yummy looking picture. I am using a Tyler's Ultimate recipe...but if I had seen this one first, I would have given it a try! Maybe next time...

[___Rhianna___]

I noticed that this recipe calls for Japanese eggplant, and Tyler Florence's (mentioned above) says Italian eggplant? What's the difference? I'm only familiar with the big purple ones--which is which?

[MissFood]

Japanese eggplant is long and skinny. Globe eggplant, or Italian eggplant, is most common and is what is usually in grocery stores (at least the ones I shop in!). Italian eggplant's fatter and is what I think of as traditional eggplant. That's probably the one you're thinking of. If I were more computer savvy, I'd post pictures. Alas, I'm not. Maybe someone will come to my rescue.

[KristiB]

I haven't made rattatouille in years! Methinks I'll have to try Kellers but mine won't be as pretty

A few varieties of eggplants:

American Eggplant(cuz everything is bigger in America! )


Italian eggplant

These are smaller than American eggplants, but they're otherwise very similar.

Japanese Eggplant

Like other Asian eggplants, Japanese eggplants have thin skins, a sweet, delicate flavor and not as many of the seeds that tend to make eggplants bitter.

Chinese eggplant

Compared to the familiar American eggplant, Chinese eggplants have thinner skins, a more delicate flavor, and not as many of the seeds that tend to make eggplants bitter.

Thai Eggplant


Hawaiian Eggplant


Fillipino Eggplant


Indian Eggplant


Rosa Bianca Eggplant (Italian Heirloom)

[___Rhianna___]

Originally Posted by KristiB

I haven't made rattatouille in years! Methinks I'll have to try Kellers but mine won't be as pretty

A few varieties of eggplants:

Wow! Thanks so much. Do you think one variety could be substituted for another when making ratatouille--with good results? I'm pretty much at the mercy of whatever my local Kroger has, which looks like the American version.

[Aninha]

How cool!!!
We loved the movie, me, DH and DS!
As we went out the theater DH commented that he didn't know that ratatouille was an actual dish... and yes, I have made it before... I got a little sad that he didn't remember it since it's been a recent dish I made - but this is subject for another thread.
I will save the recipe and try making it soon! But please, let us know in case any of you try it first!!
Ana

[KristiB]

I prefer the Japanese because like the description said it has fewer seeds and isn't as bitter. That's what I would get if you can. My local Fry's(owned by Kroger) has the Japanese.

A trick I learned about regular eggplant from Lydia Bastianich on her PBS show is to cut the eggplant in rounds. Place a colander in a bowl, layer the eggplant and sprinkle with lots of salt. Then place another bowl with something heavy something in it on top of the eggplant and let it drain at least 8 hours. This gets the bitter liquid out and it doesn't end up salty because of the run-off

[Beth]

Won't be today or tomorrow, because of the 4th and all, but I think I'll have to try that recipe. Thanks for posting it. I'll let you know how it went here when we get to it.

[fstrpstr]

Tried the ratatouille recipe and it was great! Even was able to stack it up like the movie.

[RecipeGirl]

I think everyone who sees this movie is going to want to make the recipe!! It looked so wonderful. Thanks for sharing the recipe... can't wait to try it out

ps. we loved the movie too!

[KristiB]

It will also give an excuse to use my mandoline.

It's healthy too!

[golden1225]

I can't wait to try this recipe! One of my first ever cooking successes was back in the 70s and it was a Kraft Kitchens recipe for ratatouille! You used all kinds of vegetables, and sauteed them in Catalina dressing. I remember that we all loved it.

[margeslp]

Originally Posted by ___Rhianna___

Thanks for posting this. DD and I started looking for a recipe for ratatouille after seeing the movie yesterday, but I got sidetracked and never did find one. In the movie Collette is surprised that Remy picks this one to serve to the critic because it's "peasant food." Looks like pretty good peasant food to me!

I have decided the explosion of interest in Italian cuisine is the experimentations with peasant food. They seem to be foods with new experiences for me and wonderful stories (I watch Lidia every week).
As a martini lover, I love your Ogden Nash poem. How dry....humor and martini.

[Canice]

I thought they just wanted to make the pun work?
I haven't noticed any trend toward focused peasant food where I live.

[greysangel]

If anyone wants a less complicated recipe, the CL Gardener's Ratatouille is fantastic.

[KristiB]

Originally Posted by Canice

I thought they just wanted to make the pun work?
I haven't noticed any trend toward focused peasant food where I live.

Sort of.

It was a new take on a classic dish that ignited emotion and memories in the old critic. French comfort food so to speak.

And technically this isn't a rattatouille. It's a bialdi which is a Turkish version. According to Keller anyway

I saw the movie with 2 chefs so I got an earful on things non-chefs, or not so serious foodies, wouldn't have noticed.

I've noticed the peasant food trend too.

[QueenStGuy]

I tried making this dish (Confit Byaldi is what Mr. Keller calls it, I think), and it struck me that the trick to making it look the best it can is to make sure that each of the vegetables you use is of the same diameter. This is so that the slices of vegetables you use are roughly the same size. When you're shopping for veggies, you may want to be particular about the specific individual tomatoes, zucchini, etc. that you buy. I my case, I picked up some gorgeous baby roma tomatoes but they turned out to be much smaller than the other vegetables, which made it difficult to get the perfect spiral pattern that makes the dish so beautiful. Of course, it was [I]still[I] beautiful ...

Other than that it was a little time consuming, but not at all difficult.

[QueenStGuy]

Originally Posted by fstrpstr

Tried the ratatouille recipe and it was great! Even was able to stack it up like the movie.

How did you do this?

[KristiB]

There's a picture of the finished dish on Becks and Posh blog but I can't find it.

Anyway, Spiraled or not I bet it's good!

[Aninha]

Originally Posted by KristiB

There's a picture of the finished dish on Becks and Posh blog but I can't find it.

Anyway, Spiraled or not I bet it's good!

I still want to make this recipe, but haven't had a chance to do it yet... I looked at the blog Kristi mentioned and found a picture, is this the one you were talking about Kristi??
Link: http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/20...om-pixars.html

Ana

[foodfiend]

Does this fancy version of ratatouille taste better than the regular one? I've made ratatouille before but it didn't strike me anything special.

[___Rhianna___]

I made this a few weeks ago, and it was delicious. But, I couldn't make it swirl like they did in the movie. Like another poster stated, I think the key is to have all the vegetables the same diameter. I had to use American eggplant, which was huge, and my yellow squash and zucchini were quite a bit smaller. So . . . it didn't look so great but it was wonderful. As someone else mentioned, though, it is time consuming.

[newsomz]

Smitten Kitchen made a recreation of the ratatouille in the movie that looks a bit simpler.



See the link above for the recipe.

[QueenStGuy]

Originally Posted by foodfiend

Does this fancy version of ratatouille taste better than the regular one? I've made ratatouille before but it didn't strike me anything special.

Or at least an order of magnitude more refined. The flavour of the pepper/tomato piperade base is unbelieveable (it's worth the effort to peel and seed the peppers and tomatoes), and the layer of thinly-sliced vegetables on top is much more delicate than the large chunks of stuff you get in ratatouille. It's sort of like the difference between flank steak and filet mignon. Both are good, but of the two, the filet is the one that - well prepared - is rapturous. (Is that a word?)

BTW, I served this dish with beef filet and a soft polenta last night ... fantastic.

[testkitchen45]

Has anyone made Remy's Ratatouille yet? (Sounds as if QueenStGuy made it, but that was in 8/07; no one since?) We watched the movie again with the kids recently. I stopped the DVD to take some screen shots for MasterCook; will share them in case it helps anyone else out. I especially wanted a pic of how the dish was presented on the plate.