Ok I've made this a few times now and I have to say that it's the bomb. You get veggies that have the complex flavor that browning gives and a much improved texture. You end up with a veg ragu instead of soup and all the time it takes is worth it.
I have so many good things to say about this video Helen. But first of all, whenever I look up Ratatouille recipes or techniques online, I always end up with recipes for Confit Byaldi, which is the actual name of the ratatouille dish in the movie. Which is not, in fact, a ratatouille. Secondly, you just explained, and did a ratatouille, the way it should be done, not your way, but the way it should be done, with you skill and take on it. And I love it. Thirdly You made a mistake cooking it, by adding the wrong oil, and you didn't cut it out of the video, you dealt with it and kept going, and I love and trust you for it. Chef John does it too for foodwishes and showing people how to work around errors is just as good as showing them how to do it perfectly. Now, for the serious talk. I like ratatouille, but if I serve it, it feels cheap. Not because it is, but because it's only a vegetable stew in the ends, no mather how good it is. I want to serve this as a glamour side dish. Do you have any Idea or counsel for me? I have served ratatouille with good white fish like halibut before, but I'm feeling reluctant or uneasy with any other meat. Any suggestion Helen?
making ratatouille fancy is like making a burger fancy. maybe it's just meant to be rustic and cheap. But my favorite way to serve it is with halibut or some other seared or grilled fish too :)
My method: After salting the eggplant and squash, I toss them lightly with olive oil, and then spread them out (separately) on sheet pans to roast in the oven. This way extracts moisture and browns the veggies, but without the trouble of pan frying. My finished ratatouille is very light tasting due to much less fat. Secret ingredient -- finish the ratatouille with a spoonful of prepared horseradish. It adds that something special, yet unidentifiable.
Baking with olive oil makes more sense than frying... less fuss and mess... would be helpful to know at what temp and for how long you roast the veggies.
Yes. Good idea. I'd done that with eggplant rounds for eggplant parm. back in the 60s. When I'd made it following recipes that fry the rounds in pans with olive oil, I'd found that the eggplant slices were like sponges & absorbed all the olive oil in the pan. I'd have to add more for each pan full. They were sopping wet with far too much oil. My solution next time was to lay them out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Then each side was basted with olive oil. As you found too, it was a real time saver.
What I love is your somewhat cavalier approach to what works. So it's a bit of the wrong oil? Leave it in and see if it makes a difference...! My understanding of "Ratta Stewey" (my grand niece's take after watching the movie) is that it was a peasants' dish made with whatever was at hand. Adopting this approach, our recipe contains more or less what's in the fridge... or in the garden Eggplant (brinjals, we call 'em), onions, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, capsicums, radish, bok choi, green beans, spinach, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, basil, bay leaves fresh from our own bush. Red wine. You name it. When it's Ratty Stewy time, if it grows in soil and is not moving, in it goes. We don't peel or seed anything. Slice it ¼ - ½"," de-water brinjals, cabbage and squashes as you do, brown everything separately, whack it in layers in a roasting pan, cover it and into the oven for whatever seems long enough, take off the cover and grill for for however it takes to polish off a small glass of red wine. Goes great with mutton stew...
I cook my ratatouille veg in a wok over high heat and get good browning and have plenty of space to mix and move. I've never used onion in mine. I make huge batches at end of summer when the veg are plentiful and freeze it for use out of season
I made Ratatouille a few times many years ago without a recipe & it was one of the most delicious dishes I've ever tasted. Somehow I forget about it for years at a time, then sporadically long to make it again! So glad I found this video this morning. I'm going to buy groceries later today. As you noted, it's even better the next day. Maybe it's just that the tomato, garlic, herbs & veggie juices have time to marinate together, developing a more harmonic vibe. Your recipe looks closest to what I made. So many recipes I've seen look nothing like your savory looking stew, including the use of canned tomatoes & a splash of red wine. I happen to have some Pomegranate syrup too, but may prefer a white Balsamic. I don't recall using any vinegar in mine, but can see how it may be worthwhile to try. I'm always interested in developing flavors by creating & then incorporating "fond" in some dishes, so love that you see this browning of the veggies as an essential step in develiping the kinds of flavors I enjoy so much. So I'm looking forward to following your techniques shown so well here. Thanks so much for showing us how to cook all your beautiful & no doubt flavorful meals. So much depends on technique plus, of course quality ingredients. Summertime is the best time to prepare this - ideally using home grown and/or locally grown veggies. But it's mid September here in MA, so I think I'll be buying canned Italian tomatoes - as I did years ago, & using grocery store veggies the next time, & hope for the best. I recall that once you'd recommended some moderately priced & drinkable wines you've chosen to cook with. I saw that show a couple years ago & now can't recall which brands you'd recommended, so if anyone reads this & knows, please tell me. Many thanks for your excellent teaching skills, charming personality & attention to details.
I just made this exactly as presented. Delicious so far and I'll let you know tomorrow how it is. I love that the veggies stay more intact and less like mush. The browning really helps the complexity of flavor too. Nice method. Now what to serve it with....
this is by far the best recipe for this dish I saw or read, and it is almost like I would do it, just do all what is necessary to make it more tasteful. As you said the difference with what I am doing is just personal preference in spices and wine and type of vegs one adds in. that is always so personal and so not important. Thank you Jelena!
@@ross4 well this dish without Basil and thyme is not the same, but what I do I infuse the oil or butter with aroma of all the spices in a small pot separately and then use that oil for everything else. I would infuse it in this case with sage garlic, thyme, rosemary, basil, violet basil, sage, star anise. And then remove them from the oil and use the oil, before the baking I would add some fresh mix of some of these spices too but shy as well as at serving. thats my preference. but as you know the most important in the kitchen is to find you own spice blend!
my pleasure. I find the clean up can sometimes stop people from being adventurous in the kitchen, so I try to include clean up tips whenever appropriate.
Awesome looking dish! Like that you browned the eggplant separately, but humbly suggest ditching the oil in that one pan after browning as eggplant imparts bitterness to that oil. Got that tip from nonna 😊
I seem to remember reading that modern aubergines/eggplants are less bitter, less bitter if they're fresh, and salting gets rid of any bitterness - so perhaps you no longer need to waste oil?
The only explanation I can offer for why ratatouille tastes better the second day is that all the flavors blend. That's what my mother used to say. And it's the same with soup.
My dear grandmother used to cook me this as a child, so many fond memories around her kitchen table, guess what I'm going to be cooking this weekend ;) I'm loving your photography Helen, that lighting setup is not too bad. Another variation is to have your face illuminated by one soft-box, low and to one side, so as it works in contrast to the background lighting. In the background you have a vertical divide between light and dark so if you frame yourself in the center of the divide, you can have the the side of you face that has illumination contrasting with the dark side of the background, and the side of your face that is in shadow will contrast to the light side of the background... Practice on the children, it works well for portraits.
Wow -- thank you so much for all the lighting tips. At the moment, there are no lights. Just strategically positioning myself by the window at a particular time of day and choosing a perfectly sunny day. But I just got LEDs and can't wait to start using them with your tips.
Not scientific per se, but I believe the flavors of each get better absorbed by each other giving a much increased taste profile to the whole. I use bacon grease instead of oil. Have not used those exact ingredients but I surely will in the future!! 👍
I needed some inspiration as summer begins and this hit the nail on the head! I may be a bit heretical in that I will follow the steps up until the browning. Then I'll grill my veggies to get my smoke on. Cheers!
Helen Rennie , OMG, Just wrapped up the most amazing dish! I don't know what I was expecting but the flavor explosion was amazing! Thank you for posting this recipe!
I have to laugh - firstly - that Bostonian-Russian accent is gorgeous ...and I'm a long time fan .. secondly - I love that you say that you're not sure why it works better the second day -- I'm not sure either - no scientific evidence I've come across can explain it to me - and yet it does .. I suspect there is a caramelization process that occurs that takes some time - but I do not actuallly know why it gets better....Love your channel though - keep up the good work.
Helen time to make Ratatouille, had a hard time finding you're video, searched Ratatouille and you were not there, Ratatouille recipe no luck took a while but I found it, I think its in the title Ratatouille--How to Make Ratatouille, I think it in the two dashes just a guess try Ratatouille all alone and see if you get more views. my favorite now to the cooking with Love
Hi Helen! Sorry for asking a question on such an old video! I'm planning on making this recipe for my family and wondering how many servings it makes. Thanks!
You say it's summertime well here in Australia it's winter and that would make an excellent food winter I would think and making tonight the Salmon Teriyaki for my five course dinner party to night and to make sure it work I made it last week and told you about it and it was fabulous delicious. I will be taking pictures of it and will let you know where to look at then soon.
To get to community link, go to the main page of my channel: ruclips.net/user/helenrennie Right below my name, you'll see "Home" "Videos" "Playlists" "Community", etc. Click on "Community". When you click inside the text box to start a new post, you'll see 3 little icons underneath. The third icon is for adding images. The community link is very new (I am one of the channels testing it out for RUclips). It would be really wonderful if people started posting there :) Let me know if you can't find it and I'll take some screen shots for you.
Helen Rennie . Hi sorry can not see it, the only way for me is to click on comment then the box opened but no other thing, I will send a txt so you can see my name
For the step in which you brown the veg could you do that on a sheet pan? I tried the recipe took me around 3 hours but also was using fresh tomatoes, very tired now. Havent tasted it yet
oh a sheet pan it will be both worse and will longer. This is a project. You can try to make a smaller portion. Fresh tomatoes aren't worth the work for this dish in my opinion. Hope it tasted good.
That's almost exactly the ratatouille that I have been making for 40 years now. I adapted mine from Julia Child's recipe. I believe that ratatouille *is* a vegetable casserole. Ratatouille (/ˌrætəˈtuːi/ RAT-ə-TOO-ee; French: [ʁatatuj]) is a French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice, and sometimes referred to as ratatouille niçoise.
I always thought ratatouille should be cooked for much less time with the vegetables not being totally soft. Also i used recipes which included baking at least some of the vegetables rather than stewing them. However, having looked up a few more recipes i can see yours is the way most people make it, probably the way it's made in France too, so apologies for my big-headedness!
Your method is stupidly long ,you don't have pre salt and then brown each piece individually ,when you can put the veg in hard to soft and cook it all at once...
Ok I've made this a few times now and I have to say that it's the bomb. You get veggies that have the complex flavor that browning gives and a much improved texture. You end up with a veg ragu instead of soup and all the time it takes is worth it.
I have so many good things to say about this video Helen. But first of all, whenever I look up Ratatouille recipes or techniques online, I always end up with recipes for Confit Byaldi, which is the actual name of the ratatouille dish in the movie. Which is not, in fact, a ratatouille. Secondly, you just explained, and did a ratatouille, the way it should be done, not your way, but the way it should be done, with you skill and take on it. And I love it. Thirdly You made a mistake cooking it, by adding the wrong oil, and you didn't cut it out of the video, you dealt with it and kept going, and I love and trust you for it. Chef John does it too for foodwishes and showing people how to work around errors is just as good as showing them how to do it perfectly. Now, for the serious talk. I like ratatouille, but if I serve it, it feels cheap. Not because it is, but because it's only a vegetable stew in the ends, no mather how good it is. I want to serve this as a glamour side dish. Do you have any Idea or counsel for me? I have served ratatouille with good white fish like halibut before, but I'm feeling reluctant or uneasy with any other meat. Any suggestion Helen?
making ratatouille fancy is like making a burger fancy. maybe it's just meant to be rustic and cheap. But my favorite way to serve it is with halibut or some other seared or grilled fish too :)
My method: After salting the eggplant and squash, I toss them lightly with olive oil, and then spread them out (separately) on sheet pans to roast in the oven. This way extracts moisture and browns the veggies, but without the trouble of pan frying. My finished ratatouille is very light tasting due to much less fat.
Secret ingredient -- finish the ratatouille with a spoonful of prepared horseradish. It adds that something special, yet unidentifiable.
Baking with olive oil makes more sense than frying... less fuss and mess... would be helpful to know at what temp and for how long you roast the veggies.
Yes. Good idea. I'd done that with eggplant rounds for eggplant parm. back in the 60s.
When I'd made it following recipes that fry the rounds in pans with olive oil, I'd found that the eggplant slices were like sponges & absorbed all the olive oil in the pan. I'd have to add more for each pan full. They were sopping wet with far too much oil.
My solution next time was to lay them out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Then each side was basted with olive oil.
As you found too, it was a real time saver.
After watching this I saw one on a Martha Stewart vid made by a famous French restaurateur.
His unusual ingredient was some Fennel.
What I love is your somewhat cavalier approach to what works.
So it's a bit of the wrong oil? Leave it in and see if it makes a difference...!
My understanding of "Ratta Stewey" (my grand niece's take after watching the movie) is that it was a peasants' dish made with whatever was at hand.
Adopting this approach, our recipe contains more or less what's in the fridge... or in the garden
Eggplant (brinjals, we call 'em), onions, zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, capsicums, radish, bok choi, green beans, spinach, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, basil, bay leaves fresh from our own bush. Red wine. You name it. When it's Ratty Stewy time, if it grows in soil and is not moving, in it goes.
We don't peel or seed anything. Slice it ¼ - ½"," de-water brinjals, cabbage and squashes as you do, brown everything separately, whack it in layers in a roasting pan, cover it and into the oven for whatever seems long enough, take off the cover and grill for for however it takes to polish off a small glass of red wine.
Goes great with mutton stew...
I also love a recipe that calls for a bit of red wine since it gives me a valid reason to have an open bottle at hand. LOL
All reasons are valid ☺️
I made it. I ate it. I loved it. Thank you Helen for a keeper recipe.
I cook my ratatouille veg in a wok over high heat and get good browning and have plenty of space to mix and move. I've never used onion in mine. I make huge batches at end of summer when the veg are plentiful and freeze it for use out of season
I made Ratatouille a few times many years ago without a recipe & it was one of the most delicious dishes I've ever tasted. Somehow I forget about it for years at a time, then sporadically long to make it again! So glad I found this video this morning. I'm going to buy groceries later today.
As you noted, it's even better the next day. Maybe it's just that the tomato, garlic, herbs & veggie juices have time to marinate together, developing a more harmonic vibe.
Your recipe looks closest to what I made. So many recipes I've seen look nothing like your savory looking stew, including the use of canned tomatoes & a splash of red wine. I happen to have some Pomegranate syrup too, but may prefer a white Balsamic. I don't recall using any vinegar in mine, but can see how it may be worthwhile to try.
I'm always interested in developing flavors by creating & then incorporating "fond" in some dishes, so love that you see this browning of the veggies as an essential step in develiping the kinds of flavors I enjoy so much.
So I'm looking forward to following your techniques shown so well here. Thanks so much for showing us how to cook all your beautiful & no doubt flavorful meals. So much depends on technique plus, of course quality ingredients.
Summertime is the best time to prepare this - ideally using home grown and/or locally grown veggies. But it's mid September here in MA, so I think I'll be buying canned Italian tomatoes - as I did years ago, & using grocery store veggies the next time, & hope for the best.
I recall that once you'd recommended some moderately priced & drinkable wines you've chosen to cook with. I saw that show a couple years ago & now can't recall which brands you'd recommended, so if anyone reads this & knows, please tell me.
Many thanks for your excellent teaching skills, charming personality & attention to details.
Love you. Yes, I agree that each individual ingredient requires it's own love .
I just made this exactly as presented. Delicious so far and I'll let you know tomorrow how it is. I love that the veggies stay more intact and less like mush. The browning really helps the complexity of flavor too. Nice method. Now what to serve it with....
this is by far the best recipe for this dish I saw or read, and it is almost like I would do it, just do all what is necessary to make it more tasteful. As you said the difference with what I am doing is just personal preference in spices and wine and type of vegs one adds in. that is always so personal and so not important. Thank you Jelena!
What spices do you add?
@@ross4 well this dish without Basil and thyme is not the same, but what I do I infuse the oil or butter with aroma of all the spices in a small pot separately and then use that oil for everything else. I would infuse it in this case with sage garlic, thyme, rosemary, basil, violet basil, sage, star anise. And then remove them from the oil and use the oil, before the baking I would add some fresh mix of some of these spices too but shy as well as at serving. thats my preference. but as you know the most important in the kitchen is to find you own spice blend!
@@okrimko Nice, that sounds delicious!
@@ross4 try it mate. You cant lose just dont burn the spices cuz then all will go bitter.
Thank you for the quick clean up of oil on the stainless steal.
my pleasure. I find the clean up can sometimes stop people from being adventurous in the kitchen, so I try to include clean up tips whenever appropriate.
love ratatouille, I like doing the browning in the oven on big baking sheets.
Awesome looking dish! Like that you browned the eggplant separately, but humbly suggest ditching the oil in that one pan after browning as eggplant imparts bitterness to that oil. Got that tip from nonna 😊
I seem to remember reading that modern aubergines/eggplants are less bitter, less bitter if they're fresh, and salting gets rid of any bitterness - so perhaps you no longer need to waste oil?
The only explanation I can offer for why ratatouille tastes better the second day is that all the flavors blend. That's what my mother used to say. And it's the same with soup.
THIS LOOKS FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fantastic.. For a vegetarian this is a superb recipe. You look lovely and nature, your voice is endearing and you made me try it our today.
OMG!!! You’re a lovely culinary pro!!!!!
Thank you! Welcome to my channel :)
My dear grandmother used to cook me this as a child, so many fond memories around her kitchen table, guess what I'm going to be cooking this weekend ;)
I'm loving your photography Helen, that lighting setup is not too bad.
Another variation is to have your face illuminated by one soft-box, low and to one side, so as it works in contrast to the background lighting. In the background you have a vertical divide between light and dark so if you frame yourself in the center of the divide, you can have the the side of you face that has illumination contrasting with the dark side of the background, and the side of your face that is in shadow will contrast to the light side of the background... Practice on the children, it works well for portraits.
Wow -- thank you so much for all the lighting tips. At the moment, there are no lights. Just strategically positioning myself by the window at a particular time of day and choosing a perfectly sunny day. But I just got LEDs and can't wait to start using them with your tips.
Not scientific per se, but I believe the flavors of each get better absorbed by each other giving a much increased taste profile to the whole. I use bacon grease instead of oil. Have not used those exact ingredients but I surely will in the future!! 👍
I needed some inspiration as summer begins and this hit the nail on the head! I may be a bit heretical in that I will follow the steps up until the browning. Then I'll grill my veggies to get my smoke on. Cheers!
Yes, grilled ratatouille is yummy too :)
Helen Rennie , OMG, Just wrapped up the most amazing dish! I don't know what I was expecting but the flavor explosion was amazing! Thank you for posting this recipe!
so glad you enjoyed it :)
This looks so delicious, I can’t wait to make it with veggies from my garden this summer!
I love my ratatouille with goat cheese, yum!
Goat cheese! So noted and a great idea!
Great recipe Helen I'm sure it will be delicious
🇨🇵🙌
I make this all the time and freeze it. I brown my veggies until almost burned,
Great recipe .
I am captivated by your beauty and your accent. And I love the way you cook. I have saved so many of your videos to cook. Thank-you Helen.
I fear you may have overthought this dish but definitely A for effort
Amazing as always!
I have to laugh - firstly - that Bostonian-Russian accent is gorgeous ...and I'm a long time fan .. secondly - I love that you say that you're not sure why it works better the second day -- I'm not sure either - no scientific evidence I've come across can explain it to me - and yet it does .. I suspect there is a caramelization process that occurs that takes some time - but I do not actuallly know why it gets better....Love your channel though - keep up the good work.
Welcome to my channel. I love food science, but it's fun to have a few cooking mysteries too (as long as they taste good :)
This is why I think the best way to make ratatouille is to grill the vegetables: grilling removes enough moisture.
Helen time to make Ratatouille, had a hard time finding you're video, searched Ratatouille and you were not there, Ratatouille recipe no luck took a while but I found it, I think its in the title Ratatouille--How to Make Ratatouille, I think it in the two dashes just a guess try Ratatouille all alone and see if you get more views. my favorite now to the cooking with Love
Hi Helen!
Sorry for asking a question on such an old video! I'm planning on making this recipe for my family and wondering how many servings it makes. Thanks!
about 8
Does it turn totally to mush if you freeze it?
You say it's summertime well here in Australia it's winter and that would make an excellent food winter I would think and making tonight the Salmon Teriyaki for my five course dinner party to night and to make sure it work I made it last week and told you about it and it was fabulous delicious. I will be taking pictures of it and will let you know where to look at then soon.
would love to see your pictures. if you want, you can post them in the "community" tab on my channel :)
Hi Helen, I can not see how to post on that community ch or how to uploud a picture
To get to community link, go to the main page of my channel: ruclips.net/user/helenrennie
Right below my name, you'll see "Home" "Videos" "Playlists" "Community", etc. Click on "Community". When you click inside the text box to start a new post, you'll see 3 little icons underneath. The third icon is for adding images. The community link is very new (I am one of the channels testing it out for RUclips). It would be really wonderful if people started posting there :) Let me know if you can't find it and I'll take some screen shots for you.
Helen Rennie . Hi sorry can not see it, the only way for me is to click on comment then the box opened but no other thing, I will send a txt so you can see my name
It's possible that they didn't release it in other countries yet. sometimes RUclips has features that they test out on North America first.
Such an amazing dish. I will admit that I ruin it by setting a ribeye on top or throwing in pork belly from time to time..
don't you worry, I "ruin" mine too. In a few weeks, I'll post a rack of lamb video that I serve on top of ratatouille ;)
For the step in which you brown the veg could you do that on a sheet pan? I tried the recipe took me around 3 hours but also was using fresh tomatoes, very tired now. Havent tasted it yet
oh a sheet pan it will be both worse and will longer. This is a project. You can try to make a smaller portion. Fresh tomatoes aren't worth the work for this dish in my opinion. Hope it tasted good.
It's so strange, a red sauce I make also tastes better the day after, is there food science behind that?
What's that background score at 6:30? Can't put my finger on it...
excellent
why not just deep fry in a mesh basket....
the veggies would soak up the oil and taste too greasy. Also, the olive oil adds flavour and I assume you do not use olive oil in a deep fryer..
Dam that’s nuthin but oil and salt!!!
Helen are you Romanian or Russian ?
Russian
I don't call that ratatouille, i call it a vegetable casserole. nice, but very different from a ratatouille.
so what's the "real" ratatouille?
That's almost exactly the ratatouille that I have been making for 40 years now. I adapted mine from Julia Child's recipe. I believe that ratatouille *is* a vegetable casserole. Ratatouille (/ˌrætəˈtuːi/ RAT-ə-TOO-ee; French: [ʁatatuj]) is a French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice, and sometimes referred to as ratatouille niçoise.
yes, mine is based on Julia's recipe too :)
I find it quite ratatouille-ich, so Andy what exactly is your Idea of a ratatouille!?
I always thought ratatouille should be cooked for much less time with the vegetables not being totally soft. Also i used recipes which included baking at least some of the vegetables rather than stewing them. However, having looked up a few more recipes i can see yours is the way most people make it, probably the way it's made in France too, so apologies for my big-headedness!
Your method is stupidly long ,you don't have pre salt and then brown each piece individually ,when you can put the veg in hard to soft and cook it all at once...
This comment is stupidly posted, and you’re a complete donkey for insulting such a talented chef.
Try it Ms Rennie's way and see if you can taste the difference...
Let us know.