Food Failures to Food Successes

I wondered if I could make a jar of DIY Nutella and had a look at the label ingredients.   I wanted to attempt to make it without measurements of course and I tried to do some better substitutions like using Coconut Oil instead of Palm Oil and some other stuff they put in it.   I had a lot of hazelnuts and I had cocoa and lots of coconut oil so I tried to see what would happen if I tried to combine them.

Well first I put the nuts into a blender and used the ice crush button to grind them.  Then I added the oil and cocoa, sugar and some milk and tried to blend it smooth.   It didn't quite work the way I wanted it to.  It didn't taste anything like Nutella and it didn't look as smooth either.   It was a bit gritty because the nuts didn't process into a paste.   It wasn't exactly what I was looking for and didn't spread well on bread or whatever.   The oils separated from the rest of the mixture so it was oily on the sides,  kind of like when you get natural peanut butter but it didn't mix back together smoothly.   It was kind of a food experiment failure.  Although there wasn't anything totally wrong with the mixture it wasn't what I was aiming for.

 Then I wondered what I could do with it to turn it into something better.  I decided to turn it into a muffin, cupcake or brownie type of thing.

I started by putting the mixture into a pot and added a bit of butter to loosen it up and melt it to make it easier to mix.  I then added 2 beaten eggs and vanilla and some cinnamon and some added sugar.  I mixed it and then added flour and baking powder to blend it all together.   I didn't measure any of the ingredients so I can't tell you exactly how much I put into to it of each ingredient.   I was just trying to blend a mixture that I could put into a muffin tin to try and bake.

I lined the muffin tin with the liners and then scooped the mixture into the cups.  I put it into a 350 degree oven and just baked it until it looked like it formed a crust on top.  I took a toothpick and stuck it in to check to see if any came out.  It was dry so I took them out.   It took about 18 minutes I think to bake them.

They didn't turn out like muffins or cupcakes but they kind of turned out more brownie like.   I made one huge brownie in a bread baking tin and then 6 in the muffin tins.

I have to say it turned out much better baked and it tasted like hazelnut nutty chocolate brownies.  A lot better than grainy spread.

Don't be afraid to take your failed food experiments and turn them into successful thinking outside of the box experiments.   This one wasn't way out of the box but it did save my failed Nutella spread attempt.

The great thing about failing in food is that it isn't life or death or the end of the world.  If it's flour and sugar that you fail with you can always start again or in a lot of cases make something else with it.

Some of the best foods invented were actually food failures.   French Dip was invented when the chef dropped a bun into a roasting pan by accident.  Voila...the French Dip.

This is the only thing in life where you can fail and it's still ok and can be better even.

Go into your kitchen and try some experiments.. You never know what you will end up with.

Ratatouille - The French do Vegetarian Right

I made something today that I haven't made or eaten in years.  Although it seems like something that it's spectacular and unusual I never think to make it because making it right does take a bit of time and effort and lot's of chopping.

What is it? .... RATATOUILLE.   The French Version of Vegetable Stew.

ra·ta·touille  

/ˌratəˈto͞o-ē/

Noun A vegetable dish consisting of onions, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, fried and stewed in oil.

Ratatouille,  photo by Linda Matarasso

Ratatouille is a great way to make a One Pot Meal in the Winter that has all the warm and flavour of your favourite comfort food without any guilt.

My mother used to make it once in a while but I think my spice expertise kicked it up just a bit from the way she used to make it.  I like it spicy and full of flavour so it doesn't taste like you are eating boring vegetables.   My mom's recipe was good but I think mine might be better.

My version is probably pretty classic but I added chili flakes which might not be as traditional.

Here's my recipe:

Ratatouille

1 Eggplant cut into cubes

2 zucchini's quartered and cut into chunks
3 small onions roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves chopped
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red pepper seeded and chopped into chunks
1 green pepper seeded and chopped into chunks
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp honey

Directions:

Cut the eggplant and zucchini and set into a collander and sprinkle with salt to release some of the water and bitterness.  Let sit for a half an hour.  Rinse if you have added a lot of salt. Prep all of the ingredients  and set aside for your mis en place (everything in place) and get a dutch oven heating on the stove top.    Add the olive oil to the pot and then add the chopped onions and then the chopped garlic.  Mix and cook until the onions have softened.  You could cook the onions low and slow to caramelize them but they will continue to cook with the rest of the ingredients so it's up to you.  I didn't.    Once the onions are translucent add the chopped tomatoes and add a bit of water if there isn't much water in the can of tomatoes.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper and add the thyme, basil, parsley, chili flakes, paprika and honey.  Continue to cook until the tomatoes have cooked down a bit.  Roughly about 15-20 min.  Then add the peppers.  Let cook another 15 minutes.   Add the drained zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes.   For added flavour I sauteed the eggplant chunks in a frying pan with a little bit of oil and salt and pepper just to get a little bit of caramelization on the eggplants to develop the sugars in the eggplant.   Just sautee for a couple of minutes until you see it turn a little golden.   Add the eggplants into the rest of the mixture in the Dutch Oven.

You can continue to cook the Ratatouille on the stove top and mix occasionally.  It should take another 30 minutes or until everything is softened and the flavours have developed.

You can also cook the Ratatouille in the Oven at 350 degrees with the lid on and cook for about 25-35 minutes.  Check it after about 15 minutes as every oven is different and it will depend on how condensed you like it.

This is what it looks like when cooked on the stove top.

This is a perfect dish to make on a sunday morning and have it for a long slow sunday lunch or dinner and have the leftovers for a Meatless Monday the next day.

It's a great dish for the reluctant vegetarian or the Parisienne wannabe.   Either way it's a win win dish for a cold winter day.

Even meat eaters might like this one because the eggplant adds a great meatiness to the stew.


You could probably also do this in a crock pot but it might take a bit of experimenting to get it right.

This dish brings me back to when i was a kid and my mom had loads of vegetables in the fridge and she would make this so that she could just chop it all up and let it cook away on the stove while she watched an old hollywood movie on tv.

So make up a big pot of Ratatouille and get out your Old Hollywood or New Hollywood Movie and grab a big bowl and a piece of crusty bread and sit back and enjoy.

Even better... get a French Foreign Film to watch while make it or while eating it if you are alone.  You will feel all warm and cozy and it will be comfort food for the soul kind of lunch or dinner.

Enjoy.

Real Food Cold Cures

If you don't like to shop or cook and eat out all the time so never think about what happens when you can't?  Well what if you live alone and nobody lives anywhere near you?  You need to plan for those days where you might not be able to go to the drugstore or family doctor for a quick fix.   That's where the Real Food Home Cures comes in.

If you are going to keep the bare minimum in your house at all times I would suggest these things.  If you get sick and can only muster boiling water and plopping some stuff in a cup or a bowl then these things will keep you going.

1. Water.. most important thing for survival.
2.  Honey
3.  Lemons
4.  Green Tea
5.  Ginger - I have crystallized ginger... lasts a while.

Cold and Cough Cure which I am currently doing myself.

Boil water, in a cup add a teaspoon of honey, the bag of green tea, one piece of ginger and squeeze an eighth of a lemon.   Add boiling water to the cup and let the bag steep for a couple of minutes then remove.  Stir the ginger and honey and lemon and remove the bag.   Now you have a cough and cold cure with not a whole lot of effort hopefully.


The 2nd Food Cure is Homemade Chicken Soup.

This is where you plan ahead and either buy some chicken soup that you can freeze or make a batch of chicken soup after you roast a chicken and already have the leftover bones on hand.   I try and do the leftover bones method.   Try and always have Chicken Soup in your freezer because you never know when you might need chicken broth for a recipe or you get sick and don't have the energy to make a whole fresh pot.

Chicken Soup is also called Jewish Penicillin and it works without side effects.

These are my tried and true take care of yourself cause you don't want to go to a doctor unless something is totally broken.   These 2 things kept me away from doctors my whole life.  If I so much as sniffled my mother would want to drown me in tea or chicken soup.  She didn't use ginger or green tea but that's my modern kicked up health boosting version.   Ginger is an antiseptic.  Look it up.  Really.  And Honey coats the back of the throat to line it and protect it from coughing irritation.  Yes, Really.

So do as your momma would have done and make sure you have your Tea and Chicken Soup at the ready.   It's better than a Gun which won't help you if you get sick.