crunchy veggie horrors

During the 1992 opera rehearsals in the beautifully situated Swedish castle Läckö we, that is the singers, the musicians and the people who talk with their hands in their pockets (we call them producers) got mass lunch in the castle’s cozy restaurant Fataburen. As soon as the performances began, I was suddenly the only one who stayed out at the castle (the rest of the gang traveled from elsewhere) - in the most fantastic weather on the camping site nearby - and still needed lunch. They gave me a special price, and during those three weeks I tried their whole menu up and down again. This is long ago - nevertheless I should recommend their kitchen wholeheartedly even today.

…or at least almost wholeheartedly.

braised vegetables, the buttery kind

One of the classical methods to braise vegetables (as, for example, taught by Marcella Hazan) is to put them into a wide pan with olive oil and/or butter, water to cover, and salt, and to cook them until done. At the end the water should have evaporated and the vegetables just begin to hiss in the fat. Here is a refined version of this technique.

ratatouille philosophies

Strictly spoken, this blog is not for recipes. There are gazillions of recipes out there, what do I have to contribute? But I will here make half an exception. I am copying a Ratatouille approach from my private recipe collection, because our last batch of this dish gave me reason for additional musings.

I once asked a French flute player about her way of making Ratatouille. She could report nothing very remarkable except for the addition of a “ridiculous amount of herbs.”