Let them eat....Baked Ratatwat

The film Ratatouille is an utter travesty. The premise is absolutely revolting. I dont give a good goddamn about how well it is made, its attention to detail its blahblahblah. It is disgusting. A fucking rat in a kitchen. Who the fuck thought of that? "Hey, I've got a great idea for a movie. You know the word ratatouille has got the word rat in it? Well, we make a film about a rat that is also a chef." Jesus Christ. "Hey, you know the word tenuous? Well,  we take out all the letters and put in some new ones and come up with TWAT." Christ.

 

Anyway.....

 

Lunch. Spag bog. Except I didnt have any spaghettis so used penne. For me the trick of so many dishes is cooking the onions long enough before putting in the other ingredients. Lid on. Sweat sweat sweat. Till nice and brown and sweet and soft. So did this with the onions, garlic and some rosemary. For about an hour. This is not a long time, this is minimum. They can take all the sweating you can give them. Add meat and cook out until ALL liquid has evaporated. The better quality meat, the less time this will take due to the animal not being pumped full of water and crap to increase body weight. Then add wine, white or red, and cook that out until almost all gone too. Then add chopped tomatoes, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours if you can. You can add some tomato puree (more on this another time) which seems to take it to another level of intensity. 

 

Cook penne as per instructions, drain, then "grated cheese, if required, should always be sprinkled on the pasta before the sauce." This from The Silver Spoon p 287. So I did just that and a bit "o" beurre too cos couldnt resist. Dish in itself. You could very easily just put the sauce away and use another time. But I didnt, I stirred in some sauce and it was delicious. 

That cheese into pasta first was news to me when I first read The Silver Spoon but goddamned if the Eye-ties werent right. 

 

Oh yeah and now for the ratatouille. Try saying "ratta twatta twatta twatta, twatta touille" Once you get the hang of it it rolls of the tongue nicely. 

 

I made a chocolate cake for pudding. Yesterday I roasted some organic hazelnuts specifically for a cake today. One of the now jobless staff "lost" them. "Lost" them in his mouth. So I had to improvise. God arent I great? Yeah. So I made a cake with almonds instead of hazelnuts and used them to take the place of the flour. I have been meaning to try this for a dog's age. Really good. Much more fragile than with flour so beware but worth it.

5 eggs and 100g sugar whisked to a ribbon. Fold in 100g ground almonds then 200g chocolate and 100g beurre melted together in microwave at half power for 2 minutes, stirred, then a further minute. I love this method of melting chocolate. If anyone tells you microwaves give you cancer ask them if they drink Diet Coke. The chances are they will say yes so you can tell them to shut up and stop talking such shit.