Eggplant and Tomato Gratin

My mom gave me this original recipe recently. I don’t know how she discovered it but she was very happy with it especially because my brother loved it, when he is not a big fan of vegetables, really not.
He got himself a second portion of it during dinner, that says it all.

I decided to give it a try and really liked it. I also discovered that my husband is unfortunately not a big fan of eggplants…

This dish is great to be served as a side with fish or meat but is not enough on it’s own for a meal.

Eggplant and Tomato Gratin

Ingredients
– 3 middle sized eggplants
– 4 big tomatoes
– 2 garlic gloves
– 150g / 5.2 oz shredded cheese

Wash the eggplants and tomatoes.
Peel the tomatoes. The trick to easily peel them: put them for a few minutes in boiling water until you see the skin starting to crack.
Cool them off and peel them.

In a pan, cook on low to middle heat the eggplant slices with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Let them melt, add the chopped garlic and let cook for another 5 minutes.

Put the slices in an oven-proof dish.
Cover with sliced tomatoes.
Cover with cheese.
Add another row of tomatoes and on top of that another row of cheese.

Put in the pre-heated oven for 25 min on 410’F / 210’C.

Post Hurricane recovery dinner – Duck Confit with sautéed potatoes and ratatouille

The hurricane Sandy left us 4 days without power, heat or hot water.
After moving back home I felt the need to get comfort through food.

This diner is what my grand mother would cook in my childhood when we would visit her in south of France: duck confit with sautéed potatoes (cooked in duck fat) and ratatouille.

I soooo love this food and it is such a great reminder of my childhood… It was such a great recovery diner 🙂

Duck confit with sautéed potatoes and ratatouille.

Ratatouille
– 1 zucchini, chopped
– 2 tomatoes, sliced
– 1 onion, chopped

In a pan on medium heat, sauted the onion in olive oil, about 5 minutes until they start to soften.
Add the chopped zucchinis, salt, pepper, and basil. Cook on high heat, while stirring, until zucchini get slightly brown.
Put on low heat and let cook for some time. Stir occasionally.

When zucchini is half way cooked, add the sliced tomatoes and let cook on low heat until you get juice from the tomatoes and zucchini is well cooked.

You can also use thyme, rosemary and baby leaf for more flavor. I use basil because I like it a lot and have it most often in my kitchen.

Note also that this is my own personal recipe of ratatouille as usually there is also eggplant.
I don’t often have eggplant at home and the cooking is longer to have a good ratatouille. I just found a easier and faster way to make a good vegetable dish, almost as a ratatouille and very flavorful 🙂

Duck confit

I will not give you here the recipe to make duck confit from scratch. My great-grand parents knew how to do it (they had a farm in south-west of France) but I always saw my family get it already done, just ready to be heated and served 🙂
This one was then quite easy as I just had to open the can and heat it in a pan.

Sautéed potatoes

Boil the potatoes using the pressure cooker.
Chop them (not too small).
In a pan, use the fat from the duck confit to sautéed the potatoes, add salt and garlic.
Stir occasionally so that it doesn’t stick.