ratatouille

Recipe courtesy of the lovely Caroline: 

To be honest I don't really use a recipe! Fry up onions, zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes with salt+pepper, add some chopped tomatoes and some creamed tomatoes and a bunch of mixed herbs (basil + oregano if you have fresh but the dried mixed herbs mix you can buy is fine too) and then let it simmer a little bit, keep tasting it until you like it! Also nice to add a bit of paprika.

Grandma's Pancakes

From her very first cookbook: The Lily Wallace All-American Cookbook (1946)

Tip à la Benjamin: For a cooking project that requires multiple greasings on a hot pan (pancakes, crêpes, etc), cut a potato in half and use the starchy side to dip in oil and regrease the pan.

What's in season?

We are huge fans of buying fruits and vegetables that are in season. While what is "in season" will vary depending upon your location, here's a sample chart posted on NC's Agriculture website that I've found very helpful.

gotobenc.org

As well as a website that has nutrition facts about various ingredients (How do I add more protein to this rice dish?) Nutrient Search

Enjoy!

Converting weight to volume

As some of our recipe contributors will be writing in grams vs. cups, I wanted to share a conversion tool I found today.

Happy cooking!

http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking.htm

Le Taboulet

Hello everybody,

I am going to introduce the "Taboulet" as a really nice cooking for the summer (good because it's the summer in seventeen days).

How to do it :
- a big bowl where you put the 400g of couscous
- put 25cl of luke warm water with 3 spoons of lemon juice.
- the seeds of couscous have to rise.
- chop two white onions or 5 shallots and add them in the bowl
- put some parsleys (6 with the stem) and mint
- mix everything in the bowl.
- cut 3 (or more if you want) tomatoes in little cubes and add them in the bowl, mix it.
- put some salt and pepper.
- cut one red and one green pepper in little cubes and add them in the bowl.
- you can add some olives in little pieces and some raisins
- peel a cucumber and cut it in cubes. Add it in the bowl
- add some salt and pepper if you think you need more in it.
- mix everything one more time.
- tamp everything in the bowl.
- put the bowl in the fridge for a little while (I think like two hours before lunch or dinner).

Very important : before serving, you have to remove everything with a fork and add some olive oil. You have to put the olive oil at the end.

Have a great day and enjoy this meal for the summer, really refreshing. I don't have picture yet but I will put some when I'm gonna make one.

Bisous