La petite biscotte Now in Munich…

Crispy Sea-Bream on Rustic Ratatouille

It’s the second day of my Gordon Ramsay test cooking. As I posted yesterday, I’m going to try out three recipes from the cookbook “Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy“.

I was particularly intrigued by this dish because of the Ratatouille. As you might have read already, I’m living and studying in Aix-en-Provence, a beautiful town in the heart of the Provence region, about 30 kilometers away from Marseille. If there is one dish from Provence that almost everyone knows, it’s Ratatouille. This vegetable stew originated in Nice but it is eaten almost everywhere in France.

(One of Cezanne’s paintings of Mont St. Victoire, the mountain that
reigns over Aix-en-Provence. The famous painter was born in Aix.)

About the dish itself: I loved the combination of Ratatouille and fish. The dish felt very light and it was relatively easy to make. The only criticism I have is for the Ratatouille itself. In the recipe the vegetables are cooked very shortly (about 5-7 minutes) which is good if you want to keep the vegetables a little crunchy, but which isn’t so great if you leave the skin on the aubergines. Of course it probably depends on what kind of aubergine (eggplant) you use, but the one I used had a quite thick skin and when the dish was done it was hard to chew the aubergine pieces. Apart from that I might add a little tomato purée the next time but that’s optional.

(The recipe is adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s cookbook “G.R. Makes it Easy”)

Ingredients

For the rustic ratatouille:

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tomato
• 1 yellow pepper (or 1/2 red pepper and 1/2 yellow pepper)
• 1 courgette
• 1/2 aubergine
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

For the fish:

• 2 nice sea-bream fillets (buy them fresh with the skin on)
• 2 Tbsp of olive oil
• salt and pepper

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Preparation

1. Wash and cut the tomatoes in quarters. With a sharp knife slide along the flesh to deseed them. Finely chop the flesh.
2. Wash and deseed the pepper(s). Cut them in 1cm dice.
3. Wash and cut the courgette in 1 cm thick dice.
4. Wash the aubergine and cut it into 1 cm dice. If the skin is very thick rather remove it.
5. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Wait until it’s hot.
6. Cook the garlic and the onions (on medium heat) in the pan for approximately 2 minutes until they are soft.
7. Add all the vegetables to the pan and cook everything for about 5 minutes while stirring every now and then.
8. Add the basil and the vinegar, season to taste.
9. Remove the ratatouille from the heat and keep it warm.
10. Clean the bream fillets, be careful to remove all scales and with your finger drive along the line in the middle of the fillets. If you feel any bones, remove them with a pincher.
11. Lay the fish on your cutting board, skin-side up. With your hand squeeze the fillet together a little so the skin gets stretched. Now cut into the skin leavin less than a cm of space between each cut. Salt the fish on the skin side and be careful to put salt inside every of the “lamelles” you created.
12. Heat the olive oil in a non stick frying pan.
13. Once hot (and really let it get piping hot first) put the fillets in the frying pan, skin side down.
14. Let the fish cook like that on medium-high heat and don’t touch it. Give it time until 2/3rd of the fish is cooked. (3-4 minutes)
15. Turn the fish once, letting it cook for about a minute on the other side (check if it’s done completely).
16. When it’s done, turn it around on the skin side and remove the pan from the heat.
17. Put half of the ratatouille on a plate and put the fish on top, skin-side up.

Serves 2, enjoy