Ratatouille Masaledar

(Indian Style)

For those who are not familiar to the term ratatouille, let me please tell you that it doesn't have anything to do with Rats. Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise(source : wikipedia). I have seen many different versions of it on food tv so there is no hard & fast rule except that it's mainly tomato based dish with zucchini, aubergine(eggplant) & onion as the main vegetables plus some herbs of your choice.So today morning when i woke up thinking in my mind what to cook for lunch & open the cooler box(yes i mean fridge). It was full of vegetables thanks to our love for fresh veggies whenever me & my hubby dear go for groceries together, result is lots & lots of fresh veggies & fruits. So i guess you guessed it that we had a trip to the grocery store yesterday.I didn't wanted to make aloo-baingan, except me no one is very fond of zucchini as a subji with roti in my house but for some reason i wanted to cook these two things. So here comes Ratatouille Masaledar. I hope all of you gonna enjoy it as much as we did.

Ingredient :

1. One medium size Eggplant
2. 2 Green Zucchini
3. 1 med. Size potato
4. 1 white Onion
5. 1 large tomato
6. 2 Carrots
7. ½ cup chopped green beans
8. 4-5 garlic cloves
9. Salt as per taste.
10. Green chillies 3-4
11. Fresh cilantro or parsley chopped a handful
12. Enough oil to saute all the vegetables(preferably Olive Oil)
13. Panch Puran spice mix 2 tsp.
    Panch Puran is a fragrant mix of five whole spices - fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, kalonji (onion) seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds. Mainly used in Bengali & Oriya cuisine.

Method :
Chop eggplant,zucchini,potato, onion & tomato into 1 inch cubes. Slice the carrots(not too thick)& chop the garlic too(I like it sliced).

In a heavy bottom pan heat up some oil(enough to coat the bottom of the pan). Add eggplant saute them around 7-8 min. on med. high. When they turn brown from all the sides take them out using a slotted spoon.Now add zucchini to the pan (if needed add little bit more oil)saute it too. Once done take it out of the pan. These 2 vegetables can easily become mushy so be careful not to overcook these, they should be holding there shape & a little bit of crunch too.

Next add little bit more oil to the same pan & shallow fry the potatoes & when potatoes are half way done, move them to the side of the pan & tilt the pan onto one side (by holding it little bit up from the opposite side) & add garlic saute it add panch puran let the spices saute little bit now add carrots & beans(If needed add little bit of oil) . After 2-3 minutes add chopped onion. Let everything cook for roughly 5 min.

It does sound little bit of confusing but the order in which we are adding vegetables is just to make sure that all of them get coating(flavor) of olive oil & believe me sauteing the veggies one by one really adds to the flavours as compared to putting everything together.

Now it's time to add tomatoes & chopped green chillies.Let them cook for 3-4 min. and it's time to return the sauted eggplant & zucchini to the pan. Add the salt too & stir everything together very gently, you don't want to break eggplant & zucchini.Cover it & cook it for another 5 minutes or till the potatoes are done. Before serving add the fresh herb on top.......we had ours with the thinly sliced green onions on top.

Serve with warm roti or naan.