Julia Child's Ratatouille Recipe

Next month will be the celebration of Julia Child's 100th birthday. Her publisher is marking the occasion with Julia Child Restaurant Week , weekly recipe reprints and a charming new book called Bon Appetit: The Delicious Life of Julia Child .  It's sometimes hard to imagine that Julia Child has been gone for almost eight years. Her statuesque frame, her distinctive high pitched voice and sense of humor are impossible to forget. Keeping the memory alive and introducing Julia Child to a whole new audience is  Bon Appetit: The Delicious Life of Julia Child . It's one of those illustrated children's books that adults will adore. It's filled with joyful images, funny anecdotes and a range of recipes from easy and accessible like Mayonnaise to more advanced like a Gallantine and Bouillabaisse. The colorful images and cheery text manage to entertain and educate in equal measure. I've just seen some sample pages, but I was thoroughly charmed. If you have ......

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Eggplant Parmesan Soup Recipe

I've started off this year eating more soup. It's amazing what can go in soup. I mean, pretty much anything. And many classic comfort food dishes can be transformed into soup. Macaroni and cheese, baked potato, even eggplant parmesan. I got the idea to make this soup when I was contacted by Whole Foods about a Parmigiano Reggiano promotion they were planning. I wanted to make something with the flavors of eggplant parmesan, but lighter and healthier. I used a few croutons and roasted the eggplant, instead of breading and frying it and skipped the mozzarella altogether. And you know what? It still pretty much has the flavor of eggplant parmesan! I thought I was being terribly original, but it turns out there are several eggplant parmesan soup recipes out there on the internets. I topped my soup with a couple tablespoons of Pamigiano Reggiano. It's the cheese that really makes the soup into something special. It adds that distinctive flavor and texture. I'm sorry th......

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Sausage & Vegetable Kebabs

I love kebabs! I don't know why eating food on a stick is so much fun, but it is. The best kebabs I ever had were in Istanbul, the meat sizzled on the outside but was juicy on the inside. Luckily kebabs are easy to make at home even for those like me, without an outdoor grill. I'm amazed at how versatile kebabs are and how they always manage to stretch whatever I'm cooking. It must have something to do with surface area and spacial relations. When food is served on a stick, it just seems like there is more of it. Two slices of eggplant, two small zucchini and just under two Italian sausages somehow made a huge dinner for two. It also gave me the feeling of Summer, even though it was cooked and eaten indoors. When it comes to kebabs, skip the bamboo. The best kind of skewers are metal--I have two sets, flat metal which are particularly good for meat and vegetables and double pronged which are perfect for seafood. With either one you choose, the food won't slip an......

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Eggplant Parmesan Recipe

There are many versions of eggplant parmesan. I probably like them all. The earthy sweetness of the eggplant and tomato sauce, the gooey mozzarella, and the sharpness of the parmesan all come together to make something delectable. Eggplant parmesan was the most satisfying vegetarian dinner I ate when I was growing up. In some recipes the eggplant is breaded and fried. While this adds a whole extra layer of texture, I don't think it's necessary. The version I grew up with was one my mom made and perhaps it's just the familiarity of it, but I really do think it's the best. Because it isn't fried it's not greasy which is often what happens with eggplant. A hearty filling entree I wouldn't dream of serving it without spaghetti on the side. There are two techniques necessary for this recipe. One is roasting eggplant slices. Once you master roasting eggplant in the oven you may want to use the slices in other recipes as well. They are great in sandwiches serv......

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Eggplant Lasagna Recipe

When I lived in Italy I especially looked forward to holiday meals. For every holiday and every family in Italy there is a special dish to savor. One of my favorite recipes was one I learned to make while spending Christmas with some friends in Verona. It was a delicious eggplant lasagna, very different from any other lasagna I had ever had. I ate so much of it on that Christmas eve, I just couldn't get enough of it. To this day, this is the best lasagna I've ever eaten or ever made. Eggplant lasagna, for one thing, eggplant! Who puts eggplant in lasagna? And then the sauce, it was a mixture of a tomato sauce and a bechamel sauce. As for cheese, well a sprinkling of parmesan was about it--no ricotta, no mozzarella. The noodles were thin, probably homemade, not the thick curly kind. Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables, except that it's not really a vegetable. Eggplant is actually a fruit, and a berry at that. I love it's meatiness. It's tremendously ver......

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Stuffed Brinjal Recipe

I'm no vegetarian, but I eat vegetarian meals all the time. Vegetables like mushrooms or eggplant are so "meaty" they make great vegetarian meals. I especially like to go vegetarian when I have Indian food. There are so many great veggie dishes in Indian cuisine I find I really don't miss the meat. A few years back I shared an office with Lulu, who also happens to be a fabulous cook and a vegetarian. She's from India and her knowledge of cooking is so different from mine that we've learned a lot from each other. A western cook and a Southeast Asian cook, a meat eater and a vegetarian, we both shared a passion for experimentation in cooking and for spicy food. When work was slow, we would spend hours chatting about recipes and researching our next meals. Eggplant entrees were often on each of our menus. This past week I found an Indian supermarket and felt compelled to buy several exotic items including fresh curry leaves and small round Indian eggplants. ......

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