the mcroyale-with-cheese effect

you see, after watching movies about food, i always get this compulsion to go and buy or make the dish in question, which meant that after watching ratatouille on dvd yesterday i just had to have a stab at putting together the E-P-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S meal. handily enough, googling "ratatouille recipe" turns up the real-life inspiration for the stew, so there was no need for improvisation.

it was a very educational process. first of all, it's kind of amazing that ego ever got his food, considering that the dish takes about 4 hours to make from start to finish. second, vegetable slicers are rad. third, chervil is related to, but is not actually parsley (i was thinking cilantro-coriander, but no.)

first layer:


fully assembled:


after baking:


plated:


it was nearly impossible to get the vegetables to stand on the plate in two tiers like remy did because they were a little bit too soggy, but let's not dwell on marred perfection. the dish looked -- and tasted -- wonderful, and this from someone who isn't the world's biggest fan of squash. my biggest worry was the amount of tomato in it (8 roma tomatoes!) -- i always add more sugar to pasta sauce than i really should to cut the sharpness of tomato -- but the other vegetables were more than sweet enough to do that job.

next week: ethnic potluck!