SAUTEED OKRA WITH TOMATO AND CORN
This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

1/2 pound fresh okra
1 medium vine-ripened tomato
1 small onion
1 ear corn
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Cut okra into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Peel and chop tomato. Cut onion into thin slices and cut corn from cob. In a heavy skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and saut
 okra with salt to taste, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon transfer okra to a bowl.

Add remaining‚ tablespoon oil to skillet and sauté onion, stirring, until it begins to soften. Stir in tomato, water, and Worcestershire sauce and simmer, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes. Add corn and simmer until corn is crisp-tender and sauce is thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in okra with salt and pepper to taste and cook until heated through.

Alternatively, you can make this without the worchester sauce and add feta; it's yummy like that.

Archives fixed

Cookingnight blog mantenence is complete!

- Fixed the archives so now when you go to look up an old recipe, you can actually find it.
- Figured out how to add titles and links.
- Got RSS feed working. It's at http://www.cocovelocity.com/cookingnight/atom.xml

I feel very smart. Congratulate me on my web publishing skills.

6 Minute chocolate Cake
from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

Eating the last little piece of this reminded me I should post the recipe. This cake was great. Easy to make, moist, and not loaded in that much sugar or fat.

Cake
1.5C unbleached white flour
1/3C Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1t baking soda
1C sugar
1/2C vegetable oil
1C cold water or brewed coffee (I used coffee)
2t pure vanilla extract
2T vinegar (I used white)

Glaze
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate (I used Schfarenberger)
3/4C hot milk, water or half-and-half (I used low fat milk)
1/2t pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt & sugar into ungreased 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan. In a 2-cup measuring cup, mix together the oil, coffee, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly.There will be pale swirls in the batter where the baking soda and vinegar are reacting. Stir just until the vinegar is even distributed. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Set cake aside to cool, and reset oven to 300 for glaze.

For the glaze, melt the chocolate in a small ovenproof bowl in the oven for about 15 minutes. Stir the hot milk and the vanilla into the chocolate until smooth. Spoon glaze over the cooled cake. Refridgerate for at least 30 min.

Ratatoille.

So, I chose to make this because a bunch of us were going to see Ratatat, and that reminds me of Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I:

"Rats, rats for sale. Get your rats. Good for rat stew, rat soup, or the ever-popular ratatouille"

So ratatouille it was. Being a word nerd and armchair linguist, I found that ratatouille is a compound of the word rata (shitty hot food, French slang circa 1820) and touille (from touiller, to stir up). Really.

Anyhow - onto my recipe, which I made up by mixing together a bunch of other ratatouille recipes.. Which makes this a metaratatouille.

Ingredients:
1 Eggplant
2 Zucchini
5 Ripe Tomatoes
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
5 Diced Garlic Cloves
1 Large Yellow Onion
1 Cup Fresh Basil
Olive Oil
Cayenne Pepper
Rosemary, Oregano, Savory, Thyme (approximation of the Herbes de Provence)
Salt
(this is where things get weird)
1 Lemon
Nutmeg
White Vinegar
1/3 Stick of Butter

Steps:
- Chop eggplant into half inch cubes, and drizzle with lemon and salt to keep it looking good. Mix the juice and salt by hand to cover everything.
- Chop zucchini and tomatoes
- Chop up garlic and onions
- In a large pot, saute garlic and onion in 2 Tbsp of olive oil over lowish heat, until onions are translucent
- Add eggplant and let soften
- Touillez(!) in the zucchini and tomatoes, butter
- Add 2/3 Tsp each of rosemary, oregano, savory and thyme, AND nutmeg. The nutmeg is optional, but I think it adds a hearty flavor to the vegetables. You might want to start low on this much spice, and work your way up, by the way.. Maybe 1/3 Tsp to be safe.
- Add 1/3 Tsp of cayenne pepper (maybe more if you like more spice)
- Let tomatoes reduce (maybe 10 minutes)
- Chop up fresh basil and stir it into the mix
- Add tomato paste, and then white vinegar to taste (helps bring out tomato zest, but don't overdo it)
- Simmer until it tastes ready

So, most recipes said to make this a day in advance so the flavors can all mix together. I didn't have time for that, so the food had about one hour to get friendly with itself once I took it off the burner. And.. It was pretty good.

Another note. The vinegar and tomato paste is going to make this taste more like spaghetti sauce than ratatouille. So, again, don't overdo it.

The above, served as a side, feeds about 8. For a wine, I recommend something hearty and spicy like a pinot noir. But then, I know fuck-all about wines, and I'd probably recommend something trendy like pinot noir for just about anything.

And Ratatat was just ok. For such a sweet sweet sounding band, the guitarist is one sloppy dude live. When your band doesn't have a drummer, you can't get away with that shit, drunko.