00:11
I think mum’s napping.
00:17
Welcome to a new episode of Buford and Sons,
00:21
featuring me, Bill Buford and my twin sons,
00:25
our cinematographer, George Buford,
00:28
whom you will never see.
00:29
And our director, Frederick Hawkins Buford,
00:39
eating our lunch bread.
00:41
Today we’re making a ratatwe.
00:43
[Frederick] No. You joking. [Bill laughs]
00:46
Ratatwe not ratatuee.
00:48
Today we’re making ratatouille [laughs].
00:50
[Frederick] There you go.
00:52
Classic end of the summer French preparation,
00:55
which in the best description I’ve heard
00:57
is basically what every French household
01:00
could conceivably be growing in their garden
01:03
anywhere over France.
01:05
They’re not really exotic vegetables.
01:07
They’re just basic summer vegetables
01:08
and they include onions,
01:19
I was about to say, In roughly equal quantities,
01:22
like two or three onions,
01:24
two or three eggplants,
01:25
two, three, zucchini.
01:29
[Frederick] Did you forget to get peppers?
01:30
I think we have to get some peppers.
01:33
It’s all ’cause you didn’t get peppers.
01:36
Mommy used my peppers.
01:43
Do you have zucchini as well?
01:45
We’re back with a bag of peppers.
01:48
The most important concept I learned
01:51
for cooking a ratatouille.
01:53
[Frederick] Why are you staring at the vegetables?
01:55
‘Cause I’m about to talk about the vegetable.
01:57
I’m talking to the vegetables.
01:58
I’m talking to the vegetables.
02:01
Secret essential tip to making a ratatouille.
02:04
Don’t cook them one after the other in the same pot,
02:07
but cook them separately one at a time,
02:11
preferably with slight variations in cooking method.
02:13
When I made it for friends they all went,
02:15
Wow, what makes it so good?
02:19
I have sons and friends,
02:23
but what I’d like to do is to roast the peppers
02:27
and get a kind of jammyness.
02:29
And they have a quality
02:30
which I think is essential to the dish
02:32
which was once described to me as like, vegetable jam.
02:36
So as I’m putting it together
02:37
I’m trying to think,
02:38
I’m creating the height of summer expression,
02:42
What I do with my peppers is I put ’em in a hot oven.
02:46
I gather them all up,
02:48
put them on a tray with olive oil,
02:51
heat the oven about 350, 370, 375.
02:54
And after about 30, 35 minutes,
02:57
the skin will start to be coming off
03:00
and the pepper itself will be cooked.
03:02
You don’t want the pepper to cook too much
03:04
’cause then it starts to dissolve.
03:05
But you want that fruitiness of the pepper.
03:08
I kind of get fold it in a piece of aluminum foil
03:11
so that the steam helps the skin come off.
03:15
And after about 30, 35 minutes
03:17
and the pepper itself will be cooked.
03:19
You don’t want the pepper to cook too much.
03:26
My preferred tomato
03:28
is a in-season juicy Italian plum tomato
03:32
because the flesh inside has got that kind of jammy quality.
03:36
You could use the heirloom tomatoes
03:39
but they don’t, they don’t roast as well.
03:41
And if you’re gonna use them
03:42
I would just add them, cut up and fresh at the end.
03:46
But these that plummy, fruity quality
03:50
that we’re trying to get.
03:51
So to skin a tomato
03:53
the fruit, a little bit of a headstart,
03:56
by just giving it a little slit here,
03:59
dipped into hot water,
04:00
that little slit will start to come up.
04:03
Then when it looks like the skin is coming off,
04:05
then you dip it in ice water
04:08
and work your skin loose.
04:11
[Frederick] Do you think heating it up
04:12
actually made a difference?
04:13
Yeah, it did. I could’ve left it a bit longer,
04:15
but, this is completely coming off.
04:17
So then when we have our naked skinless tomatoes
04:21
then we cut them in half,
04:23
remove the seeds and some of the pithy stuff,
04:27
save it, because it’s full of tomato water,
04:30
and tomato water once it’s drained
04:33
will be an essential ingredient to our ratatouille.
04:35
In fact, it will be the only liquid source.
04:39
There, see? You can do it.
04:41
Thank you Frederick.
04:42
I feel so encouraged.
04:44
Thank you Frederick.
04:47
And then it goes into a slow oven,
04:49
much slower than the one for the roasted of peppers,
04:51
about 200 degrees on a pastry sheet,
04:54
which we’ve prepared with olive oil,
05:00
a little olive oil over the tomato
05:02
and hour, two hours later,
05:04
and we have a plummy juicy roasted tomato.
05:10
I just happen to have some roasted tomatoes
05:14
that I made last night
05:16
slowly roasting all night long,
05:27
Next we’re gonna do our three remaining vegetables
05:31
our zucchini and our eggplant.
05:33
And these are gonna be done differently
05:34
from the tomatoes and the peppers.
05:38
And that difference also helps to accentuate
05:40
their difference in the mouth
05:42
when you finally have your ratatouille.
05:44
The onions, I’m gonna chop quite simply.
05:47
We had a family’s summer holiday in North Carolina
05:50
a few years ago and I made this dish,
05:53
but I was in a rush and I went to the supermarket.
05:57
I did all the things right,
05:59
but it just tasted awful.
06:02
So we threw it away.
06:03
I’m back the next day
06:04
and we found some farm stands.
06:06
We got all the same ingredients
06:08
and it was stunning.
06:10
This dish is so essentially a dish of the summer,
06:14
think of the season for fruit,
06:15
but, actually, it’s a fantastic season
06:18
for vegetables as well.
06:26
Next, our eggplant which we chop up
06:29
more or less the same size
06:31
as our onions but we begin by peeling the eggplant.
06:35
I’m peeling the eggplant
06:37
because the skin is usually inedible.
06:41
The eggplant is one of those just
06:42
wonderful wonderful vegetables
06:44
that is rarely understood by most people who cook it.
06:48
You don’t wanna marinate it.
06:49
You just gotta give it time, make sure it’s cooked through.
06:53
And it develops this kind of wonderful
06:55
almost nutty flavor that’s just fantastic in, well,
06:59
dishes like ratatouille.
07:04
And they’re gonna be
07:06
basically the same size as our chopped onions.
07:09
This is an eccentric experimentation.
07:11
I barbecued a whole bunch of eggplant.
07:15
Most of it as you can see, got pretty toasty
07:18
and I’m just adding it to the mix it’s already cooked.
07:21
It doesn’t need to be sauteed
07:22
but in the expectation
07:25
that it’ll be introducing a nice smoky flavor.
07:31
Ooh, that’s a black one.
07:35
Finally, our zucchini,
07:38
which I’m gonna cut into quite large wedges
07:42
and add only at the very end,
07:44
it’s gonna be the opposite of a stewed vegetable.
07:46
This is the thing that’s gonna be with a little crunch.
07:49
[Frederick] You really mess it up.
07:52
You know, this is not a fancy dish really?
07:58
Next, we begin our sauteeing process.
08:01
Starting with the onions.
08:05
a little bit of olive oil.
08:07
Just a little bit salt and pepper.
08:12
Cooking enough to take a little bit of a bite out.
08:16
[Frederick] You think you’re really cool, don’t you?
08:18
No, because I’m doing it with my right hand.
08:21
If you’re really cool, you do it with your left hand.
08:23
Oh, great smell of a new season, fresh onion.
08:29
Don’t want it to brown.
08:32
The idea is that this, like the other ingredients,
08:34
will effectively be cooked
08:36
by the time you mix them all together.
08:39
So they retain their identity
08:42
and characteristics as an ingredient,
08:46
I’m going to lift this up to our pan
08:48
and drain it in a colander.
08:53
which I’m gonna do in a nonstick pan without olive oil.
08:57
But then once it cooks for a bit,
08:59
I will add some olive oil, a little bit.
09:01
But it just does soak it all up.
09:04
So we shouldn’t get the sizzle and snap
09:06
of a pan with heat in it.
09:07
It shouldn’t be almost impossible to overcooked eggplant.
09:18
This, we give this a bit of time.
09:39
That’s another one.
09:40
That’s another one.
09:46
No, no, no, Fred no, no.
09:50
Finally, our zucchini.
09:54
Hot pan, olive oil,
10:06
So I’m cooking this until they’re just barely cooked.
10:10
They should be brown,
10:11
but still firm in the middle,
10:14
you know, it’s like one, two minutes.
10:19
This is my tomato water.
10:21
I’m very proud of my tomato water.
10:23
And that’s the label.
10:25
Two tomato water reduced.
10:29
And this is gonna be the only liquid
10:31
that we’re adding to our ratatouille.
10:33
We’re gonna warm it up.
10:36
Finally, we’re at the point where all our raw ingredients
10:40
have now been rendered cooked.
10:42
We have our onions,
10:43
we have our eggplant,
10:45
we have our zucchini.
10:46
We have our tomatoes.
10:47
We have our peppers.
10:50
In addition, that we will be adding later
10:53
when we’re all done,
10:54
a splash of red wine vinegar
10:56
because it is so fruity it needs a bit of bite.
10:58
We’ll add a little bit of fresh garlic,
11:00
at the very end we’ll add some basil.
11:03
And because I can’t help it
11:04
when something is sweet I also want something salty
11:06
I mix in some olives.
11:09
The assembly begins.
11:11
We start with our tomatoes roasted beautiful
11:15
just slice them into bite size pieces.
11:17
Everything is about the same quantity as everything else.
11:22
Grab a couple more.
11:25
This is kinda the heart of the dish.
11:27
Actually, everything here is heart of the dish.
11:31
obviously, at the heart of the dish.
11:35
Then I add our onions.
11:39
That’s the heart of the dish.
11:45
No, kind of chocolaty and smoky
11:47
and full of otherness.
11:52
And a little bit of these barbecue ones that I had.
11:56
At the very end with that crunch
12:00
I’ll add the zucchini.
12:01
I am adding my reduced tomato water
12:04
to my cooked ingredients.
12:06
And I will simmer this slowly for 20 to 30 minutes
12:11
and then we will have it tonight for dinner.
12:14
Okay. After half an hour, I added some zucchini.
12:18
I added a splash of vinegar
12:21
and I think we have a delicious dish.
12:25
It’s ready to plate.
12:28
And I add some basil to the end
12:30
to give it that summer punch.
12:34
It’s smelling beautifully fragrant of,
12:36
well, just about everything.
12:39
It’s hungry making.
12:43
[Frederick] Jessica’s Wine pairings.
12:46
Welcome to Jessica’s Wine Pairing.
12:48
Jessica, what are we drinking with our ratatouille?
12:55
[Frederick] You’re up balling.
13:04
Welcome once again to Jessica’s Wine Pairing.
13:07
Jessica, what are we drinking with our ratatouille?
13:11
Ratatouille, I’m so excited.
13:13
I’m so excited about this wine pairing.
13:15
I thought hard about what would go well with Ratatouille.
13:18
And I thought because I know as one of your favorite dishes.
13:23
I knew you’d like it.
13:24
That’s one of my favorite wines.
13:27
So Condrieu, because like ratatouille,
13:29
it’s very fragrant,
13:32
it’s summery and smells like flowers and peaches.
13:37
And I think it’s gonna be perfect with ratatouille.
13:41
Are the olives unusual?
13:43
[Bill] You mean, are they normal?
13:54
[Frederick] That’s gross.
13:55
That’s really good.
