Welcome…..

To the first Minimalist Cook newsletter.

This is the first of what are planned to be monthly newsletters so it is a little rough around the edges and, to be honest, it looks like what it is, a first attempt. Over the coming months the rough edges will be smoothed out, the design will become professional and the content will be top notch, based on my improving feel for this particular medium and, now this is the important bit, your feedback.Thanks for reading and please feel free to forward and distribute without mercy!

The most exciting project that I have in the works at the moment is the first Minimalist Cook ebook. I am currently looking at a release date towards the end of September. This is later than originally planned and advertised.We did, however, release a  sample which contains seven easy main course recipes and some mouthwatering photography (my husband asked me to put that bit in – guess who took the photographs!) – well worth checking out. It gets even better though–sign up for our newsletter and you’ll get a link to download the full version the day it is published for free. Anyone not signed up for the mailing list will have to part with a little bit of presumably hard earned cash. Many reading this have already signed up and do not have to do anything other than keep an eye on their inbox. This is really intended as a heads up for anyone who has been forwarded this note and who has yet to visit the minimalist cook web site. 

You can download the free recipe sampler ebook and sign up for  the newsletter here

I mentioned that my husband is responsible for much of the photography both in the ebooks and on the website. Last month I asked him to write a guest post about food photography in general and about minimalist food photography in particular. His ramblings can be found here along with some excellent photographs.

I am currently working on a series of very short how-to videos about basic food prep. These will start appearing on the website over the next  few weeks. We currently have three in the can and will be working on more in the very near future. Just to give an idea of how basic these are the first three are separating egg white and egg yolk, whisking an egg white and an easy way to cube a water melon. 

Most Recent Post

The Minimalist Cook’s Simplest Ratatouille 

To see the recipe on the web page with accompanying photographs click on the above link. 

Piperade:
4 Tb olive oil
2 red bell peppers, finely diced
2 tsp minced garlic
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 sprig of fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried
1 sprig of fresh parsley or 1 tsp dried
1 bay leaf

Vegetables:
1/2 lb skinny eggplant, sliced in 1/16″ rounds
1/2 lb zucchini, sliced in 1/16″ rounds
1/2 lb summer squash, sliced in 1/16″ rounds
1/2 lb roma tomatoes, sliced in 1/16″ rounds
1 Tb olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp thyme
Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper

Vinaigrette:
2 Tb olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper

Oven 275F

Begin with the piperade by sauteeing the red bell peppers, diced onion, and garlic in 4 Tb olive oil in a 12″ ovenproof skillet until peppers soften–be sure not to scorch the garlic. Add the crushed tomatoes, thyme, parsley, and bay leaf, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is nearly gone. This takes about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

In the meantime, slice the vegetables and stir together the olive oil, garlic, thyme, and salt and pepper.

Scoop a couple tablespoons of the piperade and set aside for the vinaigrette. Smooth the remaining sauce evenly across the bottom of the skillet, and wipe off smudges from the top and sides. Starting in the center of the skillet, arrange the vegetable slices in a spiraling fan all the way to the edge of the pan.

You might not need quite all of the vegetables you’ve sliced. Once the arrangement suits your eye, brush the oil mixture over the tops of the veggies.

If you have parchment paper on hand, cut a circle of it to fit the pan and tuck it over the veggies,

then cover the top of the pan tightly with aluminum foil. The parchment is intended to keep the tomatoey piperade from reacting with the aluminum foil.

Bake for 2 hours at 275F. Remove the foil and parchment paper, then bake for 30 minutes more. If the veggies gave off too much water, put the skillet on the stovetop and simmer until the sauce is once again thickened and the liquid evaporated. At this point the ratatouille can be cooled and refrigerated for up to two days, and reheated in a 350F oven until warm.

For serving, combine the reserved 2 Tb piperade with the 2 Tb olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme, and salt and pepper into a vinaigrette. To try to serve it like it is in the movie, use an offset spatula or long knife to take up a length of the vegetables, start to set it on the center of the serving plate, then turn the knife to fan or spiral the vegetables. This is very tricky in real life, as opposed to animation Otherwise, simply cut the ratatouille into sixths or eighths and fan each serving out on a plate with a drizzle of the vinaigrette.

The Newsletter Exclusive Recipe

A confession: In future newsletters I plan to publish a new and original recipe never before seen anywhere else but time got the better of me. I was already running late with this newsletter so an executive decision was made and the recipe was shelved for this edition only.  I promise to try harder next month. Anyway, here is  one from the ebook: for a warming chicken chili:

Minimalist Cook  Website