C'est lundi!

Well, the weekend disappeared. This time too. Another boring Monday, or are we? No! I found I simple quick-fix for boring Mondays: do them french-style! So this afternoon, after making about 4 kg of sauerkraut (that's a future post, I promise), I yanked up the french music and started cooking! I must say, there is no better music to cook to than real french accordion music! Everything instantly smells a little sweeter, you feel like Julia Child and out of the blue the inspiration is flowing. In the French playlist on my phone I have some wonderful songs from the movie "Ratatouille", which must be among the cutest Disney movies ever. Give me a movie about food, and you've got me, but if it's set in France and about a little rat chef, well, it doesn't get much better. Anyhow, just like in the movie, I made ratatouille for dinner, and just have to say: Yum. Today was really stormy and fall-like here in Stockholm, and I can't think of a more comforting and delicious thing to have for dinner after a day like today! So here you go, ratatouille with camut wheat and Puy lentils with lemon. The ratatouille may seem like a lot to do, but it's simple stupid, I promise.


For about 6 hungry people
The ratatouille:
Oil
1 eggplant
1 medium zucchini
1 large red onion (or two small ones)
4-5 cloves of garlic
1,5 dl red wine
1 red and 1 yellow pepper
4 big tomatoes
400 g canned chopped tomatoes
2 tsp frozen herbe de Provence
2 tsp frozen parsley
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

The camut and lentils:
2 dl Puy lentils
3 dl camut wheat
Salt
Lemon zest from almost 1 lemon
Pepper
1-2 tsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp olive oil
Optional: Some baby spinach

Okay, so the first thing you should do is to chop up the eggplant. Cut it in about 1-inch cubes and place these in a bowl. Sprinkle some salt over, toss it up and let it stand while you continue preparing.
Next step is to start cooking the lentils. Add them to a saucepan together with some salt and add about 5 dl water. Bring to a boil and let them cook gently until they're tender, but not too soft, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, continue your vegetable-chopping. Cut the zucchini once lengthwise and then slice it in ½ inch thick slices. Cut the onion in bigger or smaller pieces, depending on how you like them. Finely chop the garlic. Cut the peppers in ½-inch cubes. Peel (if you want to) and slice the tomato.
Now, take out a nice big pot, of course I didn't miss the opportunity to use my favorite Le Creuset pot. Put it on medium high heat and add a good lug of oil. When the pot is hot, add the eggplant (but try to leave the liquid it's probably produced behind) and sauté with some salt, pepper and about a third of the garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. If the bottom of the pot starts to get a bit brown, don't worry, for here comes the best part. Add half the wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to get it all clean and get all of those flavors into the wine. Transfer the eggplant in wine to a bowl.
Add a new lug of oil and repeat the same procedure for the zucchini, that is fry it for about five minutes with salt, pepper and garlic. Add the wine, scrape a bit, and let the zucchini join the eggplant in the bowl. Add one more splash of oil and the onion this time, together with the rest of the garlic. Lower the heat and let fry for a couple of minutes. Add the peppers to the onion and let them soften.
Your lentils should be ready by now, so drain them in a colander. Cook your camut wheat according to the instructions on the package, it should take about 15 minutes. When they're done, add them to the colander with lentils. But while they're cooking, go back to the ratatouille.
Add tomatoes and herbs to the pot. Put the lid on and let them get a bit soft while simmering, about 5 minutes. Take the lid off, add the chopped tomatoes and the zucchini and eggplant. Give it a good stir, put the lid back on and leave it to do its thing for about 10 minutes. When the time's up, take the lid of and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the lentils and camut wheat. Add the rest of the ingredients in a bowl with the wheat and lentils, stir it up and you're done, if you don't want to have the spinach, then add that too.
The ratatouille should be getting ready, so set the table, slice up some good bread, light a candle or two and enjoy!