Confit byaldi
Encyclopedia
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
dish ratatouille
Ratatouille
Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise.- Origin :...
by French chef Michel Guérard
Michel Guérard
Michel Guérard is a French chef, author, one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine, and the inventor of cuisine minceur.- Biography :...
.
History
The name is a play on the TurkishTurkish cuisine
Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including that of western Europe...
dish "İmam bayıldı
Imam bayildi
Imam bayildi one of the most notable Turkish zeytinyağlı dishes, is braised eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomatoes...
", which is more of a stuffed eggplant. The dish has appeared sporadically on menus in France and the United States ever since.
The original ratatouille recipe had the vegetables fried before baking. Since at least 1976, top French chefs have prepared the ratatouille vegetables in thin slices instead of the traditional rough-cut. Michel Guérard
Michel Guérard
Michel Guérard is a French chef, author, one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine, and the inventor of cuisine minceur.- Biography :...
, in his innovative book founding cuisine minceur
Cuisine minceur
Cuisine minceur is a style of cooking created by French chef Michel Guérard, which recreated lighter versions of traditional Nouvelle cuisine dishes...
(1976), recreated lighter versions of the traditional dishes of nouvelle cuisine
Nouvelle Cuisine
Nouvelle cuisine is an approach to cooking and food presentation used in French cuisine. By contrast with cuisine classique, an older form of French haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased emphasis on presentation.-History:The term...
. His recipe Confit bayaldi, differed from ratatouille by not frying the vegetables, removing peppers and adding mushrooms. Keller's variation of Guérard's added two sauces, a tomato and peppers sauce at the bottom (pipérade
Pipérade
Piperade or Piperrada , from piper is a typical Basque dish prepared with onion, green peppers, and tomatoes sautéd and flavoured with red Espelette pepper. The colours coincidentally reflect the colours of the Basque flag . It may be served as a main or a side dish...
), and a vinaigrette
Vinaigrette
The word vinaigrette or vinegarette can refer to:*Vinaigrette, the salad dressing or sauce...
at the top.
American celebrity chef
Celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...
Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook writer. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, notably the Best California Chef in 1996, and the Best Chef in America in 1997...
first wrote about a dish he called "byaldi" in his 1999 cookbook, The French Laundry Cookbook. Beginning in mid-2000, he served as food consultant to the Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
film, Ratatouille
Ratatouille (film)
Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the eighth film produced by Pixar, and was directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005...
, allowing its producer, Brad Lewis
Brad Lewis
Bradford "Brad" Lewis is an American film producer, animation director and local politician. He produced DreamWorks' Antz and, for Pixar, the Oscar winning Ratatouille. He is a former mayor of the city of San Carlos, California....
, to intern for two days in the kitchen of his restaurant, French Laundry
French Laundry
The French Laundry is a French restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. The chef and owner of the French Laundry is Thomas Keller....
. Lewis asked Keller how he would cook ratatouille if the most famous food critic
Food critic
The terms food critic, food writer, and restaurant critic can all be used to describe a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings. While these terms are not strictly synonymous they are often used interchangeably, at least in some circumstances...
in the world were to visit his restaurant. Keller decided he would fan the vegetables accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
-style with a palette knife
Palette knife
A palette knife is a blunt tool used for mixing or applying paint, with a flexible steel blade. It is primarily used for mixing paint colors, paste, etc., or for marbling, decorative endpapers, etc...
.
Preparation and serving
Pipérade
Piperade or Piperrada , from piper is a typical Basque dish prepared with onion, green peppers, and tomatoes sautéd and flavoured with red Espelette pepper. The colours coincidentally reflect the colours of the Basque flag . It may be served as a main or a side dish...
is made of peeled, finely chopped, and reduced
Reduction (cooking)
In cooking, reduction is the process of thickening and intensifying the flavor of a liquid mixture such as a soup, sauce, wine, or juice by boiling....
pepper
Capsicum
Capsicum is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Its species are native to the Americas where they have been cultivated for thousands of years, but they are now also cultivated worldwide, used as spices, vegetables, and medicines - and have become are a key element in...
s, yellow onion
Yellow onion
Yellow Onion, also known as a Brown Onion, is a variety of dry onion with a strong flavor. White inside, its layers of papery skin have a yellow-brown color....
s, tomatoes, garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
, and herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
s. The piperade is spread thinly in a baking tray or casserole
Casserole
A casserole, from the French for "saucepan", is a large, deep dish used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a casserole dish or casserole pan...
dish, then layered on top with evenly sized, thinly sliced rounds of zucchini
Zucchini
The zucchini is a summer squash which often grows to nearly a meter in length, but which is usually harvested at half that size or less. It is a hybrid of the cucumber. Along with certain other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. Zucchini can be dark or light green...
, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, and roma tomato
Roma Tomato
Roma tomato or Roma is a plum tomato which is commonly found in supermarkets. The tomato is a meaty, egg- or pear-shaped tomato that is available in red and yellow. It has few seeds and is a good canning and sauce tomato...
es, covered in parchment paper
Parchment paper (baking)
Parchment paper and bakery release paper are cellulose-based papers that are used in baking as a disposable non-stick surface. Both are also called bakery paper.-Parchment paper:...
, then baked slowly for several hours to steam the vegetables. The parchment is removed so that the vegetables may then roast, acquiring additional flavor through caramelization. To serve, the piperade is formed into a small mound, and the rounds arranged in a fanned-out pattern to cover the piperade base. A balsamic
Balsamic vinegar
Balsamic vinegar is a condiment originating from Italy.The original traditional product , made from a reduction of cooked white Trebbiano grape juice and not a vinegar in the usual sense, has been made in Modena and Reggio Emilia since the Middle Ages: the production of the balsamic vinegar is...
vinaigrette
Vinaigrette
The word vinaigrette or vinegarette can refer to:*Vinaigrette, the salad dressing or sauce...
is drizzled on the plate, which may be garnished.
Despite the delicate preparation and presentation, confit biyaldi, like most ratatouilles, improves with age overnight in the refrigerator.