Today was a blustery day indeed. It felt like Autumn was really here. The leaves swirled around my feet as I went to get the laundry off the line outside and the wind blew my hair into my eyes. It was cold!

As usual on a Saturday morning I went down to the farmers’ market (keeping in mind that I was going to start the croissant today for Nancy) and I decided I would not buy too much, since I had other things planned for the day.

I met a friend at the market, who had a surprise box of laid this morning free range eggs from her chooks and a lovely little pot of plum jelly for me! We sauntered around the stalls - getting buffeted by the wind. There was so much wonderful produce to choose from it was difficult to come away with a small bag, but with the iron will that I have, I left with two large, completely bulging bags of beautiful late summer produce.

I unloaded the contents on to the bench and made myself and Kit a steaming hot cup of tea while I surveyed my purchases.

Tomatoes, peppers in all colours, cucumber, garlic, bushfire pumpkins, spring onions, beetroot, broccoli, basil, cos lettuce, strawberries that are amazingly sweet, and colourful zucchini. My favourite find for the day was a beautiful olive oil grown here in Otago by Cairnmuire, infused with the thyme that grows around the olive trees. Peppery and golden with hints of thyme. Just superb.

 A few things stood out as a really classic combination, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, onions, thyme and olive oil - together they create Ratatouille. This is most likely going to be my last chance to make this beautiful dish this summer, since really autumn is here and it won’t be long till pears, plums, pumpkins, chillies and apples fill the markets with different taste combinations to explore, and the fresh herbs have all gone into hibernation for the winter.

I’ve gone with Thomas Keller’s version which is layered and fanned out beautifully. It looks like candy when it’s all put together before it’s cooked and the smell and taste .. so, so, so, very, very good. It melts in your mouth and the flavours are just a perfect combination. The vinaigrette and a big loaf of crusty bread as an accompaniment are compulsory. If you have never had Ratatouille try this - you will just love it.

Ratatouille - Confit Byaldi

I’m not going to post the entire recipe, since I have not deviated from Thomas Keller’s recipe. The only thing I changed was to make a double quantity, since I knew I was going to be feeding several hungry people. Next time however I would  make more of the vinaigrette. We found ourselves sopping up the last little morsels of vinaigrette on the bread we had with it, so we did not miss a drop.

 It does take a long time to cook. So do start it well in advance. The recipe is on the NY times website, along with a really interesting post about the movie and Thomas Keller’s hand in consulting for it. I thought I would give you a few photos to help you on the way to making it though. It really is worth every moment spent.

Slice all your ingredients the same thickness and try to choose vegetables that have roughly the same diameter, it makes it easier when you are trying to layer them nicely. I could not get Japanese eggplant - so I had to settle for some that were slightly fatter at one end.

While you are roasting your peppers for your piperade you can begin the rest of the sauce ingredients. I chose to make mine a little chunkier, so it had a nice rustic feel to it.

When your piperade is made then you start to layer your vegetables on the top.

The vegetables reminded me of Licorice Allsorts.

Once you have them all snuggled into the pan and topped off with a little more flavour - they get covered in foil and put into the oven for long, slow cooking, which gives that silky melt in the mouth texture to the vegetables.

The juice from the vegetables seeps down and into the piperade

We loved this version of Ratatouille - it really was worth the extra effort to make it this way. It can be eaten cold or hot - we had ours hot to try to ward off the autumn chill that was in the air today. Although there are some things I will miss about the summer, like Ratatouille, I am looking forward to the new seasons produce and all the recipes that I will be able to resurrect with the Autumn.

P.S Keep your fingers crossed for my croissant!

This has to be one of my favourite vegetarian meals of all time. I love this dish. I was browsing around Ravelry and in one of the food forums someone was talking about Eggplant parmigiana. Which prompted me to make it this weekend.

My family swoons over this - except for my oldest son Ryan who hates eggplant. But more on that later. Sometimes the simple things are the best, and this certainly falls into that catagory I think.

I found some wonderful fat purple aubergines, they are in season here at the moment and are not too expensive, so now is the best time for me to be making this dish. I picked up two lovely chunks of cheese, mozzarella and parmigiana. One soft and squeezable and the other hard and stinky! Both just as they should be.

Start by making the sauce, I usually just make a very quick Pomodoro sauce, but slightly thinner than usual so that the egg plant soaks it up nicely. I like my eggplant parmigiana oozing with sauce. If you like your crumbed eggplant to stay crisper then you may well prefer to go with a thicker sauce.

The sauce can simmer while you prepare your eggplant.

Pomodoro sauce

• Chop one onion finely and saute gently in a small amount of oilve oil.
• Add 2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped and cook for a minute, do not brown.
• Add two cans of chopped tomatos
• Add 2 Tblspns chopped fresh basil
• Add 2 Tblspns chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2 tspn of sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup of water (this is to thin the sauce a little - if you want it thick do not add this.

Simmer the sauce gently on the stove top stirring occasionally, while you crumb your eggplant. You should have at least 3 1/2 cups of sauce. Personally I think more is better. Note: dried herbs are fine in this dish, because the sauce cooks for some time and is baked in the oven.

You can either shallow fry your eggplant in olive oil, or you can spray a baking tray lightly and oven bake the slices for a lower calorie dish. I personally prefer the “not good for you- but oh so tasty!” version

• 2 large eggplant (aubergine)
• 2 eggs
• 5 cups of breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup of flour
• olive oil to cook if you are going to shallow fry

Set yourself up with a little assembly line of flour in one bowl, then egg in another, then crumbs and a plate to place your finished slices on.

Cut your eggplant into roughly 5mm slices (1/4 -1/2 inch) and one at a time dip into flour to coat, then egg, then crumbs. When you have crumbed all the slices shallow fry in olive oil until fork tender or bake in the oven.

They should look something like this.

In a large baking dish, start by placing a layer of eggplant in your dish, then top with some of the sauce, followed by a layer of mozzarella and parmigiana. Repeat until you have run out of ingredients finishing with a layer of cheeses. You should get roughly 3 layers of eggplant.

Bake in the oven at 180C(350F) for 30-40 minutes until golden brown, bubbling and tender to a fork.

Just looking at this photo I am wishing I still had some left! If you are scared of eating eggplant I really would urge you to try this - it will make you change your mind.

Oh, and by the way, remember how I told you Ryan hated eggplant? He decided to try this, and then went back for seconds.