Our new rental home has everything that I wanted in a kitchen – lots of storage spaces, tons of counter space, brand new appliances – We are the first tenant to be using the stove, dishwasher and the refrigerator.

The awful, uncomfortable refrigerator - the most hated item in my kitchen right now. It’s a side-by-side, stainless steel and it’s the most difficult appliance that I have ever used. And trust me, my old refrigerator was a top freezer, small thing and sometimes I wish I had that one instead of this beast.

As you can guess, I cook a lot, bake a lot and entertain a lot. And I’m a planner, which means that I do all of my cooking, baking way ahead of time, and when I do, I need to store all that food, and this refrigerator is not user friendly at all, its narrow, the doors do not open all the way and its just ONE HOT MESS. In the last 6-month, I have become very crafty in how to stack, position or move stuff so they sort of fit. I.hate.every.minute. I have been reduced to planning very carefully what I cook and how I store my leftover, because we don’t have much space for storing anything in there, so we try very hard to get rid of leftover as fast as we can.

For Christmas dinner I made some roasted vegetables to serve in my antipasto platter. We filled our bellies with our veggies, but I ended up with some left over and today I decided that we needed to eat them, since I needed to clear space in that thing. But when I took a poll at Casa P, nobody was feeling a repeat performance as antipasto so I came up with this baked dish. At then end the quick egg, flour and milk batter became a twist to the Dutch-baby German pancake

My recipe to roast the vegetables it’s pretty simple. I used eggplants, zucchini, red pepper, yellow squash, yellow onions and cauliflower for my meddly of veggies. You can use any vegetable you like or that are in season.

Preheat the oven to 425°. In a large bowl, toss the vegetables with a mixture of olive oil, chopped fresh thyme, balsamic vinegar and season generously with salt and pepper. Let the veggies soak in the marinate for about 30 minutes before roasting. Spread the vegetables on a large rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 55 minutes, tossing once halfway through, until the vegetables are tender and golden. Remove them from the oven, then let them sit in room temperature, move them to a platter and then toss again with a bit of olive oil, some salt and ground pepper and a sprinkle of more balsamic vinegar – it’s a pretty antipasto dish and delish to eat at room temperature with lots of toasted bread.

I have not forgotten to give measurements for this portion, because everytime I do, I just don’t measure, its all eyeballing it. The trick is to make sure the vegetables are fully coated with the olive+vinager and season well with salt and ground pepper and you cannot go wrong.

Now for today’s recipe.

ROASTED VEGETABLE DUTCH-BABY

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 ¼ cups milk
4-5 tablespoon of olive oil
Roasted Vegetables – I had about 2 cups of leftover
Grated Parmesan cheese (or gruyere)
Fresh Thyme

In a bowl, beat the egg, and then gradually beat in the flour and a little milk to make a smooth thick paste. Blend in the rest of the milk; add the thyme leaves and season to taste with salt and pepper. Blend until completely smooth. Leave in a cool place until required.

Pour the oil in a roasting pan or a cast iron skillet (see tips) and heat through in the oven at 425°F.

Once your oven hits the 425 mark, add all of the roasted vegetables and turn in the hot oil to coat them, return to the oven and let them warm/cook up for about 10 minutes.

Whisk the batter again, then (very carefully), open the oven door, and pull the skillet out (using oven mittens) and pour the batter over the vegetables, it will start to bubble on the side (this is what you want). Return to the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Give it a look and if well puffed up and golden, then reduced the heat to 375°F and bake for 10-15 minutes more, until crisp around the edges. Remove from the oven, and sprinkle with your choice of cheese (I used gruyere) and chopped herbs (I used thyme) and serve.

Tips:

Dice all the vegetables into pieces that are approximately the same size, which will make them cook evently in the oven.
It is essential to get the oil in the skillet very hot before adding the batter, or it will not rise well.
Make sure the roasting dish/skillet is not to deep, I use my cast iron skillet, which is prefect, since it will caramelized the batter and you get a crispy bottom (win!).
It’s delish hot, but also at room temperature (I actually preferred it at room temperature)