Ratatouille by Maya Corrigan #Giveaway

The colors of this Southwest Ratatouille, made with corn and other fresh vegetables, remind me of candy corn, maybe because I just saw the Halloween candy on display at the supermarket. Don't miss the GIVEAWAY. Scroll down and leave a comment about corn or candy corn for a chance to win a Five-Ingredient mystery.

Southwest Style Ratatouille

Corn, jalapeño pepper, cumin, and coriander give a twist of Southwest flavor to the classic French vegetable stew, ratatouille.

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped 

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 medium zucchini, lengthwise into four segments and then crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces

Corn cut from one ear, uncooked or cooked (in a pinch, use frozen corn)

1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 to 1 teaspoon minced fresh jalapeño pepper (wear rubber gloves when cutting)

1/2 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned

1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Most of the work in this dish is in the chopping and mincing of the ingredients. A corn stripper speeds up the job.

DIRECTIONS

Cover a 10-inch skillet with oil. Cook the onion in the oil over medium heat until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Add zucchini, bell pepper, and raw corn. If the corn is already cooked, add it at the end just to warm it.
Cook the vegetables for 2-3 minutes until softened.

NOTE: I had a baby eggplant from the garden so I added it along with zucchini. This is a very forgiving recipe. You can take liberties with the ingredients and quantities, depending on what you have available.

Add jalapeño pepper, tomato, and cooked corn.
Stir in the cumin and coriander. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan combines her passion for food and detection in her Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manager Val and her live-wire grandfather, who solve murders in a historic town near the Chesapeake Bay. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. Visit her website for book news, five-ingredient recipes, mystery trivia, and a free culinary mystery story. Sign up for her newsletter to enter a drawing for a free book. One subscriber receives a free book each time a newsletter comes out.

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GIVEAWAY

The winner can choose between these books. There's a clue-filled eerie house in both of them.  

Crypt Suzette: When a deliberate murder masquerades as an accident after a Halloween costume party, it takes Granddad's ghost-busting, Val's haunted house visit, and a Halloween ruse to rip the mask off a killer. 

The Tell-Tale Tarte: A dead-of-winter eerie tale. When an actor famed for his role as Edgar Allan Poe is murdered, the search for his killer takes Val and Granddad to a Poe-inspired author’s creepy “House of Usher” and to the cemetery where Poe is buried. 

Leave a comment about corn or candy corn with your e-mail address by Sept 17 for a chance to win your choice of a haunting Five-Ingredient Mystery. The book giveaway applies to US addresses only.