Chicken Ratatouille

Ratatouille is actually a French peasant dish, made famous by the animated feature of the same name. It is a stew of summer vegetables such as courgettes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, onion and garlic. This version is inspired by the show "Chef at Home", with chef Michael Smith, but of course with me, I liked my meat, so hence the addition of chicken. Obviously not traditional anymore, I decided to add a bit of other 'stew' favours to it to make an all-in-one dish. This is also the first time I bring out my pressure cooker, since I have a fear of it exploding in my face. However, I really did want the meat to fall off the bone, and for the vegs to be so meltingly soft, but obviously I don't want to spend a very long time stewing over a slow fire.

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 large chicken thighs
1 carrot
1 aubergine
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 red pepper
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 handfull barley
1 handfull soya beans
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1) Soak the soya beans overnight to soften, and throw away the soaking water the next day. Change to a fresh cup of water and soak for another hour.
2) Dice the carrot, aubergine, peppers and onion.
3) Throw everything into the pot - onion, garlic, chicken, vegs, herbs, can of tomatoes, barley, soyabeans, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour in the cup of water used to soak the soya beans
4) Snap on the lid and follow pressure cooker instructions - mine took only 1/2 hour and everything was done, meat falling off bone and vegs meltingly soft. I scraped off the meat and discarded the bones.
5) To serve, I tossed in crusty bread to soak up the juices. The bread puffed up wonderfully and was a delightful.

You could also cook the conventional method -
1) brown the chicken, remove
2) fry up the aromatics and vegs,
3) add back the chicken, pour in the can of tomatoes
4) add the herbs and soaking water
5) bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and low simmer for 2 hrs until everything is soft.