and I was really hungry tonight after a long workout, and decided to have the Rice with Chicken Ratatouille from 2004. I was slightly leery to the dents in the can, but this came from Housil who stores his stuff in the utmost climate controlled conditions and for all I know, the little dents happened during shipping. Wasn't worried -and gave it a shot.
Before my verbose commentary (what else is new?
), let's get the translated ingredients list:Rice with chicken ratatouille:
Mixture of vegetables (30% tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, onions and peppers)
water, cooked chicken meat (22.5%), dry rice (12.5%), sunflower oil, margarine, salt, preservatives: E200, E202, acidulant: e330, flavor (milk sugar), coloring: E160a, concentrated tomato puree, salt, garlic, starch by tender, pepper aroma, Provencal herbs, thyme and bay leaf.
Calories: 428
Protein: 21.2 grams
fat: 16 grams 8
carbohydrates: 48 grams
Content 400 grams
Directions: 10-15 minutes in boiling water to heat the meal can be eaten hot or cold.
Production date: May 7th, 2004
Best by: November 11th, 2006
--I personally opted to not boil water to heat the can - instead, I threw it in a skillet and sauteed it. Not 100% following the directions, but I feel it turned out better this way.
And boy was this an incredible meal! Where do I start? It smelled perfect upon opening. I picked up the undertones of tomato, green peppers, and chicken right away. It smelled very fresh and was just screaming to be tossed into the frying pan and get the special treatment it deserved.
I kinda "cheated" and added some olive oil (I put olive oil on everything.. I can't help myself), half tablespoon of scorpion pepper hot sauce, a dash of dried scorpion chile powder, and a teaspoon of salt.
Would recommend if you want to "doctor up" any Rations - do so! Noone will fault you for wanting to take a great thing and make it even better. And in this case, it brought this entree to life - back to it's glory of a tad over 11 years ago.. back when MREinfo was a new and budding website. The good ol' days!
The smell upon cooking it was incredible, the undertones of tomato, green peppers, and chicken became 5x stronger, smelling like a freshly cooked meal that my mom would make or something. Absolutely enticing blend of layered smell - savory, spicy, and truly delicious.
So when I plated it, the anticipation was brimming - and this came to a crescendo of food enjoyment upon those first bites. Since I added the olive oil and spices - it brought out the original flavors in such a way that I found to be most enjoyable.
Where do I begin? The chicken was of high quality - dark meat is my favorite kind of chicken for starters - wholesome "real" pieces of meat that were not overly processed and the texture was that of fresh, not canned chicken. 11 years old?
Coulda' fooled me on that! Someone could pass this as not just freshly cooked, but fresh ingredients that were not even canned (except maybe the tomatoes but that is perfectly acceptable). That's how it seemed to me at least.
The rice was not overcooked, nor undercooked - the texture was great and the olive oil I added gave a certain enhancement of moisture and wholesomeness that took it up a notch.
Vegetables were not slimy, too dry, or too strong in flavor - just right, really! The tomato as previously mentioned seemed like a high quality commercial grade canned, yet they were palatable far beyond my expectations.
Overall, I feel this was an awesome Ration entree, and would have it again anytime.
Thanks so much, Housil for sharing this with me!
