Tian Time

The first year I planted a big vegetable garden I had an abundance of eggplants, tomatoes and peppers. That is when I discovered tians. Tians are layered French vegetable dishes. There are all sorts of variations and one of the fun things about this dish is that it almost always comes out differently. They can be made with any variation of vegetables, cheese and herbs.



I harvest whichever herbs I have at the moment and slice them very thin.


I shred all of the cheese before slicing the vegetables. I almost always use gruyere or jarlsburg or swiss or a combination of them. Goat cheese would also be good especially if you are using pesto.


This year I decided to use a layer of thin potatoes as a crust. I've never done this before.


I put a thin layer of the potatoes down first.


Then sprinkled them with cracked pepper and sea salt.


Then sprinkled a layer of cheese over top.


I use a mandolin to cut my vegetables uniformly.


For this tian I used raw onions. When I have lots of peppers available, I saute' the onions with garlic and peppers and s&p.


Time to sprinkle some of the fresh herbs.


Then add a layer of zucchini.


Then a layer of eggplant.


And sprinkle more cheese.


More herbs... You get the picture!

More onions.


Cheese again.


Zucchini.


Just keep layering until you run out of ingredients.


I topped this with some sliced red onion. This is a good way to clean out your cheese and vegetable bins.


When I have tomatoes I add layers of them in the tian. I only had some cherry tomatoes so I added them on top along with some kalamata olives. I always top them off by covering them with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.


These bake at 350 degrees until golden and bubbling around the edges. You can see where the liquid begins to thicken around the edges. It takes about an hour depending on the size.


Here is a slice right out of the oven. These are better when you let them sit a bit before serving. They are also good at room temperature. This is when we should have smell-o-vision. I swear my neighbors can sniff a tian out 3 blocks away! The proof is, I get tian inquiries. I received emails from neighbors who casually asked if I will be making tians any time soon. They read something like: Hey, what are you up to? This weather is awful. How is Teddy? Are your tomatoes ready yet and will you be making tians this year?



I get the hint!


Tians to go.


I don't blame them. These are pretty hard to resist and slightly addictive.


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