Provence & the Midi · Side
Tian de Courgettes au Riz
- Easy
- 25 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, fresh herbs arguing happily on top, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg courgettes, coarsely grated
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 100 g short grain rice, uncooked
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 80 ml olive oil, plus more for the top
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 60 g hard sheep's cheese made with vegetarian rennet, grated
- 2 tbsp chopped basil
- Black pepper
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned
Allergen screen
Found: dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Salt the grated courgette, leave it 20 minutes, then wring it out hard in a cloth over a bowl and keep the green juice. 20 min
- Soften the onion and garlic in the olive oil without letting them colour, add the courgette and cook until it stops steaming and begins to catch on the pan.
- Stir in the raw rice, the reserved juice topped up with water to 200 ml, then the eggs, cheese, basil and plenty of pepper.
- Spread it no deeper than 4 cm in an oiled earthenware tian, trickle oil over the surface and bake at 180C (350F) until the top is crusted brown and a knife comes out clean, about 50 minutes. 50 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre)
- Also Right
- Grüner Veltliner
- From the Taps
- Berliner weisse
- Zero-Proof
- Cucumber-lime water
Green plates want green wines: vinaigrette’s acid meets its match, and the difficult vegetables surrender to Grüner.
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