vegetable tian

To recover from a busy month of birthday food and eating on the   run, I made the vegetable tian from Barefoot in Paris. Um, yes, it was a month ago...I am playing catch-up now but hope to have my ducks in a row soon. 

I was surprised to realize that this is only the second recipe I've tried from Barefoot in Paris, the other being boeuf bourguinon <...happy memories of chuck stewed in wine...>. It was, of course, supereasy, delicious (even better the next day), and (I thought) very pretty. I had never heard of a "tian," so I looked it up in the Larousse. A tian is one of those foods, like a tagine or a gratin, that is named after the dish it is traditionally prepared in. Larousse did not clarify how it differs from a gratin--to me it looks to be exactly the same thing. In any event, slices of vegetables (in this case, zucchini, tomatoes, and potatoes) are layered on top of sauteed onions, sprinkled with thyme and olive oil, and popped in the oven. The veg came out succulent and sunny-tasting, as in a good ratatouille.

Yesterday afternoon I took a nap instead of braving the crowds at Fairway. Not having procured the cream, goat cheese, haricots verts, and arugula needed to mess with an Alice Waters pasta recipe that had been selected when the day was young and ambition was in the air, we were left with cauliflower, potatoes, broccoli, and bulgar wheat for dinner. The cauliflower and potatoes got mustard seed and cumin, the broccoli got plenty of butter, and the bulgar wheat, in its debut performance on my plate, got rave reviews. The all-veggie dinner was as satisfying and almost as yummy as last week's tuna with tapenade.