French Tian D' Aubergines - Gratin of Aubergines/Eggplant

"Serves four people as a main course, or six to eight people as an accompaniment or starter. A Tian is a traditional ovenproof terracotta clay dish - usually oval - which is used extensively in the south of France. Many dishes are named after this dish in which they are cooked, and this is one of them. This wonderful dish with the essence of Summer from the S.W. of France can be served hot or tepid as a main course, with a tossed green salad & crusty French bread, or as an “Amuse Gueule” with aperitifs – the literal French translation is a snack to “amuse the mouth” for the main course which follows! You can make the fresh tomato sauce yourself, but most French housewives use the readily available & superb tinned & chopped tomatoes for ease & convenience; this speeds up the preparation of the dish considerably. The béchamel type sauce would be made with “Brousse” in France – strained Cottage cheese is a good alternative. A large Aubergine would be about 500g each."
 
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photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by EdandTheresa photo by EdandTheresa
photo by EdandTheresa photo by EdandTheresa
Ready In:
1hr 15mins
Ingredients:
12
Serves:
6-8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat the oven to 450 F/230 C or Gas Mark 8.
  • Lightly grease the Tian or an oven proof dish with olive oil.
  • Cook the aubergine slices in hot olive oil, turning as necessary until they are golden brown on both sides & well cooked through. Drain them well on absorbent paper & allow to cool before assembling the Tian.
  • Cheese Custard: Beat together the cottage cheese, grated Italian cheese, eggs & crème fraiche. Season with salt & black pepper to taste.
  • Mix the tinned tomatoes with the passata & add the grated or finely chopped garlic.
  • Now you can start to assemble the Tian – start with a little of the tomato sauce & then some aubergine slices; tear the basil leaves into small pieces & scatter over with basil flowers if available. Keep layering the dish with the tomato sauce & aubergines & fresh basil until all the ingredients have been used.
  • Pour over the cheese custard & decorate with the freshly sliced tomatoes. Bake in the oven for 35 – 45 minutes until golden brown & bubbling. Allow to cool & serve in slices. Delicious with fresh green salad leaves & crusty bread.

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Reviews

  1. This is excellent-I used creme fraiche instead of sour cream-absolutely delicious. I halved the recipe and used 1 eggplant and this will feed four comfortably serving it with a nice green salad. This recipe is a total winner-the glacage or crust is the best-YUMMY!!! THANK-YOU. C'EST SI BONNE!!
     
  2. Wonderful! This is exactly what I was looking for-a lighter alternative to eggplant parmesan or lasagna. I especially loved the light custard topping and the rich tomato taste with the eggplant. Husband loved it, too- I substituted tomato paste for the passata and added lots of fresh basil. This is exactly why French cuisine rocks! Healthy, great tasting dish. I originally prepared this as a side dish, but will definitely serve it as a main course in the future. This will be great with other vegetables from the garden-can't wait! One more thing...the presentation of this dish is beautiful. I'm making this again for an office luncheon on Friday.
     
  3. Not as tasty as I expected.
     
  4. Terrific, especially for an Aubergine lover like me. Very moist and flavorful. First time cooking with clay pot, had to adjust cooking time a liitle, I think it depends on your oven also. Will make again, Thanks FT for posting.
     
  5. This is wonderful!!! THE PICKY ONE wouldn't eat it - grrr. I'd like to do this again w/out frying th eggplant because it soaks up soo much oil. BUT the end result is NOT a greasy dish! Maybe I'll just fry it anyways. ;) A fabulous dish - homey & comforting but not heavy. Thanks FT for posting!
     
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Tweaks

  1. This is excellent-I used creme fraiche instead of sour cream-absolutely delicious. I halved the recipe and used 1 eggplant and this will feed four comfortably serving it with a nice green salad. This recipe is a total winner-the glacage or crust is the best-YUMMY!!! THANK-YOU. C'EST SI BONNE!!
     
  2. Wonderful! This is exactly what I was looking for-a lighter alternative to eggplant parmesan or lasagna. I especially loved the light custard topping and the rich tomato taste with the eggplant. Husband loved it, too- I substituted tomato paste for the passata and added lots of fresh basil. This is exactly why French cuisine rocks! Healthy, great tasting dish. I originally prepared this as a side dish, but will definitely serve it as a main course in the future. This will be great with other vegetables from the garden-can't wait! One more thing...the presentation of this dish is beautiful. I'm making this again for an office luncheon on Friday.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><strong><span>The sunflowers in the field behind my house in SW France:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Sunflowers src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/DSCN8221.jpg alt=Sunflowers width=640 height=480 /><br /><strong><span><br /><br />I am British (English-Scottish), but I was born in South Africa and have lived all over the world, including Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, USA &amp; Singapore. I have also been very fortunate to have travelled extensively over the years.........I still have wanderlust! <br /><br />I used to be an English Literature &amp; Art History teacher &amp; lecturer; before that, I trained and worked as a Graphic Designer for many years. I now live in France with my husband &amp; my daughter who has just started university in September 2006. We also have one very chatty Burmese cat Willow, who allows us to live with her here! (I used to have three cats, I recently lost Monty, a beautiful seal point Siamese and before that, Rama, who was a debonair blue point Siamese cat - I would love to have another Siamese cat or cats in the future!)</span></strong></p> <p><em><strong><span>This is my Burmese Cat, Willow, sunning herself on the log pile in the kitchen garden:</span></strong></em></p> <p><strong><img title=My src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/ABaconButtyandSundryFoodPhotos34.jpg alt=My width=640 height=480 /></strong></p> <p><strong><span>Here is my lovely Monty, a seal point Siamese, and Willow, sitting&nbsp;in the kitchen garden last year, and a few months before Monty died; he was 18yrs old:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Monty src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/AbsolutelySinfulStickyToffeePudding.jpg alt=Monty width=640 height=480 />My</p> <p><strong><span>This is my wonderful old boy, Rama, a blue-point Siamese, who died when he was 20yrs old - excuse the old and much sellotaped photo:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Rama src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/Rama1stOctober2004164.jpg alt=Rama width=517 height=639 /></p> <p><strong><span>My favourite pastimes are: reading, writing, painting &amp; drawing, photography, gardening, anything creative, walking, travelling, dining out and of course COOKING! I love all types of cuisine, but especially Traditional British - and NO it is NOT all bad!! I particularly love food associated with the changing seasons plus traditional feasts &amp; festivals, as well as Slow Cooking. I also enjoy French &amp; North African cuisine, come to think of it, there isn't much I don't like! <br /><br />My husband &amp; I run a Chambres D'Hotes, (Bed and Breakfast) called Auberge de la Fontaine here in beautiful South West France; we specialise in Gourmet Food &amp; Wine Breaks, French Antiques &amp; Restoration courses, French Language courses and French Cookery classes. Our home is completely furnished with Antique French furniture that we have rescued &amp; restored ourselves. Our charming village has one of the oldest Churches in the region &amp; it is famous for its connection with the St.Jacques de Compostella Pilgrimage route, as well as being within the Cognac &amp; Bordeaux wine growing area. <br /><br />We have a wonderful garden where we grow ALL of our own herbs and most of our fruit and vegetables. I specialise in rare, unusual and old-fashioned herbs, which I grow in our walled garden. As well as growing herbs, I also grow many different varieties of lavender, old-fashioned shrub roses and heirloom fruit and vegetables. <br /><br />We have lived overseas for many, many years now - but we both still love going home to Northern England, near Scarborough &amp; York, to visit our family &amp; friends. We also love indulging in dining out when we are there, in a wide variety of EXCELLENT Gastro-Pubs that we have in North Yorkshire; and popping in to have a Pint of REAL ENGLISH ALE in our local pub is a always a must!! <br /></span></strong></p> <p><br /><a href=http://photobucket.com/images/merci%20beaucoup target=_blank><img src=http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp287/vi-vie15/Merci/hb09izl7.gif border=0 alt=merci /></a> <br /><br /><strong><span>A Message to all who make and review my recipes! I try very hard to reply to EACH and EVERYONE of you who kindly makes, reviews and photographs my recipes! However, sometimes I am so busy in the B and B, and with other things, that I may be late in sending a personal thank you message, and sometimes I forget completely! I would just like to thank you ALL in advance, and just in case I am late or forgetful in sending a personal thanks. I am always very humbled by anyone who chooses to make one of my recipes, and I love reading the reviews and seeing the beautiful photos that are posted. Merci beaucoup encore! <br /><br />A note about my recipes. All of my posted recipes, whether they be my own concoctions or adaptations from a book or a famous chef, have been tried and tested at least once, by ME! I try to make sure that I am the guinea pig and not you! However, if there is anything you would like ask me about one of my recipes, or a query that I may be able to help you with, please do write and I will try to answer your question as soon as possible. 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