ZUCCHINI GRATIN

Gratin de courgette tricolore aux deux chèvres, or put it otherwise: Gratin of three-color zucchini with two kinds of goat cheese.

This is a very easy and very complete (vegetables, proteins, cheese) dish with an arugula (for instance) salad as a side. It can also be made with eggplants, or a mix of eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes.

This is a gratin using a “migaine”, a French word, or exactly a word from Lorraine, designating a mix of egg and cream, used in quiches for instant, or in “lorraine tourt”.

1/ The zucchinis: I used a beautiful three-color zucchini (dark green, light green, and yellow), I cut it in big dices after having removed the seeded central part (our hens love this part). I threw those dices in an oven dish, with (a lot of) fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, savory, sage in this case), olive oil, cayenne, piment d’Espelette and salt, tossing the whole so that the zucchini dices would absorb the herb flavors conveyed by the oil. I roasted them for 30 minutes at 350F.

2/ The “migaine”: I used 4 (but it can be reduced to 3) eggs, heavy cream (1/2 cup maybe), Dijon mustard (#2 tbsp, I like the bite it brings to this kind of gratin or quiche) and a full package (3 oz) of fresh goat cheese from McKenzie. I blended the whole with an immersion blender, and added grated nutmeg, piment d’Espelette and salt.

3/ The gratin: when the zucchini dices are cooked (step 1), I let them cool down, so that the migaine didn’t start cooking unevenly, removed the herbs, and I recuperated the olive oil/juice rendered by the zucchini (otherwise, the migaine would be too liquid, even after cooking). This is not wasted at all: I mixed this juice with verjuice, and this will make a fabulous vinaigrette (or rather ”verjuicette”) for the arugula salad served as a side. When the zucchini dices are cooled enough, I pour equally the migaine in the dish. It should just cover the zucchini dices. Cooked at 350 for around 20 minutes, till the migaine “cured” and took a nice “caramel” color.

4/ The finishing: I topped the migaine with few thin zucchini slices and “scallops” of “Bûcheron” goat cheese (little tip, to scallop the goat cheese, I first froze it for 10/15 minutes and make cylinders with a cookie cut and sliced those cylinders in two again), and brushed them with the recuperated juice. Added a few herbs (basil), drizzled some grated nutmeg and piment d’Espelette (can you tell that I love this one?) and roasted the whole at 400F for 5/10 minutes (visual check), plus broiled for an additional 2/3 minutes (idem, visual check) at 500F to grill the top goat cheese and zucchini scallops.

Served with an arugula / cherry tomatoes / “verjuicette” salad and a glass of rosé de Provence, this is superb. Even my stepdaughter who doesn’t like zucchinis loved it