Zucchini and Rice Tian

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I came across this recipe while looking to vary my roster of casseroles/sawani. I knew in my heart that the internet could and would deliver a way to jazz up both zucchinis AND rice AND a way to satisfy the frequent bleats of ever-hungry vegetarian loved ones and large sahel crowds alike. It’s also very light and can be made vegan by omitting cheese and substituting vegetable stock or non-dairy milk.  

A tian is a sort of French tagin, and the most well-known of them is tian provencal, a fancy torley. But this one, tian de courgette au riz, is a comforting, risotto-like dish that will absolutely make you come off like a chic tante.

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 kg zucchini
• ▢ 1 yellow onion, finely diced 
• ▢ 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ▢ 3 tbsp olive oil
• ▢ 2 cups milk (a standard glass tea mug is about a cup)
• ▢ 2/3 cups Old Amsterdam (or roomy) cheese, grated
• ▢ 1/2 cup rice, uncooked
• ▢ 2 tbsp flour
• ▢ 1 tsp MSG (malh seeny)
• ▢ 2 tsp salt
• ▢ Black pepper
• ▢ coarse breadcrumbs 

Optional topping: bacon bits

Directions: 

1. Heat the oven to any temperature.
2. Grate the zucchini into a colander set over a bowl. It’s best to outsource this sweaty work to someone else wandering through your kitchen, preferably someone with a moustache to catch the sweat. Add the two teaspoons of salt to the grated zucchini and mix well, then place a heavy pot or other weight on a paper napkin on top of the zucchini to help squeeze out the zucchini juice, which you will use later. Get the moustached person to jump on it a bit. Wait an hour.
3. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic and with a couple spoonfuls of oil in a large pot or saucepan for about eight minutes. Add MSG, a much-maligned salt that turned out to actually be a source of umami. It’s a cheap, safe and easy way to add flavor, especially to vegan dishes. 
4. Add the grated zucchini to the pot and cook for about ten minutes, and then add the flour and cook for another two minutes, stirring frequently the whole time. 
5. Remove from heat. Add all but 2 tbsp of the cheese and black pepper and stir quickly to combine. Add the half cup of rice to the pot. 
6. Top up the zucchini juice (there should be about half a cup’s worth) with enough milk (I prefer semi-skimmed) to make two and a half cups of liquid, and add it to the pot.
7. Mix it all well and pour the mixture into a black-bottomed baking dish, and top it with the remaining shredded cheese and breadcrumbs. Everything should really be topped with breadcrumbs in a just world. 
8. Cover the dish with foil and sling it into the oven for about twenty minutes, and then uncover and bake for another fifteen minutes. I also like to turn on the broiler for another ten minutes after that until the top is brown. Why are ovens where you can turn on the top AND bottom at the same time a rare occurrence here though? I bought a giant toaster oven to that end, the top heating element immediately broke, and an indignant man in a factory in 10th of Ramadan City asked me to bring it to them on the off chance they could replace it, a sacred mystery that could not be discovered via telephone. I just use the slightly warm top of that toaster oven to soften butter now.
9. Slice and serve, topped with optional bacon bits for zing. People will have two pieces each, and leftovers make an amazing breakfast with fried eggs. 

Dedicated to Rajia, who loves tian more than anyone, and who took the good pictures.