Guest Blogger: Dan's Gratin

Former Aubergenius sous-chef and accomplished amateur cook Dan Wang contributes the following entry on vegetable (+eggplant!) gratin.

This vegetable gratin - which I made first for myself and then for the Aubergenius a week later - is from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home. It's very simple, but, as always with Keller, it can become tremendously refined if everything is balanced and sliced exactly.

The onions and garlic are cooked really slowly for a good 20-30 minutes (with thyme) so they don't brown: this forms the base of the gratin.

 Then you slice (absolutely equally) the japanese eggplant, roma tomatoes, various zucchini, squash.

 These are laid out in rows with a heavy sprinkling of breadcrumbs mixed with fresh grated parmesan between each. 

If the veggies are sliced exactly equally, the bite of each should be absolutely the same - slightly al dente, slightly creamy - which should match the bite/creaminess of the onions and result in a harmonious texture.

So, a great prep exercise and a great challenge to keep coming back to. Plus, a tasty dish with eggplant in it.

I (Aubergenius, and therefore not in italics) can attest that this dish is really tasty, especially with an imaginary sour cream/horseradish mixture that we didn't actually eat it with because I couldn't make it to the store beforehand. But we agreed that it would probably taste good.