Juste pour s’amuser – Flan de courgettes, aux olives, feta et menthe à la vinaigrette de tomates anciennes

You can make those just for the fun of it because they’re so easy and quick to make. Those cute flans have been always a favorite of mine and whoever tried them too. They are addictive and once you’ve made them, you will keeping making them over and over again just because they’re so quick to make and for such a fasted prepared meal, the result is worth the effort. Sometimes, it happens you spent so many hours cooking and then when it’s time to eat, you realize that all that time cooking was not worth it, because the result ended up just ordinary. This is not the case.

I did some research to find out what was the right translation for the word heirloom in French since I have never seen them over there, and weirdly enough, it’s literally translated by “ancient tomatoes” or tomates anciennes. I have never seen them in France in supermarkets but seems like they do exist, so I would imagine it’s something that had been introduced recently to the market.

Anyway, I bought one giant yellow tomato that weighted 1 lb, it was huge and was enough to use in a few recipes. You might want to use a red tomato instead of a yellow one, the contrasts will be much prettier since the flans are already on the yellowish tone, here it looks like yellow on yellow. I have always learnt that you just don’t wear the same tones of colors together…and what works for clothes, works for food too. Colors and just colors after all.

The tomato vinaigrette is a great and refreshing way to accompany this kinds of dishes, and I use it quite often.

Ingredients for 6 flans

For the flans

• 3 small zucchini, grated
• 6 tbs feta
• 12 mint leaves, roughly chopped
• about 8 kalamata olives, roughly chopped
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbs heavy cream
• 4 tbs milk
• salt and pepper

For the heirloom tomato vinaigrette

• 3 medium heirloom tomatoes, grated
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the zucchini flans

Grate zucchini. Squeeze water with your hands and place in a container. In small silicon molds (you can get any shape you want) place about 1 tps zucchini, then add feta, olives and mint. Proceed with zucchini and with the other ingredients for a second layer.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with milk and cream, salt and pepper.

Pour on top of the zucchini layers filling all molds equally.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30 min or until the flans are slightly browned and cooked in the middle.

For the tomato vinaigrette

Cut the tomatoes crosswise and remove seeds. Using a cheese grater, grate tomato halves and place in a container. Add olive oil, cayenne pepper, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Place one flan per plate and spoon about 1 tbs of tomato vinaigrette around it.

Appetizers, Side Dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian - dairy