Tomato and gruyere clafoutis
A recipe from Tenderheart
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary. Find archived recipes on my recipe index.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
Tomato season, and Summer, can often feel overwhelming. We are constantly trying to catch that feeling of permanence, knowing that this unbearable feeling of lightness is so fleeting. Especially in New York.
When I was traveling, I felt this urgency to get back to New York’s summer. I didn’t want to miss the tomatoes or the peaches. I missed the markets. The fear of missing out was often overbearing.
Through the deep haze of jet lag, I have eaten all the tomatoes and peaches this week. But nothing has been as great as I imagined. The donut peaches were mealy. The tomatoes were too firm, too tart. The cherries were bland. This week has been a real life reality check.
I miss things. That is who I am. The flavours of yearning mold the person that I am and permeate the food that I cook. I yearn to be back here, but I also long to be back there. I take this feeling of unrest into the next day, and into my next recipe.
This week’s clafoutis is dedicated to the flavour of summer travel and the hordes of tourists that descend upon France each summer, but specifically this one because of the Olympics. It seems everyone is offering stunning stone fruit clafoutis right now, but how about a savoury one? This tomato and gruyere clafoutis is from the tomato chapter of my book TENDERHEART and has all the custardy lightness of a sweet fruit one. Watch me make it here - the most satisfying part is squeezing those tomatoes!
I suggest clafoutis for your main and for dessert. If you are looking for a sweet clafoutis, Nik Sharma presented a lovely peach and Thai basil one last week which I’ll be trying soon.
COOK / EAT / SHARE
Did you hear? There is a new dumpling salad in town. Early reports are resoundingly positive. This time it comes with smashed cucumbers and a peanut sauce. I hope you love it. I am always aiming to give you new ideas with frozen dumplings.
There’s also a new recipe over at ABC Everyday - it’s a vegetarian kimchi jjigae with mushroom and tofu and it’s perfect for my southern hemisphere friends who are looking for something warming and dependable.
NEW YORK
I will be speaking with Priya Krishna at James Beard Foundation Platform on September 18 at 6.30pm. Bites from Tenderheart will be served and there will be books for sale. It has been a while since I have done a signing, but I’d love to see you. Tickets are available here and use discount code chefsept10 for 10% discount.
🥦 My cookbook, Tenderheart is for cooking vegetables, all year round. Pick up your copy here. It is also mostly vegan (or vegan-izable) and gluten-free adaptable.
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
Tomato and gruyere clafoutis
© excerpt from TENDERHEART by Hetty Lui McKinnon (Knopf 2023 / Plum Books 2022) for To vegetables, With Love 2024
Clafoutis, a pudding from the Limousin region of France, is usually made with cherries but often with other fruit, such as berries, apples, or pears. This silky pudding also works well as a savory dish, with tangy tomatoes at the helm. I’ve used Gruyere here as I love its nutty overtones and rich creaminess, but you could also use other cheeses that melt well, such as Comte, fontina, Gouda or brie. Take this tomato dish in another direction by adding some wilted greens (spinach or kale) and feta. It’s a fun recipe to experiment with. Tomatoes release a lot of liquid when baked so it’s important to let the clafoutis rest when it comes out of the oven, which allows everything to settle and come together.
Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
700g (1 ½ pounds) cherry or grape tomatoes
1 garlic clove, grated
sea salt and black pepper
2–3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
â…” cup (160 ml) regular whole milk or oat milk
2 eggs
50g (6 ½ tablespoons) all-purpose or gluten-free all-purpose flour
120g (4 ¼ ounces Gruyere, freshly grated
handful of sliced chives or green onions
Preheat the oven to 350˚F / 180˚C. You will need a baking dish or ovenproof skillet that is about 9 inches (23 cm) in diameter (I use a cast-iron skillet, but a rectangular baking dish works, too). Drizzle with 1–2 tablespoons of olive oil and tilt the dish or pan so the oil lightly coats the base and sides.
Place the tomatoes in a large bowl, along with the garlic, 1 teaspoon of sea salt, the thyme leaves, vinegar and sugar. Using clean hands, squeeze the tomatoes until they burst, just enough to allow some of the juices to flow out. Tip this mixture into the prepared dish or pan, and keep the bowl to use again at the next step.
Add the milk and eggs to the bowl and whisk until well combined. Add the flour, Gruyere, about 1 teaspoon of sea salt and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper. Whisk until well combined (some lumps are okay).
Pour the batter over the tomatoes and give the dish or pan a shake so it can settle among the tomatoes. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 35–40 minutes, until the center is just set, with a slight wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10–15 minutes before serving—this is important as it allows everything to meld together. Serve topped with the chives or green onion.
To Vegetables, With Love is my love letter to vegetables and it is a joy to bring you a new recipe every week. Thank you to everyone who subscribes, especially to paid subscribers who make this work possible.
Yum! Just made this but added 2 grated ears of corn, and steeped the corn cobs in the milk before adding it to the batter. Such a tasty way to use up our garden cherry tomato bounty!
Is 2 eggs really enough? Most of my clafoutis recipes use at least 3.