Vegetable Confit with Accordion Potatoes

I love slow cooked vegetables. I came across a recipe for a Vegetable Tian in Laura Calder’s “French Taste” cookbook. What caught my attention was how she described it as a Vegetable Confit. For those who don’t know, a Confit is usually referring to duck legs that are submerged in duck fat, and slowly cooked in the oven. Can you say heavenly? I can! Here, it refers to all these vegetables cooking away in their own juices and olive oil until they just slump into each other and kind of become one mass. There are very few other flavoring agents in this recipe besides the vegetables themselves. I adapted this recipe a little and made it in the crockpot, to ensure a high level of confit-ness! There are no real measurements here, but it’s good to start with one of each of these vegetables:

Onion
Zucchini
Eggplant
Orange Pepper
Yellow Pepper
Tomato
1) Slice all vegetables to relatively the same thickness.

2) Sautee the onions briefly until they get soft.

3) Putting the onions in first, layer everything in the crockpot however you like. One vegetable per layer, alternating colors – whatever! You’re the artist. Save the tomatoes for the very top, though. Salt and pepper every few layers, and at the end generously drizzle olive oil over everything.

4) Crockpot on low, for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4. If you want to do this in the oven, it’s 450 for about an hour.

Now of course a good accompaniment to ANY dish that is lacking in fill-you-up power is the wonderful potato. These accordian potatoes are also super easy and they just look so fancy.
1) Cut your potatoes width-ways, slicing every centimetre or so, not quite cutting through the bottom.
2) Shove herbs in a few of the crevices - thyme, parsley, bay leaves - drizzle generously with olive oil, and salt and pepper.
3) Roast for about 45 minutes at 375.