Recent Zucchini Experiments
I still cannot seem to get the right ratio of ingredients to form nice thick zucchini fritters. I think I'm over processing the zucchini, so will attempt hand shredding next. My last attempt ended up so loose, I decided to just make as savory mini breads. Heck, yeah. These were delicious! Now to remember what I did to recreate. I made some bruschetta topping with the last handful of grape tomatoes from my plant and a few from the farmers market, and put dollops on individual slices as part of a simple supper.
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| Two little savory loaves. |
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| With a little bruschetta topping. |
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| With cucumber. |
Besides the savory loaves, I baked four more sweet quick breads. I was running out of a lot of seasonings and extracts so used pumpkin pie spice and loads of cinnamon. Zucchini and pumpkin are in the same family, right? It worked and now I know another combination when I thaw the tub of blitzed zucchini from the freezer later this fall. I froze a few loaves and am sending I e with my daughter when she visits friends.
There was one last decent shaped zucchini from the batch she gifted me Sunday. It wasn't quite overgrown like marrow, but I knew it would be quite watery and wouldn't roast well. Instead, I diced in about 1/2 inch chunks, tossed with olive oil, garlic, onion powder, and Italian seasoning, a handful of bread crumbs, the last of a bag of fried onions, put in a baking dish and got kind of a scalloped zucchini dish. I topped more bread crumbs after baking for 25 minutes, baking another 10, to give it a little more crunch and better appearance. Now I love zucchini just about any way, but this appealed to my son who often doesn't like vegetable recipes with added ingredients, preferring just the straight up vegetable, roasted or steamed. 
More massive zucchini picked this morning.
I'll pick more when it's a bit dryer later
and I can really tuck into her garden bed.
My daughter truly got the zucchini "seed" that turns into a hundreds of pounds of veg. Finding more ways to use them will help our health and budget. I'll always be grateful to my mom, my brothers wife and a few home economics teachers for giving me basic kitchen knowledge. I'm pretty adept at rescuing a fail to something, if not delicious, at least acceptable. Sometimes the "fail" happens before the final product like in the case of the zucchini fritters. Knowing that I could modify to something else meant no waste and a new recipe.
I think lots of us older women probably have good kitchen skills, learned from our mothers and grandmothers. My Mum could make something out of nothing, we never went hungry (although I suspect she did on a few occasions, preferring to make sure we kids were fed when she had no money). Although Mum never actually taught me to cook (she didn't like 'interference' in her kitchen), I must have learnt a lot from just watching her. I'll be forever grateful to her. Your courgette (zucchini) loaves look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are all pretty good cooks, including my son, though the older daughter is probably the one that is much more adaptable. She eats plant based so to avoid processed vegan food, she makes so many things herself. I pretty much always make my breads vegan- flax seed "eggs" are always available. No one has ever turned down my bread because it's vegan.
DeleteYum! Your zucchini bread and bruschetta looks delicious! I am going to miss all the garden goodies. I haven't been able to make good fritters either. I've tried making them in the air fryer to see if that helped, but they still end up gooey. Let us know if you discover the secret.
ReplyDeleteIn hindsight, perhaps another 5 minutes of baking was probably in order but I reheat in the air fryer so that sort of finished baking the slightly underbaked area.
DeleteI use a cheese grater to shred my zucchini. I have several I need to turn into my zucchini relish. I may attempt that today, then it has to sit in pickling salt overnight, get rinsed thoroughly, and the relish made and canned. Hahahah…circa 2014 my husband was in the hospital for four days due to a misdiagnosed UTI presenting as a stroke. I just put the zucchini in the pickling salt when he went to the hospital. In any case, at the end of day 2, we knew he was in the mend. On the morning of day 3, I phoned his room to tell him I was on my way, but wouldn’t be there until the relish was finished and out of the canner. . He said “Great! I’d hate to see that all go to waste!”
ReplyDelete(-Meg B.)
DeleteOoh, pickled zucchini. Interesting. How do you serve it? ( And speaking of interesting food, Greece can always accommodate another in Match).
DeleteI don’t pickle it per se, but make this recipe:
Deletehttps://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/172346/sweet-zucchini-relish/?lr_input=93f52dc06b7bbeb06175a010ded469b408b5cf88934dc4c57951e0a651f95d9d&kw=myrecipes&_gl=1*cd9o7b*_ga*MjA1Nzk4NTgwNy4xNzU2NTE0OTE3*_ga_DK3GDWHWJH*czE3NTcwMzc1MDckbzIkZzEkdDE3NTcwMzc1MjAkajQ3JGwwJGgw
Also…you know you can freeze shredded zucchini in a freezer bag? I shred it and freeze it in amounts for zucchini bread. Just let it thaw in a colander and drain before using.
ReplyDelete-Meg B.
Oh yes, that's what I've been doing. I have six cups so far, three recipes of bread though I tend to double it. I'm hoping to get those big ones processed. I got loss leaders at my daughter's town grocery store so needed her freezer until I go home. I see she has bags and bags of frozen zucchini chunks, ready for roasting, soups, curries once the fresh have run their course. I'm so proud of her for keeping those beds going.
DeleteUse that biggie for stuffed baked zucchini. Peel if the skin is tough. Split in half, seed it and fill with a mixture of corn, black beans, gr beef/turkey, cheese and "dressed" with great salsa. I add more cheese on top the last 5" in the oven. This reheats terrific!
ReplyDeleteThat's sounds really delicious.
DeleteI make shredded zucchini "nests" put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer, and once frozen put them in a gallon ip lock bag. Each "nest" is about a cup of shredded zucchini. To use in baking all I have to do is thaw and press out the excess liquid than I am good to go.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea. I have a ton to get processed so will borrow that idea.
DeleteOh yum, that all sounds delicious! I love being able to make it work in my kitchen too thanks to the cooks in my family who showed me the way. You did good, Sam. Zucchini is definitely healthy and budget friendly and how neat that your son enjoyed the dish too.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely additional fiber. He's a purest with his vegetables normally- no sauces etc.
DeleteI was so glad we had "home economics" at school as it really lit an interest in cooking in me. Not long after I left high school they stopped it but I was delighted to hear that it's back on the curriculum, in Dorset at least, and has been for many years. You can't (or shouldn't) raise kids on McDonalds even if you can afford it!
ReplyDeleteIt's an elective now and so many kids don't take it either because their schedule won't allow or just choose not to because they think they won't need. It's where I learned the universal hotdish recipe- starch, protein, veg, binder and optional "goodie".
DeleteI love making sweet zucchini breads, including one that mixes bananas and zukes. I am SO ENVIOUS of your fridge shot of your zucchini harvest: mine this year was a bust!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter got the zucchini luck for sure and I'm riding her coattails.
DeleteThose savoury loaves look delicious.
ReplyDeleteThey salvaged the fritter disaster.
DeleteThat's exactly the kind of thing my mother, a gardener, used to do. She was very creative and frugal, too!
ReplyDeleteI'm not gardener but with food so expensive, we all have to be creative.
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