Author Topic: Zucchini!!  (Read 7994 times)

shotski

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #15 on: July 11, 2013, 07:48:59 PM »
I will ask my mother-in-law for her rubra recipe.  If you are an anchovy fan, I better post you our regional recipes for acciughe al verde and acciughe al rosso (red ad green sauce for anchovies). 

This winter I will also give you a recipe for bagna cauda...I promise you will love it!

I would like those recipes as well if you don't mind.

jwalker

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #16 on: July 12, 2013, 12:54:18 PM »
I will ask my mother-in-law for her rubra recipe.  If you are an anchovy fan, I better post you our regional recipes for acciughe al verde and acciughe al rosso (red ad green sauce for anchovies). 

This winter I will also give you a recipe for bagna cauda...I promise you will love it!

If it's from Italy , I'm sure I will love it !

I've never been much of a traveler , we used to drive to Mexico every winter for a month or two , but we are retiring very soon and my dream is to come over to Italy , Spain , and Portugal , with Italy on the top of the list , I plan to sample all the regional dishes I can get.

Thanks for sharing.

Ananke

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #17 on: September 13, 2013, 02:50:32 PM »
My courgettes/zuccini are finally coming to an end now.

My freezer is full of "Posh Mac n Cheese" sauce portions that should see us through the winter.  Really easy to make and freezes well.

Diced bacon or bacon lardons fried up in some veg oil, remove bacon from the pan and retain the now flavoured oil and fry diced courtette, remove from the pan and fry diced onion and chopped garlic.  Add all the veg to a good strong cheese sauce and mix with Mac :)

Geodyne

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #18 on: September 13, 2013, 08:47:26 PM »
If anyone is still having trouble with a zucchini excess, try caramelised zucchini. I make these the same way I make traditional caramelised onions. It works well with any sized zucchini or squash you have in the house.

Take as many zucchini as you have - up to several kilos, depending on the size of your pan. Cut in half lengthwise, then into 1/4-inch slices.
Heat half a cup of olive oil per kilo of zucchini in the largest frypan (or stockpot) you have over low heat. I use a giant, 24-cm saute pan. Add the zucchini, then add a sprig of bay leaves, two sprigs of rosemary, and a handful of fresh thyme sprigs. Cook these over the lowest heat you can, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, for several hours to all day, until the zucchini caramelise and brown and reduce to a thick paste. You want to cook the sugars in the zucchini rather than brown the outside with the oil.  If you have more zucchini than you can fit in your pot, you can add fresh zucchini as the mix cooks down.  Add more oil if required to stop sticking. At this stage salt to taste.

You can also add onions, garlic and chillies to taste to round the flavour.

This paste is rich and delicious and freezes really well and makes a great substitute for pesto in pasta recipes, as a topping for pizza, or in stews. I grow a lot of zucchinis precisely so I can make a big batch or two of this each year, so we can enjoy a bit of summer in the darker months.

Ananke

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #19 on: September 14, 2013, 12:27:53 AM »
That sounds absolutely delicious, I'll definately be trying that :D

SpargePervert

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #20 on: September 14, 2013, 10:16:55 AM »
Zucchini / Courgette pakora

I cant remember the exact recipe, but this came up on google  seems about right.
This is good if you have zucchini overload, because it tastes so different.  O0


Ingredients:
2 cups gram (garbanzo or chickpea) flour
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
2 cups of zucchini
1 cup of cilantro, chopped
oil
Instructions:
1. Slice the zucchini into small pieces or grate it.
2. Stir the flour, salt and spices together and then add the water. Stir until it forms a dough.
3. Add the cilantro and zucchini to the dough.
4. Drop spoonfuls of the dough into hot oil to fry them. When they're finished, let them cool on a paper towel.

If you dont want to deep fry, then you can make flattened pate shapes and fry with v little oil.

Leaf

  • Guest
Re: Zucchini!!
« Reply #21 on: September 25, 2013, 08:24:06 AM »
If anyone is still looking, in Quebec we have the traditional "Courgettes farcies" (Stuffed Zucchinis) which is very easy to make in a large array of declinations. My mother makes a vegetarian one, but there is so many possibilities.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

- 2 zucchini
- 1 clove of garlic (... the small ones and not the whole clove, it should give you about half a teaspoon when crushed)
- 1/2 onion
- 1/2 tomato
- 1/4 to 1/3 crushed almonds, depending how much you like it (it will add a nice crunchy texture to an otherwise soft dish)
- some herbs (I suggest oregano and marjoram, but truly you put in what you feel like or what you have in your cupboards!)
- salt and pepper
- breadcrumbs
- cheese ! we like to use grated medium-to-old cheddar, but nearly anything will fit -- parmesan, "American" mozzarella, emmental/gruyère, edam... I'm pretty sure goat would do nice too... try not to use something too flavourful that would drown the taste of the vegetables (blue cheese ?) or else too bland that would wash it out (ricotta ?), but otherwise any leftovers of your cheese-of-the-week should be fine. :P


Recipe:

1 - Pre-heat your oven to 300°F. Line a small dish with aluminium (or oil it if you prefer).
2- Cut your zucchinis in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and a bit of the zucchini itself (there should be about half an inch of zucchini left around the hole), so that you will have a nice space to fill later. Save what you took out, chop it in small pieces and put it in a bowl.
3 - Finely chop the garlic, onion and tomato, then add it to the zucchini seeds and mix well. Add the crushed almonds, the herbs, the pepper and a small bit of salt (if your cheese is salty enough, you won't even need it) and mix again.
4 - Lay your zucchini in the aluminium-lidded dish and fill the hole with your mix of vegetables.
5 - If the cheese you chose to use mixes well with breadcrumbs (parmesan, romano, etc.), mix it now, then lay it on top of the now-stuffed zucchinis. If you chose a cheese that will melt instead, put a thin layer of breadcrumbs on top of the zucchinis, then add enough cheese to cover it all. (The breadcrumbs are there to absorb moisture from the tomatoes so that the cooked dish won't be over mushy. You could add some to the vegetable mix instead of laying it on top of them, it's as you feel like.)
6 - Put the dish in the oven and cook it for about 45 to 60 minutes (or pre-heat to 355°F and cook half an hour if you're in a hurry). Check it out sometimes and if the cheese melts and becomes crisp too quickly, put an aluminium sheet on top of it, that you will remove 5 minutes before the dish is done. (Then again, you could put the aluminium sheet from the beginning and when the zucchini is ready, remove it and turn your oven to "grill" for 5 minutes.)

Then enjoy! ;D

If you did it well, it should look like this when ready.

You can also add raw sausage meat, ground beef, finely chopped sweet pepper, olives, mushrooms, eggs... or anything else that strikes your fancy. :) You can even  hollow it instead of cutting it in half, or use an apple-corer to make vege-cannellonis! Your imagination is the limit.

It's easy, it looks and tastes good and most people like it even when they don't like zucchini. :)


(Sorry if I mucked up the English language... if something is unclear, please tell me and I'll try to explain better!)