The alternate title of this post is, “The Post Where I Learn that Zucchini is Spelled with an H”…
I love the idea of gardens full of produce. That beautiful cornucopia of squash, tomatoes, beans, and all things fresh and good. Don’t forget those delightfully green and refreshing cucumbers! I love gardens.
I don’t have a garden but I am hoping that 2011 will be the year of my first garden. We will see…
While I love the idea of gardens, I am not always sure what to do with the produce that my wonderfully generous neighbors pass onto me. So I decided that this summer will be the year that I learn how to feed zucchini to my family.
I don’t find zucchini by itself all that exciting. I think it is stunning to look at. I love the bright, vivid green and yellows motled together on a smooth shiny surface. I just love it. However, eating it has always left me a bit disheartened. I don’t find the flavor as exciting as I wish I did.
So to remedy my bias toward zucchini I have decided to learn some recipes that will utilize its true yumminess. Here are a few that I have found:
Lemon-Zucchini Cookies (See my comments below before attempting these delicious cookies)
Stuffed Zucchini with Potatoes and Peas
Zucchini Oven Chips
Zucchini Gratin
Double Chocolate Zucchini Brownies
Zucchini Bread
I have made two of these recipes (the lemon-zucchini cookies and the zucchini bread). Both turned out super yummy.
Now before you make either of those, I have a confession. I hate following recipes. I am what you might call an “organic cook”. Not organic in the sense that I only purchase organically grown items, but organic in the artistic sense of the word. I like to use recipes as guides. I rarely, if ever, follow a recipe exactly as it directs. I add a little bit of this and a little less of that depending on how the fancy strikes me. My results are not always consistent but usually they turn out great. Some people might call that a flaw, but I just call it Cooking Character. I have Cooking Character in spades.
The bread recipe above turned out delish! The only change I really made to it was that instead of egg substitute I used actual eggs. I think I used about three eggs, maybe four. I also used my whole zucchini which came to more like 3 1/2 cups instead of the 2 1/2 the recipe calls for. I do really like the amount of spice in this recipe. It turned out quite flavorful. Kind of heavy, but I don’t mind heavy.
The cookie recipe was all wrong, in my opinion. It turned out amazingly delicious but I just wanted to warn you that I am recommending a recipe that I completely changed. Hear me out first before you skip that one by.
I started out making it as Martha Stewart recommended but I thought it was too runny and not really sweet enough. As is, I think it would make a nice tea type cookie. That’s not really what I was craving so I added about 1/2 C brown sugar and added more flour, maybe about 3/4 C. Then I decided to add a few eggs because I have a huge carton of fresh, delicious eggs sitting on my counter. Why not? I also added some baking soda so that they would rise a bit. Oh also, in the interest of full disclosure, I added some applesauce as well. Ok, ok, ok, I also doubled the recipe, did half butter and half applesauce, and in the additional flour that I added about 1/2 C was whole wheat flour.
OK, so basically I made an entirely new recipe but I think if you try the recipe Martha Stewart suggests, you will like it. That’s all I am trying to get across here. It also makes a great jumping off point if you want to experiment and try it your own way. I have eaten way too many. I’m feeling a little ill. Like WAY too many, not just a few too many…
The next recipe I am going to try is similar to the zucchini gratin recipe above. My mom was telling me about it over the phone. You basically make a quiche type dish with eggs, zucchini, bread crumbs, cheese, etc and bake it until it is solid in the center. I might make that tomorrow night. I think it will be super yummy!
Finally, the old stand by recipe in our house for using up zucchini and other summer squashes is a stir fry. How can you go wrong with that? It’s always fresh tasting and (dare I say this word one more time?) delicious!
Do you have any favorite zucchini recipes? Please share them in the comments.
