One of the last entries in a food dictionary would be zucchini,
but certainly should not be the last on your list of selected
vegetables. So many jokes about zucchini, and yet so many recipes
available for serving this delicate soft summer squash make it a
must for summertime meals.
One of the last entries in a food dictionary would be zucchini, but certainly should not be the last on your list of selected vegetables. So many jokes about zucchini, and yet so many recipes available for serving this delicate soft summer squash make it a must for summertime meals.
If your neighbors have a vegetable garden and you don’t, my advise it to be careful when the doorbell rings. There may be a huge bag of freshly picked zucchini waiting there for you … perhaps even a giant one that someone forgot to pick yesterday and overnight it grew to an obscene size. Just right for stuffing and baking.
I had a dream about zucchini last night for fear I would not be telling you the truth about this vegetable, that I may fabricate some of the details to make a zucchini article more exciting to read.
Somehow I got the story about the young journalist who made up huge lies while writing high-tech type computer related articles for major magazines confused with my own writing about zucchini for this food article.
The zucchini police found out about my zucchini stories which they thought I had made up. Therefore I had to cook 12 recipes using zucchini as the main ingredient on stage in front of thousands of people to prove that I was not a hoax.
Now, that is taking zucchini to a new level. Let’s just concentrate on a few honest to goodness recipes that you could quickly cook and serve to your family and friends.
In other parts of the world we would be talking about courgette as that is another name for this fine vegetable. The soft skin is edible and full of great vitamins, the soft flesh is easily cooked but tastes great as a raw vegetable for dipping into salsas or creamy sauces, and it is a very inexpensive vegetable to work with, especially when it appears on your doorstep.
Actually native to the Western Hemisphere, zucchini belongs to the sub-category of summer squash. You may substitute any of the other summer squash varieties for zucchini in the following recipes with great results.
Other summer squash that we are familiar with would be crooknecks, pattypans, yellow squash, and all striped varieties of the thin skinned vegetable. Winter squash will appear in the markets later on and they are thick skinned and harder fleshed. We will talk about those in a future article.
ZUCCHINI RAITA
This uses zucchini as a dip or a sauce to be served with grilled fish or
spicy sausages. You also could simply dip sticks of fresh zucchini and
other raw vegetables into this.
2 medium zucchini
3/4 cup natural yogurt (unflavored)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2-3 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro
Peel the zucchini and remove the seeds, if large. Dice the zucchini into
pieces about 1/4 inch in size. Place in microwave safe dish, cover and
cook on high 3 minutes. Cool. Add remaining ingredients and serve.
ZUCCHINI AND ONIONS
2 small zucchini, sliced
1 small onions or shallot, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon good quality dry mustard
dash of freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon vinegar
Combine zucchini and onion in saucepan, add 2 tablespoons water. Cover and
steam on medium heat 5-6 minutes, or microwave on high, covered, about 4
minutes. Set aside. In small glass measuring combine remaining
ingredients and microwave on high 30-45 seconds, until thickened. Whisk
and pour over cooked vegetables.
ZUCCHINI BREAD
3 eggs
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated zucchini (a good way to use the larger ones, but avoid the
seeds)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups sifter or lifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon chopped candied ginger
1 cup chopped San Benito County walnuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl using electric beater, beat
eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, oil, zucchini and vanilla. Set
aside. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, soda, baking powder
and cinnamon. Add to the zucchini mixture and stir with a spatula or spoon
until well blended, adding the ginger and nuts as desired. Lightly oil a
standard sized bundt or tube pan. Pour in the batter. Bake 60 minutes.
