Courgette, I need 101 things to do with it..

[zanz1bar]

Glut time,

What can you suggest?
I have made cheese scones and chocolate cake, battered, grated, diced, fried, roasted and my favorite 'guess the secret ingredient'.

Delia has a recipe (in one of her white books) for courgettes in a herb vinaigrette. It's so good that I make it all the time. Cut courgettes in half or thirds lengthways, depending on how fat they are. Steam until tender but not soggy. While still warm, toss them in the following dressing. Pound a fat clove of garlic with some salt in a pestle and mortar, add a heaped tsp of grainy mustard. Add 2 tbsp white wine vinegar and 5tbsp olive oil. Stir in about 5tsp of chopped fresh herbs ( I think it's supposed to be parsley, rosemary, chives and tarragon). Serve at room temperature or chilled. Keeps in the fridge for a few days.

curry,

onion, ginger, garlic, chilli

courgette chunks,

beans of some kind if you fancy,

tin toms, curry powder, ect,

done.

serve with wraps, pitta, wedges, rice or as a pizza topping with cheese...

Slice and sautee in butter with some dried chilli flakes for ages, until they're mush. Add lemon juice, then serve with spaghetti and parmesan. Delicious.

Had a sort of fish, ratatouille bake thing tonight which worked really well - soften shallots, onion, mushrooms, courgettes and peppers, add tin of tomatoes, herbs, balsamic, pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer a bit. Add chunks of white fish. Bung in casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs and chunks of feta, bake.

Variation on moussaka, using courgettes instead of aubergine. Or just stuffed with bolognaise style sauce and topped with feta.

Ribbons of raw courgette are good in salad if you get them baby enough.

Like Florin, I'm getting heartily sick of rainbow chard though!

My mum used to do slices of courgette deep fried in batter (just flour and water - or pancake batter). Bloody delicious! Courgette tempura I suppose....

I love courgette and feta potato cakes (serves 2 quite greedy people!):

Grate a large courgette and leave it in a sieve with salt for an hour or so. Then rinse and wring it out in a teatowel so a lot of the moisture has been removed.

Meanwhile cut a large potato into chunks and boil for exactly 8 minutes, so they're a bit softer but not fully cooked. Grate and add to the courgette.

Add some chopped mint, crumbled feta cheese, a small finely chopped red onion and salt and pepper. Make into cakes and shape with flour. Brush with melted butter and bake in the oven for 1/2 hour, until brown.

Quite hard work but very delicious!

Courgette fritters with tomato & feta salsa

oops, wasn;t finished! Easy to make, and very lovely, but I put a lot of cumin seeds in and a big chilli pepper.

Pancetta and cheese stuffed courgettes are good.

slice in half lengthways, Use an ice cream scoop or similar to remove a bit of the inside flesh. Fry pancetta and onions in garlic. When pancetta is crispy and onions nice and soft fill the inside of the courgettes with the mix and top with parmesan or even good strong cheddar and bake in the oven till nice and crispy! YUM>...

My Mum's neighbour in Spain is a cook and this is her recipe for courgette soup (calabacine soup). Not tried it myself but had hers and it was delish...really creamy (bit odd sounding with the Dairylea but tasted yum!):

2 kgs courgettes - with skin off
2 large onions (Spanish onions are slightly sweeter than UK ones so may have to adjust this amount after you make soup first time)
1 chicken stock cube
oil
water
2 small triangles of Kraft cheese

Heat oil, add courgettes, water, stock and onions. Bring to boil, cook till tender. Add cheese and liquidise. Add potato if too watery. Season to taste.

This is fantastic, we have had an overload of courgettes this year and I just use them when I make pasta sauce. Now I have lots of ideas to use them all up.

We are living on potatoes at the moment. Jackets, salad potatoes, mash, don't you just love this time of year.