Courgettes and gooseberries

[PamT]

If last year is anything to go by, our allotment will soon produce mountains of courgettes and gooseberries and I get so bored of the usual recipes, has anyone got any ideas?

For gooseberries I haven't really progressed beyond pies, crumbles and fools. As for courgettes, I've tried them baked, stuffed,fried, stir fried, grilled with tomatoes and cheese, in fritters, stews and I even found a recipe for courgette cake (tastes a bit like carrot cake).

I've found the BBC recipe search web site quite useful in the past but would welcome any different (but must be easy) suggestions.

another one.....

Chocolate Courgette Cake (by Alan Rix)

This cake is baked in 2 x 8 1/2" sandwich tins and layered together with chocolate butter cream, or in a 2 lb loaf tin and served with vanilla ice cream.

(I haven't tried this one yet but I will do this year)

6oz Plain chocolate
7oz plain flour
4oz caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
6floz vegetable oil
8oz peeled and grated courgettes
2oz chopped walnuts
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp salt

Grease and flour the tins and pre-heat oven to 360F/180C/Gas4. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Beat the oil into the eggs. Melt the chocolate (in microwave or over hot water). Mix egg/oil mixture into the dry ingredients, then add chocolate and courgettes (including juice). Mix well then add nuts. divide into tins and bake for 50-55 minutes. The cake should be well risen and coming away from the sides. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

According to Alan Rix "Experience says that this cake doesn't keep....

Experience is directly proportional to the equipment ruined"

I'm sure it won't keep in our house either, my greedy lot will scoff it all

Enjoy!

I've not made these before as I never seem to have eggs, spare courgettes and spare time at the same time! I plan to try them this morning though.
From "Muffins Fast and Fantastic" by Susan Reimer.

Cocoa Courgette Muffins

Don't let the name put you off! As with carrot muffins, the courgette ("zucchini" in North America) simply adds moisture and vitamins.
Really good. Honest.

Makes 11-12 standard-size
10 oz .(280 g) plain flour*
2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
2 teaspoons (10 ml) ground cinnamon
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 egg
4-5 oz (110-140 g) soft brown sugar
2 fl oz (60 ml) milk or water
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla essence/flavouring
12 oz (340 g) courgette, finely grated (or chopped in a food processor), which will yield about 16 fl oz (450 ml) when packed into a measuring jug - no need to peel the courgette, unless you want to avoid green flecks in the finished muffin
3 fl oz (90 ml) corn oil or 3 oz (85 g) butter, melted
3 oz (85 g) raisins (optional)

1 Prepare muffin tins (grease/put cases in). Preheat oven to 375-400°F (190-200°C).
2 In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Set aside.
3 In a medium-sized bowl, beat egg with a fork. Add brown sugar, milk/water, vanilla, courgette and oil/melted butter. Stir well.
4 Pour all of wet mixture into dry .Stir just until combined, adding raisins during the final strokes. Batter will be lumpy but no dry flour should be visible. Do this as quickly as possible.
5 Spoon into tins immediately. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tops spring back when pressed gently.

*If using self-raising flour, omit baking powder; do not adjust bicarbonate of soda.

We're all going to be busy aren't we, can't wait for my plants to start producing now. We grow Gold Rush which are yellow, long courgettes but we're trying some round, green ones too this year.

Sainsburys Magazine has a rather good looking starter for stuffed toms and those round courgettes this month.... will try and look it out. No harm in substituting long courgettes, I suspect.

All those "cakey" recipes. Coor. Can't wait to try them. It's my birthday tomorrow, and ds is insisting I Have a party. So have invirted HIS friends round for said party, and looks like I'm baking a cake!!

Oh, chocolate courgette cake is divine! I requested my mum make it for for my birthdy one year. I'm going to be printing off these recipes and the bbq ones!!!

My mouth is watering in anticipation.

Does anyone know if it is OK to give babies goosberries - after coking them of course! Ds has had rhubarb no problem, getting round the sourness easily with fromage frais. We have a bumper harvest of goosegogs this year and cooking them for ds seems a good way of getting rid of a few. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the chocolate/courgette recipes I will be getting my cake tin out tomorrow...

PamT, I made your chocolate courgette cake yesterday and it is yummy! Thanks for the recipe

oxocube, I can't wait to try it myself but my plants haven't started producing yet, another couple of weeks should see an abundance though.

Zoe, I can't see why you can't give gooseberries but the seeds might be a problem and again you would have to deal with the sharpness if they weren't sweet ones.

Gooseberries - love them, how old is baby? My 15 month old son eats them mushed up with yogurt or in a crumble. Yummy !!!!

I finally made the chocolate courgette cake yesterday. It is very light and moist and very yummy though you wouldn't know that it had courgette in, there was no sign of any. I might leave out the walnuts if I make it again though. Its rather expensive using 6 oz of plain chocolate but nice for the occasional treat. Its completely different from the other courgette cake which is more like carrot cake in flavour and texture. I'm off to harvest some more courgettes now - what shall I do with those? The last lot went into a Red Thai curry (using a ready made paste) instead of the recommended aubergines.

Pam T - THANKS - have just made the courgette cake ( the 'like carrot cake' one) with some of my dad's surplus courgettes ( Thank heavens he's pulled up the goosberries and planted raspberries - and they all get eaten!!)
It was absolutely yummy - and even better with no dairy fat in it dd can have some too!

Incidentaly shuld anyone else be inclined to make it - I used 1/3 less sugar than the recipe and it was absolutely fine and plenty sweet enough - and I think if I made it again ( which I will!) I'll use 4 eggs - it's just a little bit crumbly.

bayleaf, did you put it in the fridge? It seems to go more moist and less crumbly. I've got some courgettes in the fridge - think I'll have to make one myself. We are dairy free too but even when I do normal recipes I just use dairy free margarine and oat/soya milk instead of the recommended ingredients.

I didn't Pam - and it's all gone now!
Will try it next time!!

Hi PamT are you still looking for more courgette recipes? This one is favourite with us and it is sooo quick to make. I'm very impressed you have an allottment.

Courgette and Red Pesto Pasta

375g pasta
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 red chilli, chopped
500g courgettes, thinly sliced
2-3 tablespoons Red Pesto
pepper
parmesan

1. Cook pasta
2. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil and fry the garlic, lemon rind and chilli for 2-3 minutes until golden, add the courgettes and fry for a further 3-4 minutes.
3. Drain the pasta and add the courgettes, remaining oil, pesto and black pepper. Toss over low heat for 1 minute and serve with parmesan.

Hope you enjoy it.

Sounds good, we've got a glut of chillies at the moment too - really hot ones! I don't think the allotment society are too impressed that we have an allotment, its been neglected far too much this year because DH has hardly done any work there and I'm finding it hard to keep on top of the weeds. I don't like taking the kids either because they just get too muddy and make a mess everywhere and I seem to get bitten by every flying insect around everytime I go at the moment.

PamT - just wanted to say thank youa again - have just tried the chocolate courgette cake for the first time ( have made the 'carroty' one about 10 times now - tho do give half to my Dad as he provides the courgettes soam not quite such a pig as this might imply!!!)and can also report that marrow is just as good as a replacement for courgette - Dad keeps turning up with courgettes that 'got away' so to speak!

I prefer the one that is more like carrot cake too and have a few morsels left in the fridge at the moment (not for much longer though). Our courgettes haven't been as plentiful this year, I think the weather made everything produce later. The frosts will come soon and put an end to the courgettes and lots of other things. We do have loads of cucumbers though, the 2 plants in the greenhouse produce at least a dozen a week and there are still loads of tomatoes to come off so I'll have to find a recipe for green tomato chutney I think.

NUTS whooole cheeeestnuts....etc. Have collected masses from Richmond Park (sweet ones, that is) and am now wondering what to do with them, other than roast them on the fire. Any suggestions?

They freeze well so I usually bake some (split the skins first) then shell them and stick them in the freezer until christmas. Whole ones are lovely with brussel sprouts tossed in butter and the broken ones can be chopped up and added to a packet of paxo to make a lovely chestnut stuffing. Or you could just be like me and eat the whole lot one after the other because they are so yummy.

Thanks for that PamT, I didn't know you could freeze them. Will save some for Christmas instead of roasting them all now!

I actually cook and peel them first before freezing because this is what my more experience SIL does. I don't know if they are ok to freeze first. Someone else might know.

does anyone have a recipe for courgette jam made in the microwave ?