zucchini are nice sauteed with Vidalia onions, tomatoes and a little yellow squash, seasoned with Italian seasoning and a dab of butter.
The Louisville slugger type zucchini can be sliced about 1/2-3/4 inch thick, dusted with flour or corn meal and fried, seasoning once again with your choice, Italian, Essence of Emeril, etc.
Well, my garden has finally figured out what it is supposed to be doing with these little plants, which are now huge and highly productive. Never mind courgettes, I am getting marrows faster than I can eat them.
Anyone know of any decent way to preserve them so that there will be something to eat in a few months' time?
I have previously tried dehydrating them...okay if you need some extra shoe leather... :blink:
Previous freezer experiments haven't been very nice, either.
Other than what has been suggested. . . ???. . . but, we have oodles of it too. I have been making and freezing bread with them. I use the food processor and double the recipe. Tried triple, but it looses moisture. I have run out of people to give it to(everyone else has a garden). . . have no interest in another farm stand. . . and the bread keeps. It also makes a nice gift for someone. I donated a bunch to the camp we are involved with. . . . but it is a bit of a quandry. . . I hate to waste anything.
Here is a recipe for zucchini bread. This is the one I have been using. . . you can substitute some of that oil with applesauce.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts (I don't add these)
Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
You can actually shred the zukes, measure what you need per loaf, and freeze the zuke in premeasured Zip-Locks. I personally find zucchini to be tasteless, but Mr. Garden thinks it's delicious.
Twinky, although I don't grow zucchini, I do buy them at the farmers market.
Put them in a steamer basket. Add kosher salt to the water. Steam for 1 minute. They are so tender it doesn't take much for them to become mush. Then spread zucchini onto black and white newspaper and allow to rapidly cool. Place in a good freezer bag or freezer container. Because they don't have the crispness of fresh I use them in soups and casseroles.
I use the same technique with yellow squash.
For an abundance of green bell peppers: wash peppers in a salt and vinegar mixture. Then cut open, seed and slice them. Sprinkle slices with a little kosher salt and freeze them. I don't even blanch them. Not fit for salads but almost like fresh for sauces.
As all components of canning and freezing should be clean and sanitized don't forget work surfaces and especially hands.
I know you were looking for ways to preserve them, but I was reading a magazine yesterday while waiting and found this. . . .
Zucchini fettuccine. . . Use a vegetable peeler to slice thin ribbons from 6 courgettes. . . Place in a bowl and set aside. . . in another bowl whisk together 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil. . . 1 TBS white wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp dijon mustard, and 1/4 tsp herbes de provence (I just make this myself) salt and pepper to taste. . . toss the ribbons with the vinaigrette and 20 basil leaves for a "pasta" salad.
Tonight I took one of the larger ones and sliced it into 1/2" thick rounds. I mixed 1 cup flour with 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 teaspoons dried basil and a couple of grinds of black pepper. I dredge the zuke rounds in that on both sides and fried until tender in 1/2 stick butter and about 3 tablespoons canola oil.
Heck, Yeh, Watered Garden, ANYTHING fried in butter is good. I am with ya, sister girl!!
Okra, may be the one exception!
Really not that good for your waistline or artieries though. . . . I guess occasionally is okay. . . I save my butter use for lobster ans crab legs. . . yum!
Waysider, I think I remember that other lifetime of squash myself. Remember the first year when some hapless soul unplugged one of the freezers in the basement of limb, forgot to plug it back in, and some of the households got sick on squash that went bad during that unplugged time? I was one of the upchucking, cursing, moaning individuals who wondered what the heck went wrong with the squashini casserole.
I gave a lot of my overgrown courgettes away - just too many to cope with. Someone who took away three gave me this recipe. It is, apparently, a very nice summer soup. Not tried it yet.
Courgette soup. You can leave the potatoes out if you like as they're not essential.Ingredients:
2 lb courgettes
4 medium potatoes
2 medium onions
4 pints veg stock
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Slice courgettes, peel and cube potatoes, peel and chop onions. Add all ingredients into a very large pan and simmer for about 20-25 mins or until the veg are tender.
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ChasUFarley
You gotta blanch them (almost boil them - just slightly - with a little salt) and then freeze them.
Here's how: http://www.pickyourown.org/freezing_summer_squash.htm
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Watered Garden
zucchini are nice sauteed with Vidalia onions, tomatoes and a little yellow squash, seasoned with Italian seasoning and a dab of butter.
The Louisville slugger type zucchini can be sliced about 1/2-3/4 inch thick, dusted with flour or corn meal and fried, seasoning once again with your choice, Italian, Essence of Emeril, etc.
WG
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geisha779
Other than what has been suggested. . . ???. . . but, we have oodles of it too. I have been making and freezing bread with them. I use the food processor and double the recipe. Tried triple, but it looses moisture. I have run out of people to give it to(everyone else has a garden). . . have no interest in another farm stand. . . and the bread keeps. It also makes a nice gift for someone. I donated a bunch to the camp we are involved with. . . . but it is a bit of a quandry. . . I hate to waste anything.
Here is a recipe for zucchini bread. This is the one I have been using. . . you can substitute some of that oil with applesauce.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts (I don't add these)
- Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
- Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
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Watered Garden
You can actually shred the zukes, measure what you need per loaf, and freeze the zuke in premeasured Zip-Locks. I personally find zucchini to be tasteless, but Mr. Garden thinks it's delicious.
WG
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kimberly
Twinky, although I don't grow zucchini, I do buy them at the farmers market.
Put them in a steamer basket. Add kosher salt to the water. Steam for 1 minute. They are so tender it doesn't take much for them to become mush. Then spread zucchini onto black and white newspaper and allow to rapidly cool. Place in a good freezer bag or freezer container. Because they don't have the crispness of fresh I use them in soups and casseroles.
I use the same technique with yellow squash.
For an abundance of green bell peppers: wash peppers in a salt and vinegar mixture. Then cut open, seed and slice them. Sprinkle slices with a little kosher salt and freeze them. I don't even blanch them. Not fit for salads but almost like fresh for sauces.
As all components of canning and freezing should be clean and sanitized don't forget work surfaces and especially hands.
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geisha779
I know you were looking for ways to preserve them, but I was reading a magazine yesterday while waiting and found this. . . .
Zucchini fettuccine. . . Use a vegetable peeler to slice thin ribbons from 6 courgettes. . . Place in a bowl and set aside. . . in another bowl whisk together 3 tbs extra virgin olive oil. . . 1 TBS white wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp dijon mustard, and 1/4 tsp herbes de provence (I just make this myself) salt and pepper to taste. . . toss the ribbons with the vinaigrette and 20 basil leaves for a "pasta" salad.
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leafytwiglet
You can make them into vegetable soups and can them..
as another means of perserving them.
I usually freeze them or make them into bread and freeze it for later.
also if you do the grated and frozen that can them be added to breads or cookies or soups or casseroles.
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waysider
Or you could just pawn them off on all your enemies!
(I think I may have hit my quota of squash in "another lifetime".)
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Watered Garden
Tonight I took one of the larger ones and sliced it into 1/2" thick rounds. I mixed 1 cup flour with 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 teaspoons dried basil and a couple of grinds of black pepper. I dredge the zuke rounds in that on both sides and fried until tender in 1/2 stick butter and about 3 tablespoons canola oil.
It was really really good!
WG
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kimberly
Heck, Yeh, Watered Garden, ANYTHING fried in butter is good. I am with ya, sister girl!!
Okra, may be the one exception!
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geisha779
Really not that good for your waistline or artieries though. . . . I guess occasionally is okay. . . I save my butter use for lobster ans crab legs. . . yum!
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Watered Garden
Waysider, I think I remember that other lifetime of squash myself. Remember the first year when some hapless soul unplugged one of the freezers in the basement of limb, forgot to plug it back in, and some of the households got sick on squash that went bad during that unplugged time? I was one of the upchucking, cursing, moaning individuals who wondered what the heck went wrong with the squashini casserole.
WG
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Twinky
I gave a lot of my overgrown courgettes away - just too many to cope with. Someone who took away three gave me this recipe. It is, apparently, a very nice summer soup. Not tried it yet.
Courgette soup. You can leave the potatoes out if you like as they're not essential. Ingredients:
Method:
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