1001 Courgette/Zucchini Recipes

O.K. it's a slight exaggeration.

I don't have 1001 courgette recipes to share with you today, but if like me you have been growing your own courgettes this summer you probably feel like you've tried at least that many ways to prepare them.

Here are a few that I've tried.

Courgette, mushroom and mozzarella tart

Like pizza only better!

Lemon Zucchini Muffins

I took Lynn's recipe for Lemon Zucchini Bread which she posted on her blog Happier than A Pig In Mud and tweaked it to make muffins.

Courgette chutney

I love to make chutneys and found a great recipe for spicy courgette chutney on the River Cottage  website, it's delicious.

Chocolate zucchini bread

The chocolate zucchini bread was another recipe I found on the BBC Good Food website. I have a monthly subscription to the magazine but use the website to search for recipes to match the ingredients that I have to hand.

Courgettes and tomatoes
waiting for goat's cheese and thyme
stuffed chicken.

It's easier to print the recipe from there rather than prop the magazine up in the kitchen where I inevitably spill something onto the pages.

Courgette & Brie soup

I've had the New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups for many years and have tried quite a few of the recipes.

One we like very much is Jason Stead's Courgette & Brie Soup.

Here's the recipe (tweaked just a bit):

450g/1lb courgettes/zucchini, sliced.
2 medium sized potatoes, about 350g/12oz, peeled and chopped.
1 onion (white or yellow) finely chopped.
1.2 litres/2 pints vegetable stock (a stock cube is fine).
225g/8oz Brie. Remove end rind and cut into pieces.
salt & feshly ground black pepper.

Put the first 4 ingredients into a large saucepan .
Cover, and bring to the boil then simmer gently until the veggies are tender. This'll take about 15 mins.
Stir in the brie until it melts.
Allow the soup to cool a little then blitz it with a hand blender or in a liquidiser.
Taste for seasoning.

This is a versatile soup that can be enjoyed hot or cold.

Think about pouring chilled soup into small shot glasses or expresso cups as an amuse bouche, a great way to greet guests as they arrive at your house for a dinner or cocktail party.

Just in case you feel you need to add more "ways with courgettes" to your repertoire, click on the following links.

Courgette, mushroom and mozzarella tart. (BBC Good Food)
Lynn's Lemon Zucchini Bread
Pam the Jam's River Cottage Courgette Chutney
Chocolate Zucchini Bread (BBC Good Food)
Goat's cheese & thyme stuffed chicken (BBC Good Food)

Joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

Weekend Cooking @ Beth Fish Reads

and also La @ A Musing Potpourri

for the End Of The Summer Celebration Party

August 31st.

P.S. Sending all best wishes

 to any of my blogger friends

 who are suffering

 at the hands of Hurricane Irene this weekend.

Stay indoors and stay safe!

Courgette Fritter Recipe a la Fanny Flagg

Gayle over at Garden of Daisies has requested the recipe for the courgette fritters featured in my last post.
Adapted from Fannie Flagg's squash croquette recipe found in the Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook.

Firstly, in a large saucepan, bring to the boil in 1 cup of water 2 pounds of courgettes and 1 cup of chopped white or yellow onion, add half a teaspoon of salt.

When the courgettes are soft, drain well to remove all the excess liquid, transfer to a large bowl and mash coarsely with a potato masher adding quarter of a cup of butter and seasoning with white pepper.
To this mixture you then add 2 egg yolks, 1 cup of crushed saltines (you can also use TUC biscuits or even Doritos, as I did last time), and half a cup of self raising flour.

Stir everything together.

Beat 2 egg whites, until stiff peaks form, and fold into the courgette mixture.

Heat vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan, drop heaped tablespoonsful of the mixture into the hot oil and deep fry until golden.

Sprinkle with fleur de sel and serve, voila!

Makes 12 if they like it and 18 if they don't.

Farmer Maggie, c'est moi!

My mini bragfest about the potager last week harvested me some very kind comments.
Mary @ A Breath Of Fresh Air has even taken to calling me Farmer Maggie because of the abundance.
Connie @Living Beautifully, a keen gardener too, wanted to know a little more about the plot so here are some more pix and a few facts.

Two years ago I revamped the vegetable beds which were in place when we bought the property and created 3 long raised beds.
My new BFF is asleep on the bench, not doing her job at all!
Guess I'll have to stand in.
In the bed behind me potatoes waiting to be picked, in the bed in front from the left lavender, rosemary, rocket & sage somewhere in the pumpkin patch, tomato plants and a second crop of haricot bean seedlings just coming through.

They are roughly 22 feet in length and 6 feet wide.

The beds are plenty big enough for our needs and I can manage them myself, calling upon Sean the G only once in Spring to rotivate them and again in the autumn to put the potager to sleep for the winter.

Picking courgettes, with help from Mr Ben.

I usually grow the same things each year, salad leaves, spinach, beans, tomatoes, courgettes, pumpkins, potatoes and a few herbs. This year I added salad onions to the mix and they did quite well.

Courgettes (zucchini) a favourite of mine.

Transformed into one of my favourite summer dishes to make: courgette fritters (delicious) adapted from the summer squash recipe found in Fannie Flagg's great cookbook "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe".

Gardening and cooking, how good is that?