It has been a very rainy day. I got soaked cleaning the chicken coop while three chatty 'supervisors' looked on, clucking their full approval. Then I took a peek at the vegetables. I was a bit surprised to see the courgettes/zucchini has run away with me. I like this 'spherical' variety just for the novelty value. These all seem to ripen up at once and grow at a speedy rate. There is still more to come! Of all the gluts I have had in my life I seem to have had courgette or marrow gluts the most. I have tinkered about with vegetable growing in the garden and on allotments for about twenty years now. One year I had a glut of huge marrows, about eight of them. There is only so much you can do with a marrow. I have tried jam, chutneys, pickles, stuffed marrow (a personal favourite), Marrow Au Gratin etc etc . . . you catch my drift. 101 ways with Marrow. The year of the mega glut, my pantry was full of Marrows and I was reading an article in a 'Dog Magazine' about healthy diets for dogs. . . the article read. . . 'For healthy digestion, clean teeth, healthy gums and fresh breath feed your dog raw marrow. . . ' Over joyed at finding a use for a marrow I rushed to get 'Josh the Sausage Dog' a raw marrow. He looked at me and looked at the marrow with a puzzled look on his face. Then he dutifully ate his way through 3/4 of a large marrow, while I pottered in the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea. I went back to the magazine while the dog was happily munching his marrow, turned the page of the article and it read "bone." It actually said 'feed your dog raw marrow bone"! Doh!!! I don't know who was the more stupid, me for giving the dog the large marrow or him for eating it!
I have just remembered too that Henry had 'Billy Marrow' that he was very attached to when he was about five. I have a photograph of him somewhere grinning from ear to ear proudly holding his 'Billy Marrow'. Billy Marrow had a little face scratched into his skin and got treated like a playmate for about a week. (What a funny family I have proudly created)!
Today I felt an urgency to do something with all these courgettes. It is a shame to grow them and then waste them. I googled a few ideas...I found this recipe for '
Courgette and Cheese Bread from 'Pebble Soup Blog'
The result is rather delicious. . . oh dear it is Weigh In day tomorrow. I would definitely make this recipe again but may try 'Wholemeal Flour'.
It hardly made a dent in my courgette glut. Last night saw the return of 'The Great British Bake Off' on tv. I think it went to my head a bit. One inspirational young baker got very creative and he made a 'Pear and Parsnip Upside Down Cake'. I took a leaf out of his book and got creative. I made Courgette Cake with Chocolate, Chilli and Nuts!
I think I may be on my own eating this one. Euan tried it but was not impressed. It did use up a few more courgettes though. I won't give you the recipe for this one! (Say thank you Lucy)! If you 'google' Courgette cake, or Zucchini Bread there are hundreds of delicious cake recipes out there.
Then for my third 'Courgette' creation of the day I made 'Sweet and Sour Pickled Courgette'. I have made this before and it is rather tasty on sandwiches, or with cheese, salads and cold meats.
This pickle is good to eat after a couple of days. I adapted this recipe for '
Polish Sweet and Sour Pickled Cucumber' I did not add any of the seeds but I added red chili flakes for extra kick.
I thoroughly enjoyed my 'rainy day' baking in the kitchen...but I have just had a thought, all that rain will have made more courgettes grow and swell to an enormous size. Gahhh! I need another Sausage Dog!
XXX
