7 January 2009

They came from outer space

| rosebud
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Well, they came from my backyard actually…but they do look large enough to star in an ‘Attack of the Killer Courgette’ remake (yes yes, I know it was rampaging tomatoes for all you geeks. This is a ‘reimagined’ version, frak you).

But I digress.

I came home to Canberra the other day from summer holiday fun to find these giants in our veggie patch. There is also a wheelbarrow full of littler ones.

There was no watering involved either, just a judicious handful of water crystal applied to the soil prior to departure.

Now, who has any good zucchini recipes for me?

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The small ones taste better but from spotting one growing, you’ve got hours before it puffs up into a big one. The male flowers only seem to last a day, too. I guess if you had lots of plants you could get the flowers.

Go for the teeny ones, better flavour; chopped zucchini flowers in the fritter are a nice variation too.

You shouldn’t have stuck so many on the compost!

; )

I’ll give those fritters a go, for sure. Zucchinis in the slice and this fritter combination seem to morph into something quite different and very nice indeed. My fritters will be token-fried, but I reckon they’ll work.

I just guzzled the last of my zucchini slice for dinner and now have a problem. No more zucchinis! Bloody hell. Will have to wait until the plant pushes out some more.

When in a hurry (which is when I generally make that slice), I use shortcut bacon and don’t prefry, but do slice the bacon very fine. We also had it as part of the Xmas feast, but I generally don’t eat with vegetarians. =-P

To celebrate the arrival of the cool change, here’s a completely adequate Zucchini Fritter recipe

500g zucchini, coarsely grated
½ teaspoon salt
8 spring onions, chopped
125g feta, crumbled
Chopped freash parsley
Chopped fresh mint
2 eggs, lightly beaten
60g plain flour
Salt and Pepper
Oil, for shallow frying

Put the zucchini in a colander, sprinkle and stir it with the salt, toss lightly and set aside for 30 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water from the zucchini by wringing it out in a teatowel.

Put the zucchini, spring onion, feta, parsley, mint and eggs in a bowl and stir lightly to combine. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat. Drop tablespoons of batter into the hot oil, flattening gently with the back of a spoon. Cook for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

* * *

This is another good base recipe and tolerates quite a lot of fiddling around – add corn, or bacon or whatever, ditch the feta, change the herbs, serve with a yoghurt dip, or under fish, with a salad.

as any notes, pre-preparing bacon (and mushies, etc) before adding to final mix is the go. toast pine nuts (or cashews, or pistachios, etc) for texture and cook mushies (a pretty dry mix is best, not too much butter/oil with a few spices – mmmmm) to ensure the flavours come through. it is a famous cold slice for work the next day – can be doubled in quantity and we had this as a feature slice at our xmas spread for the veges – they didn’t get too much, lemme say! ; )

Sounds delicious! I’m going to make Poptop’s zucchini slice also, ’cause you’ve gone and made me all hungry now,

That’s odd about the spinach and lettuce. unless you’re talking about real spinach? Real spinach (english) is heat-hating, and it’ll bolt to seed, it’s a pain to grow actually. Silverbeet, however, which most people think is spinach, will grow any time. Lettuce should be OK, I’d have thought. Is it getting enough water? what sort is it? My Cos is doing great, making heads even.

I made Poptop’s zucchini slice tonight! It is great, a cross between those turkish zucchini balls, and yorkshire pudding. I used about twice as much zucchini, omitted the oil… not necessary. I might experiment with using less eggs though. And I only put in some token cheese. And I have a suspicion that the bacon shoudl be fried before being added to the mix!

While the oven was on, I got another aspirant zucchini and made some Bakes, with chopped zucchini, chopped up red capsicum, some mushrooms that needed using up, some of my magnificent red onion, and an odd concoction of flour and milk, with spices in it. And some cheese on top. Very nice.

Can any of you guys tell me why my spinach and lettuce seems to go straight to seed ? My tomatoes are good and so is everything else but I don’t know what I am doing wrong with the other stuff. Help !

grunge_hippy8:18 pm 07 Jan 09

we have a huge amount of squash, so if anyone has any recipes for those, i would be grateful! you can only steam them so much!!!!

zucchini & corn fritters….. YUM and are the t**ts!!!

astrojax said :

jessieduck, we’ve got our squash and zucchini growing in pots – the bigger pots have the bigger plants – toms in pots do well, too, so no ‘patch’ isn’t necessarily any excuse… ; )

I know but we were given a massive outdoor setting as a wedding gift and there is zero room for pots :c(

Off to an open home tonight to see if we can buy ourselves a bit of leg room.

My dad grows bigger zucchinis.

Tasteless things they are

Loose Brown22:41 pm 07 Jan 09

My chooks LOVE uneaten marrows. 1/2 an hour and there would be only a green skin left, drying in the sun.

ant said :

the garden must be quite warm, it’s a raised bed that looks like a grave, and the rising sun hits the end with the zucchini full blast.

My veggie bed is raised and a grave, it’s the most convenient place to bury the pets, especially in the early years where it was the only bit with soft enough ground for a large hole. Three sheep, one dawg, one cat, a couple of rabbits and some chooks and roosters are buried there. The sheep were great for converting escaped marrows into manure, the chooks tended to be fussy.

her AND the birds…

V twin venom said :

Sliced and on the BBQ with lots of garlic and herbs is my favourite but some of these ideas sound good.

If you see that fox again peterh, take to it with every weapon available. I am also from the right side of Drakeford and off Bacchus. We got some new chooks 2 weeks ago (again finally restocking after the bushfires) and within 3 nights a fox was in the yard. I guess the sight of me running around the backyard starkers with a baseball bat at 1am was pretty scary for the fox but for good measure the girls are now locked away in an aviary at night.

trying to lure it to wipe out the aviaries the act govt housing cretin next door has. sick of her wandering the streets with a birdcage looking for a parrot that has managed to “escape” from her shoulder. not to mention the godawful screeching at dawn.

V twin venom2:03 pm 07 Jan 09

Sliced and on the BBQ with lots of garlic and herbs is my favourite but some of these ideas sound good.

If you see that fox again peterh, take to it with every weapon available. I am also from the right side of Drakeford and off Bacchus. We got some new chooks 2 weeks ago (again finally restocking after the bushfires) and within 3 nights a fox was in the yard. I guess the sight of me running around the backyard starkers with a baseball bat at 1am was pretty scary for the fox but for good measure the girls are now locked away in an aviary at night.

You can get large waterwell tubs at magnet Mart in Qbn, I saw them. Long ones, larger than any long tubs I’ve seen. tehy’d be great for veggies.

I just went out at lunchtime and got some baking powder, and more eggs. Going to try that zucchini slice, which I reckon is a name they made up to get blokes to eat quiche. Hiding it in a slice tin probably fools them, too. I’m going to cook mine in white porcelain oblong dishes, not sure what they’re called. I have no cake tins.

ant said :

Chooks like to perch, so if they only have a tree to perch in, they’ll perch on that. Chooks can fly (a bit), some people clip their wing feathers to limit their range. Foxes are an issue though, you need somewhere for them to go at night as there’s foxes everywhere.

saw one last night on boddington. was headed for crozier.

OT, my zucchini have all withered under the constant onslaught of small children. didn’t help that they kept picking the flowers for mum…

jessieduck, we’ve got our squash and zucchini growing in pots – the bigger pots have the bigger plants – toms in pots do well, too, so no ‘patch’ isn’t necessarily any excuse… ; )

poptop said :

I’m in a cul de sac off McKillop.

Its going to be 34 or something awful today; to save you melting, I have unleashed the power of internet research and uncovered how to get your community veggie patch.

Apparently it is an organic collective (Canberra Organic Growers Society) and there are gardens almost everywhere – O’Connor, Curtin, Charnwood, Cook, Holder, Kambah, Mitchell, Queanbeyan, The Oaks Estate, Erindale and Theodore.

Good on you poptop! I’ve just e-mailed of my enquiry.

Chooks like to perch, so if they only have a tree to perch in, they’ll perch on that. Chooks can fly (a bit), some people clip their wing feathers to limit their range. Foxes are an issue though, you need somewhere for them to go at night as there’s foxes everywhere.

I’m in a cul de sac off McKillop.

Its going to be 34 or something awful today; to save you melting, I have unleashed the power of internet research and uncovered how to get your community veggie patch.

Apparently it is an organic collective (Canberra Organic Growers Society) and there are gardens almost everywhere – O’Connor, Curtin, Charnwood, Cook, Holder, Kambah, Mitchell, Queanbeyan, The Oaks Estate, Erindale and Theodore.

poptop said :

There’s one in Kambah too – just near the woolshed. I think there is a sign about how to get a plot on the fence there. But with Kambah having HUGE yards, I couldn’t see the point and so have not taken notice.

Where abouts are you in Kambah poptop (roughly)? I have a corner block just off Bacchus (off Boddington) It’s bigger than a normal qtr acre block and i do have a small veggie patch. I’d love to grow more but the kids need room to play (apparently). I might wonder down there this arvo for a read of the sign.

There’s one in Kambah too – just near the woolshed. I think there is a sign about how to get a plot on the fence there. But with Kambah having HUGE yards, I couldn’t see the point and so have not taken notice.

jessieduck said :

It’s threads like this that make me yearn for a patch of garden. I wish I had some chooks- sniff.

One of my neighbours has chooks. He replenished his stock after most were immoliated during teh fires. BTW: is it normal for chooks to live in trees about 6 foot of the ground? His do. I’d like some too but the bird-flu thing go me spooked.

Does anybody know how to get one of the garden allotments out in Weston or Belconnen? Looks like loads of vegies are gorwing out on these plots and I’d love to see if I can get one.

It’s threads like this that make me yearn for a patch of garden. I wish I had some chooks- sniff.

Chuckle, there’s vitamin C in them thar Lemons, Poptop!

My zuccs are being weird. I keep a close eye on the plant and water it daily, and one day there’ll be a little finger with a flower on it. Next day it has become The Hindenburg.

the garden must be quite warm, it’s a raised bed that looks like a grave, and the rising sun hits the end with the zucchini full blast. I thought I could keep up with them but they grow from the little size with soft skin to the big fat versions in hours, it seems. I blame the chook pooh.

Not a “recipe” as such, but quick and easy and tasty. Cut the zucchini into strips 5-10mm thick, coat in a littl olive oil. Sprinkle a good amount of Moroccan spice on one side and grill on a medium heat bbq till you’ve got golden brown grill marks on both sides. Takes about 3 mins a side.

Not sure if it’d work for these bad boys – it’d probably be best to sort of sideswipe them with some sort of distraction before you come up from behind with the knife I should think. And be ready to run if needs be.

astrojax – agreed. In my experience adding extra veggies and the like to zucchini slice loses the younger consumer. My offspring still speak of the horror of added carrot [I thought it was innocuous].

Just slicing zucchinis lengthways, dredging them with seasoned flour, frying them to a crispy brown and serving with lemon juice is also hard to beat. It overcomes any concerns about vitamins getting into your body.

Onions are weird. According to my Allen Sssssearle book, they take 6 months. Well I put out a punnet of red onion seedlings in early Sept, and yesterday pulled my first one. It was huge, and tastes very feisty and it’s as crunchy and juicy as hell.

The stem had fallen over, that’s one sign, apparently. Also, you can see how big the onion is. There’s some issue with leaving them too long and watering them, and they get that brown rot in their centres, not sure when that starts to happen though. This onion was (and still mostly is) perfect.

Salad onions and keeping onions are differnt, too. Haven’t got my head around onions yet, but I do like them.

The leeks went in at the same time, but they’re still busy growing and will evidently take their full 6 months.

johnboy said :

As we consistently say, email them to images@the-riotact.com how hard is that to get?

And no. We do not want images posted in comments. Think about it for just a second or two eh?

Apparenly it is hard when you don’t read the fine print! But thanks for humoring me anyway JB. I had no intention of posting pics into comments, just as part of an original thread or in response to your requests for readers submission (e.g. Xmas trees, etc..).

My zucchinis didn’t grow at all – where did I go wrong??

My tomatoes are going crazy, but no luck with peas, zucchini, cucumber and capsicum.

Also there are some onions forming in my vegie patch – how do I know when they are ready to dig up.

I know a girl in Fyshwick who likes giant Zucchini’s

As we consistently say, email them to images@the-riotact.com how hard is that to get?

And no. We do not want images posted in comments. Think about it for just a second or two eh?

Oh and I posted a comment in the old FAQ thread on how to use Imageshack to put images into your posts, but that thread seems to have been retired.

Steady Eddie: I guess back in the 60s most Australians considered any vegies other than Lettuce, Tomato, Carrot, Potato and Turnips to be some dreadful foreign Continental thing.

poptop beat us to the zucchi-slice – you can of course also add some mushrooms, and other greens/herbs or reds (‘matoes) and add some spices like tumeric and cumin seeds. tasty. and a good non-stick baking pan is a godsend here!

surprisingly, they also actually roast pretty nicely, whole, like carrots.

and sliced into rounds well browned in herb/garlic flavoured butter, removed, then tossed through pasta with pine nuts and steamed pum’kin is good; served with shaved parmesan, mai oui

we need a favourite recipe thread.

Skidbladnir said :

@BerraBoy:
But putting them in the comments original post is a simple matter of hosting them somewhere, and putting an img src = “whatever.the.url/is.jpg” in html brackets when posting originally.

Steady Eddie9:54 am 07 Jan 09

This recalls an incident when I was in year 4 in the late ’60s. The teacher asked us to name vegetables and a kid said “a zucchini”. The teacher said “what? a bikini?”, the kid repeated “zucchini” and the teacher said “no such thing”. Yes, poor teaching standards are not just a recent phenomenon.

@BerraBoy:
Posting them into the comments is an administrator\Overlord feature, not a plebian one.

But putting them in the comments is a simple matter of hosting them somewhere, and putting an img src = “whatever.the.url/is.jpg” in html brackets when posting originally.

But I tend to email my photos into Jb, so he can use his own bandwidth on pageviews.

BB – I think posting photos on RA is a well guarded secret, on a need to know basis. Only JB and the liberal media elite have this knowledge and they keep it very close to their chests.

And indeed – giant ants, giant zucs…it’s got to mean something. Should I be worried?

Sorry – *ant

Rosebud, I’ve had the same experience with my zucchini’s this year. Bigger than they’ve ever been before but as far as I can tell nothing has changes (except of course, more rain)

BTW: How do I post photo’s to a thread, or do i ahve to send them to JB first? I’ve missed out on sending in pics of my Xmas tree and an ant bigger than a $20 note but I wouldn’t mind posting other pics.

Speaking of unnaturally large things, giant ants and giant zucchini’s appearing at the same time… a coincidence? I think not!

Thank the Women’s Weekly Best Recipes from the Weekly I merely use that recipe often enough to have memorised it.

It sounds like and and rosebud might have spare zucchinis. . .

Zucchini slice for the win. My mum used to make it all the time when I was younger and it’s fantastic.

Thanks for that recipe poptop, reckon I’ll be on the hunt for some zucchinis!

I’m desperately trying to keep up with my mad zucchini bush too. Chop em up in salads, use them as a base for pasta sauces, you can “peel” them into long wide strips, steam them with garlic.

I’m getting bloody sick of zucchinis. The compost has also lodged a complaint about the ones ending up in there.

Zucchini slice!!! Freezes a treat and the younguns love it!

Multiply as the mood and zucchini availability takes you.

375g (or so) zucchini
1 onion
3 rashers of bacon
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup self raising flour
5 eggs
1/4 cup oil
Salt and pepper

Grate zucchini and onion, finely chop bacon. Lightly beat eggs. Mix the lot together and pour into a greased (I line it with foil and baking paper) laminton tin. Bake in moderate oven (190-200) for about 30-40 mins.

It’s all about the bacon and cheese really.

If you freeze the slice, you can reheat it straight from the freezer – it is stunningly forgiving.

mmmmmmm….cake…..

Zucchini cake is pretty awesome. Plenty of recipes to be found via google.

rabbit (or lamb), chokoes, oregano, rice, tomato paste and chopped, garlic. fill hollow, decorate with enough cheese for a coronary, place in foil tray, bake in hooded BBQ. Bugger an oven. too hot.

Damn, beaten to the line once again…

I like to cut the big ones in half length ways, hollow them out a bit, and then fill with some collection of veg, meat etc. and top with cheese and cook in the oven. Depending on the size, you might want to steam the giant thing first so it is edible even after baking.

I don’t actually have a recipe though, I am more of a “make it up as you go” kinda cook.

PreciousLilywhite9:13 am 07 Jan 09

Nice work there rosebud.
From experience, I can tell you that the bigger they get, the less tasty they are.
You can still have fun with them though.
Make a big pot of savoury mince (lamb). Carve out the centre of the marrow and fill with said mince. Top with cheese. Roast in oven.
If you don’t like that, I suggest using them as target practice for your darts 🙂

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