Courgette surplus?

When I was young mum always grew courgettes on her allotment and some years they just kept on coming. We'd deliver some to all the neighbours but there comes a point when everyone has had enough. So .. then it was time to experiment!.

 Photo from botogol on flickr

These are some of my favourite courgette recipes - the courgette is well disguised so you can convince yourself it's something else or get your kids to eat it!

I can't actually remember where these have come from so apologies for not giving credit to the original creators.

Banana and Courgette Cake

Ingredients

8oz plain wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Bicarb of soda
1 tsp salt
8oz soft brown sugar
1oz walnuts or pecans
1oz sultanas
2 whole ripe mashed bananas
3 large eggs
8oz finely grated courgette
5 fl oz sunflower oil

Method

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a large bowl. Add sugar, nuts and sultanas.
Mix well, then add mashed banana and beaten eggs. Stir in grated courgette and oil.
Beat the mixture thoroughly for one minute.
Butter or line with greaseproof paper, a 9in cake tin or large loaf tin.
Put mixture in and bake for 1 hour at gas mark 4 (350f/175c) until a skewer comes out clean.

Courgette and feta fritters

Ingredients
900g/2lb courgettes, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
bunch spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp chopped dill
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
3 free-range eggs
1 tbsp paprika
225g/8oz feta cheese
225g/8oz plain flour
Oil for deep frying
slices lemon, to garnish


Method                         
1. Sprinkle the courgette with salt and allow to drain for 20 minutes.
2. Place the grated courgette in a clean tea towel and squeeze out the water. Mix with the onions, dill, parsley, eggs, paprika and freshly ground black pepper.
3. Work in the feta cheese and flour.
4. Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan. It is ready when a breadcrumb that is dropped in will sizzle gently in it.
5. Carefully fry tablespoons of the mixture in the hot oil until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen towels. Garnish with slices of lemon and serve immediately.


These fritters are really tasty with a tomato salsa and salad. 

Courgette and Spinach Soup 

4oz Spinach

1 large courgette

1 medium potato

Parsley

1 onion

Olive oil

3/4pt vegetable stock

Pinch of nutmeg

Fry onion in olive oil, until soft.  Add diced potato and sliced courgette. Fry for further 5mins.  Add spinach, stock, nutmeg and parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for 20 minutes then whizz using hand blender. Add cream or milk if required.

I came across the wonderful The Boxing Clever Cookbook: Twelve Recipe Books in One a while ago when I was working for an organic veg co-op. It has a huge number of unusual and tasty recipes for people who don't know what to do with their weekly veg box or who have a glut of veg in the garden or allotment. Includes  kale pesto, parsnip cake, satay sprouts, stuffed mini pumpkins and many more.

Jo Rhodes is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.

Lemon polenta cake.. yum!

I bake this cake fairly often, especially if I know my gluten free friends will be visiting. Many people have asked me how to make it over the years so thought I'd put it on here for everyone to enjoy!

The recipe comes from the lovely people at Cafe Maitreya, an organic vegetarian restaurant in Easton in Bristol. Lots more interesting recipes on their website so it's well worth a look.

Cafe Maitreya  legendary lemon polenta cake - lush!

Ingredients 
500g golden granulated sugar
500g butter (or margarine)
6 eggs
500g ground almonds
250g fine polenta
6 lemons
5g salt
10 g baking powder (gluten free if necessary)
an extra 150g caster sugar for topping

1.       beat the butter (or margarine) and sugar together 'til very smooth and creamy.

2.       one by one slowly beat in the eggs.

3.       separately mix together the polenta, almonds, lemon zest, salt and baking powder and fold into the cake mixture

4.       transfer to an 10 inch tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 150C for 1½ to 2 hours (or until you can pull a skewer cleanly out of the cake)

5.       whilst the cake is in the oven, juice the lemons and add the remaining 150g of caster sugar. place in a thick bottom pan and boil until the juice has reduced by about half and is syrupy.

6.       when the cake is out of the oven, make some holes in the top, pour on the lemon juice mixture and let in sink in

7.       leave to cool

serve up with a big slice of loving kindness

A word of warning - this makes one huge, catering size cake. I usually halve the amounts and do two cakes using one pound loaf tins. Cooks in about 45 minutes in smaller tins but keep an eye on it and poke with a skewer to check when it's done.

Enjoy!

Wild food and foraging

Living in the coutryside my hubby and I often eat foods we pick up on walks such as apples, many types of mushroom, nettles, sorrel, chickweed, borage, wild garlic, many different berries and rosehips. After doing a bit of weeding in the garden yesterday I was a bit disturbed to see some ground elder creeping its way through the rockery.

But then I thought.. hmmm.. 'free food'. For those of you that haven't tried it, ground elder is actually quite tasty and can be cooked like spinach. The small waxy looking new shoots are very nice eaten raw in salads and are quite spicy, a bit like rocket.


If you are going to eat anything wild please make absolutely sure what you pick is safe. I strongly recommend you get a good book but if you aren't sure whether foraging is for you The Wild Food School offer a free 50 page Urban Foraging Guide which is available to download from their website.

Food For Free by Richard Mabey is, in my humble opinion, the definitive foraging book. First published in 1974 and reprinted many, many times since then. There are several versions available but my favourite is the handy pocket size book.

When it comes to mushrooms I would urge you to be extra cautious and never pick anything you are unsure of. There are some excellent mushroom identification books around. We have the pocket guide which is pretty good but seem to often forget it when we go out on foraging walks!

Mushroom Picker's Foolproof Field Guide is a much larger book and is definitely not pocket sized but has some great information and tips on drying and preserving too. it also has a chapter on the poisonous ones so clearly identifies which mushrooms to avoid.

When you have got some goodies you need to know what to do with them. Our favourite is an ancient book Hedgerow Cookery by Rosamund Richardson-Gerson but there are many more trendy versions around now including a Hedgerow Handbook from the River Cottage folk

There are a growing number of excellent websites and news articles with information and recipes for wild and foraged foods. A recent one I came across was Wild about Weeds in The Ecologist

Fergus Drennan has been foraging for years and has appeared on TV and written many articles in the press. Wild Man Wild Food is his website and he offers foraging courses in the Canterbury area. There are a vast number of unusual recipes in the magazine articles on the website including some fantastic nettle recipes and a Japanese Knotweed and Quince Crumble - that's not one I've tried myself yet but there is some knotweed up the road so might give it a go later in the year.

Eat Weeds near Sidmouth in Devon and The Wild Food School in Lostwithiel in Cornwall have some excellent recipes on their websites and also offer foraging courses.

Some people are also advocating eating insects, they are a great source of free protein and eaten in many countries, but I think I'll write about that another time! 

I have set up an Amazon AStore with a selection of my favourite foraging and  wild food and medicine books. Have a look and see what you think - and let me know if you think I've missed out some good ones. 

Jo Rhodes is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.