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I took a lot longer to write up this ICSA post than I meant to; life got in the way--I had to start prepping for a big work trip after I already committed to doing this. That said, I figured I wouldn't do anything big or fancy for this ICSA. Courgettes, for all that they produce and how common they seem to be in people's gardens, don't seem to get a lot of attention in culinary literature. There are, however, a number of basic dishes that routinely get trotted out to deal with the inevitable surplus of squash these plants put out. I was sure that I would be able to get hold of somebody's extra vegetables for this, but pressed as I have been for time lately, that didn't happen. So it was with store-bought courgettes that I went to make my dishes. These are all basic dishes: Ratatouille Pan-fried courgettes Zucchini bread In addition, Scientatstic asked for drink ideas, so I came up with a zucchini-flavored cocktail alongside the dishes: Zucchini-infused genever with elderflower liquer There's also a bonus dish I made with leftovers from the zucchini bread: Breakfast omelet with zucchini So, to begin with, I started with the dessert first, as it takes the longest to make. Zucchini Bread, Two Ways I made two types of bread alongside each other, one basic, and one chocolate. Basic zucchini bread: 3 c. flour 1 t. salt 1 t. baking soda 1 t baking powder 1 T. cinnamon 3 eggs 1 c. vegetable oil 2 c. sugar 1 T. vanilla extract 2 c. grated zucchini The chocolate bread is similar, it substitutes 1/2 c. cocoa powder for 1/2 c. of the flour, increases the baking soda and poder a bit, adds some milk, some nutmeg, and uses a stick and a half of butter instead of oil. I made both batters alongside each other. Both are basic batter breads, though the chocolate one has a softer, more cake-like texture. ingredients assembled:  First of all, to make short work of grating four cups of zucchini, I broke out my food processor's grating disc. I figured each zucchini would produce about a cup grated, turns out I was off by about half--each one was good for closer to two cups. Oops!  I mixed up my batches of dry ingredients; here they are side by side:  I mixed up the standard batter's wet ingredients, then adding the dry ingredients to make a stiff batter:  Adding the zucchini to it reveals a property of courgettes that should be no surprise to GWS regulars--that they're full of water and add plenty of moisture to the finished batter:  Meanwhile, I used the stand mixer to similarly put together the chocolate batter:   At this point, I remembered a small detail that I had neglected going into this: I only have one regular loaf pan. I figured the second batter would probably fit in an 8 x 8 cake/brownie pan just fine. This was an error in judgment on my part, as I'll explain later:  At any rate, both breads went in the oven at 350 F for a while, 45 minutes for the chocolate one, longer for the other. The recipe called for up to an hour, but in my oven it took more like 75 minutes. While those were cooking and the house gradually started to smell increasingly like burning chocolate, I went ahead and started prepping the ratatouille. Ratatouille 6 zucchini 3 eggplants 2 lbs. tomatoes 3 medium onions 3-5 cloves garlic 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil 1/2 c. tomato puree 3 T. herbes de Provence salt and pepper to taste  A pretty basic dish, this is supposed to be cooked in a pot where the flavors "marry"--that is to say, it congeals into a big mess of indistinct summer vegetable stew. It's classic French cuisine. I decided to do things a bit differently, opting to layer the vegetables in a baking dish. I figured it would help the vegetables maintain some of their distinct characteristics after cooking. At any rate, prep is pretty simple. Begin by slicing up the onions and mince the garlic, then saute them in the olive oil with the herbs:  I forgot to take pictures of this part, but imagine, if you will, me slicing up a whole bunch of round slices of eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes, then layering them in the following order: eggplant first, tomatoes second, onions third, then zucchini, with salt and pepper on top. The recipe produced enough for two layers of each vegetable, which overfilled the baking dish, but I figured it would cook down a bit and turn out okay:  The dish gets covered in foil and goes in the oven alongside the breads. At this point, I discovered that my chocolate bread had risen too much in the oven and overflowed the pan, spilling down the sides of the pan and onto the grates and the floor of my oven. It was pretty gross and I didn't take pictures, but I had to spend some time cleaning up the mess before putting the ratatouille in the oven. I had to work quickly, as the browned bits stuck to the floor of the oven began smoking as I tended to them--I was afraid of them catching fire and burned my arm a little cleaning up. On the positive side, the chocolate bread was done and the standard one, whole far from finished, showed no signs of potentially doing the same. Unfortunately, as soon as I pulled it from the oven the chocolate bread began to collapse as it cooled alongside the burned bits I cleaned from the oven:   I need a drink, dammit. Speaking of which, I had a shitton of leftover shredded zucchini that didn't go into the bread. What did I do with it? Oh yeah:Zucchini-infused Genever 1/2 c. grated zucchini 6. oz. Bols Genever  Genever, a type of sweet gin, is one of the most seldom-used bottles I have in my house. It has more of a yeast-forward flavor to it than dry gins, which put botanical flavors front and center. Since we're trying to highlight courgette flavors in this ICSA, I opted for this style of gin, as I figured the zucchini flavors would get lost amid all the other botanical flavors in the dry stuff. At any rate, I poured 6 oz. of genever into a jar with some of the shredded zucchini and let it sit in the fridge while everything else finished: After a while, the other zucchini bread got finished cooking and came out to cool alongside its counterpart:  While I was at it, I pulled out the ratatouille to see how it was faring. It had not cooked down much but had done so enough that I felt safe whirring up another few tomatoes in the Vitamix and slathering it on top before putting it back to cook longer:  It cooked for a fairly long time, about two and a half hours total, I think. I sort of played it by appetite, just letting it cook until I felt like having dinner. One more dish to go alongside it, however: Pan-Fried Courgettes 1 Zucchini 1 Yellow squash 1-2 T. olive oil Salt and pepper to taste  Yep. That's it. Slice your courgettes:  Heat up your pan and oil, then fry your squash in a single layer on medium-high heat with a little salt and pepper on top.  Give it a few minutes, then flip the squash over and cook a few minutes more. I find that a thin, long fish turner-style spatula works best here:  The result is a very basic, but very flavorful dish of fried squash, best made right before serving:  I mixed my drink at this point, but forgot to take pictures. Zucchini-infused genever with elderflower liqueur 1.5 oz. zucchini-infused genever .5 oz St. Germain Elderflower liqueur dash of Peychaud's bitters thin slice of eggplant Simple cocktail. Strain the zucchini out of your infused booze, put 1.5 oz of it into a mixing glass, add the elderflower liqueur, add a dash of bitters, stir with ice, and pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the eggplant slice. Here's the meal all assembled:  The ratatouille works well as a main dish; again, cooking it down in a pot is traditional, but this preparation also works well. Layering the vegetables helps them maintain their independent flavors even as they sit on the plate mixed together. I was worried about piling the vegetables as high as I did, especially after the bread catastrophe, but there turned out to be no problems. It cooked down some and didn't produce enough liquid to spill over the sides of the baking dish. The fried courgettes are easy and delicious, and prep is a snap--you don't even have to sweat the vegetables first. I've tried it that way in the past and it just makes the dish way too salty without appreciably improving the texture. The real key here is to cook them in a single layer. Do multiple batches if you have to, otherwise the slices on top get underdone and stick to the pan, making everything mushy and unpalatable. The dessert dish, two types of zucchini bread are both tasty; I myself prefer the plain variety, spread with a little butter. The chocolate variety is, again, more cake-like and good for people who hate zucchini or think they do--the cocoa does a good job masking the vegetable flavor. Despite the near-disaster and the bread collapsing, it actually turned out all right both in terms of texture and flavor. As for the drink, it was a bit of an experiment, but one that I think worked out well. It may require a bit of fine-tuning (I think the elderflower liqueur may be a tad overpowering, even outmatched 3 to 1 against the genever), but it was decent enough--quite sweet, and smoothed out some of the genever's rough edges. It's not one of my favorite spirits, and not a lot of cocktail recipes call for it, so I was glad enough to have a way to get some use out of it. But wait...  BONUS DISH!!! Breakfast Omelet with Zucchini 3 eggs Indeterminate quantity of leftover grated zucchini 1 T. or so olive oil 1/2 t. or so herbes de provence 2 t. butter a little grated cheddar  It's the next day (or two, or three) and I still have a bunch of zucchini left over. I also have plenty of eggs. You know what to do. Eggs in bowl with herbs, beat them with a fork:  I'm using a cast iron pan. TO MAKE EGGS.  Fry the shredded squash in oil, stir to keep it from scorching:  Set the squash aside and wipe out your pan, then return it to the burner and turn down the heat to medium-low. Melt the butter in the pan and don't skimp, because even the slickest, best-seasoned cast iron gives no fucks about your protein. (Yes, I know my stovetop and grates need cleaning. I just cleaned them; they get messy quickly)  Make sure the entire interior is coated in butter and pour in your eggs:  Shake your pan over the flame as you would for popcorn. Three eggs is a little much for this small pan, so I take a fork and lift up the bottom of the omelet to let some of the liquid egg run down so it can cook too. Unorthodox preparation, I know, but IDGAF:  As it gets done, I put the squash on one side of the omelet:  Now, I also like a little cheese in my omelet as well. Quality counts, so I go with some good cheddar here:  Cheese over the squash:  And we slide the omelet out of the pan heavy side first, then fold the other half over the vegetables and cheese:  And wipe out our pan again. Cast iron is notoriously bad for cooking eggs in, but thanks to all the fat we added in addition to the good base seasoning, it was as good as nonstick:  And finally, a cross-section of the breakfast dish itself:  It was delicious. Meaty Ore fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Aug 28, 2023 |
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Aug 28, 2023 04:12
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I love it, thank you so much for sharing this, I really love that you experimented and pushed the boundaries. My school lunch memories of ratatouille are some cold wet courgettes floating in thin tomato sauce with a flavour reminiscent of cold tea, which is probably why I never make it; I feel inspired to try now!
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Aug 28, 2023 07:36
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Everything looks great! I need to start doing some simple pan fried zucchini as a side again, I used to and just kind of...quit. Thanks for the reminder!
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Aug 28, 2023 07:56
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