Zucchini is not a very exciting vegetable and because everybody grows it you get to eat it a lot. It needs tinkering with to keep it appetizing. This recipe makes a good side dish for thin French style flash fried/grilled steak.
The zucchini I used was a gift from my swimming companion Marie-Jo.
Her husband Philippe grows them in their vegetable garden.
Ingredients
A medium large zucchini
0.5 tsp salt
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Freshly ground mixed peppercorns
100g cream cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
Method
- Julienne the zucchini, discarding the seedy core.
- Put the shredded zucchini in a colander and toss with the salt. Leave to drain for at least 20 minutes.
- Tip the zucchini onto a clean tea towel, roll up and twist to squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
- Heat the oil in a deep heavy frying pan.
- Add the zucchini and cook on medium high for 5 - 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Lower the heat and add the pepper and garlic, stir to combine and cook for a minute or two.
- Add the cream cheese and stir until combined on low heat.
- Serves 2.
Julienned salted zucchini draining.
Julienned drained zucchini, squeezed to extract as much liquid as possible.
Julienned zucchini sauteed in olive oil.
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4 comments:
The lady who delivered the bread in our first village used to bottle the things...the shelves in her sous sol looked like some mad anatomist's laboratory with them leering at you from kilner jars. Goodness only knows what she did with them...
I saw a discussion of bitter zucchini on Facebook. I've never heard of such a thing. I think Marie-Jo was just trying to get rid of that overgrown zuke, by the way. The best thing to do in that case is to cut the monster in half lengthwise, bake it in the oven cut-side down on paper or a silicone pad, and then scrape out the seeds after the zuke is cooked. Use the nice flesh, minus the skin if you think it's bitter, to make a creamy potage or a timbale (vegetable custard).
Long dark green zukes certainly can be bitter. I've experienced it in the past, but not for a long time now. Trust me, this was not the biggest zuke Marie-Jo handed out. I got an even bigger one a couple of weeks earlier, as did several others. This one was not yet marrow sized and was borderline acceptable as a zuke.
Veggies as lab specimens is always a disturbing sight. And it seems crazy to me to put all the work into preserving them then not using them. Even more wasteful than just chucking on the compost (which these days I would argue is often a perfectly valid option).
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