The hour of the zucchini is upon us, people.
But let us speak frankly about zucchini and summer squash here, among friends, alright? No stupid jokes about locking your car and no apocryphal crap about country-folk stuffing them in neighbors’ mailboxes.
OK. We don’t actually do a lot of different things with zukes. The reason is this: chop up a bunch of garlic (also available fresh right now), saute in oil, add zucchini slices, saute a bit more, add soy sauce or tamari, saute a bit more, eat. It’s so good. They say mice faced with cocaine or zucchini cooked with garlic and soy choose the latter every time.
Here are a couple of secrets, from someone who has ushered a lot of zucchini prepared this way down the hatch:
* Saute the garlic on medium heat initially, and only for a moment or two. It has plenty more time to cook during phases two and three.
* Slice the zuke thin. They soak up more soy that way.
* Increase the heat when the zucchini go in the pan. This will give some of the garlic a bit of a crispy, roasted feel and allow the soy to evaporate quickly when it goes in. This prevents issues of sogginess.
* When the soy hits the pan, move the zuke around quickly so no one piece sits too long and most receive an even coating.
* Less is more on the soy. It will need a bit of pepper but definately no salt.
Also, folks, zucchini bread exists for a reason. The sad reality is that it never seems to call for enough zucchini to actually put a dent in it when it stockpiles in the fridge. But even so, it’s one of those dry ingredients + wet ingredients thrown together and voila. I found a recipe on www.smittenkitchen.com that i halved successfully last week. We ate it for dessert and breakfast.
Lastly, tonight we did neither of these things, but instead made a simple supper with plainly sauteed zukes and summer squash from last week’s CSA share (oil + salt + pepper + garlic), and threw them on top of an omlette with eggs from Misty Brook farm and Cabot cheese. Oh, and today we were in Northampton (our old stomping ground) and we ate lunch at the one and only La Vera Cruzana, where I stole 3 little plastic containers of salsa. That went all over it well.
Tags: Farmers markets
My favorite thing to do with the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much summer squash we get is to grate it up and just freeze it (in either 2 cup or 4 cup amounts) for the winter when I actually feel like making baked goods again. It freezes fine and it so easy to do.
The jokes about locking your car hit pretty close to home. Too many times have we been overwhelmed with an unending stream of zucchini. So, thanks for the calm and inspirational message. Going to chop garlic & zukes right now.
I am in complete agreement with those smart mice.
When you get burnt on soy sauce, by the way, try ponzu. Same song, second verse.
Love them zukes- bring em on!!!
Dammit, I’m going to freeze some!
I have been slicing the zucchini on a bias, kinda thick, then tossing it in a little olive oil, s and p, and grilling it on a really hot grill pan. Then I mix it with some feta cheese. Sometimes I throw some whole wheat pasta in there too.(Don’t have an outside grill but the grill pan does the trick.) Really yummy!
Oh yeah, coursely grate them, sprinkle some salt on em and let sit 1/2 hour. Put in clean towel, squeeze out the liquid (which is a gorgeous green salty brine, maybe you could let it evaporate and have green salt…) I digress.
Squeeze really hard, then
butter a pie dish, put a layer of zucchini,sprinkle chunks of good feta, basil (or fresh thyme), pretty halved cherry tomatoes or slices larger tomatoes, beat 8-10 eggs with salt, pepper, pour over the zucchini, use a fork to give it a poke here and there, grate some parm on it, put in over at 325 til set in the middle(don’t over cook, get’s spongey), take out, cool a little and put on a plate. It’s good cold the next day, if you can stop eating it. Oh, it’s great with caramelize onion in there too.