A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace. CONFUCIUS

Sunday 3 August 2008

Courgette Heaven


Help! The courgettes are growing larger by the second. We've already had them in a tomato sauce with home-made beefburgers; on chicken kebabs; in a tomato and lentil soup; in a cottage pie made of fresh butcher's mince, onions, garlic, worcester sauce, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, basil, oregano, seasoning, beef stock, and topped with creamy mashed potato sprinkled with parmesan cheese; and simply sautéed and made crispy in olive oil. (As you can gather, we're rather fond of tomatoes round here. Oh, and courgettes too, of course.) You have to pick courgettes when they're young, firm and succulent - as with beans - otherwise they turn into marrows (not the beans, the courgettes). Has anyone any more creative recipe suggestions?

The pic shows part of our vegetable garden and you can see sweetcorn, courgettes and runner beans.

12 comments:

Mister Roy said...

You could let some grow into marrows, ands have marrow stuffed with courgette - a Zen koan of a meal.

The Solitary Walker said...

Ha! You have me laughing all the way down to the vegetable patch! After eating the damn things for a week now I feel like a change - not double helpings, as it were. I think I'll give them away to the neighbours.

Dominic Rivron said...

I envy you your veg patch. I have been strongly discouraged by other people from growing veg as I always have great plans (I love the books by Laurence D Hills) but always end up with a cat's toilet full of thistles and rosebay willowherb. Trouble is, I much prefer double-digging and filling old jerseys with sheep-muck (to steep in buckets of water), etc,to systematic weeding.

The Solitary Walker said...

Whatever your arcane Yorkshire customs, Dominic (Old jerseys with sheep muck? Cat's toilet? Whatever next!)- do persist till you get to the more fruitful parts of the exercise. It's well worth it, and very satisfying.

Talking of cats, we have various domestic pets buried somewhere in the vegetable garden - and I'm convinced it adds some je ne sais quoi to the taste of the veg.

Dominic Rivron said...

Absolutely! Since we buried Tibby (and later Tiggy)under our rhubarb it's really come on!

I have got as far as growing stuff to eat. My last lot of brassicas were riddled in caterpillars - which we discovered when we cut them up on our plates.

Anonymous said...

Yum! It's not particularly creative, but how about a nice omelette (with free-range eggs, of course).

I'm hungry now...

The Solitary Walker said...

Mmmm... I'll try that, Peewiglet. Often the simplest things with the freshest of ingredients are the best.

Mister roy, I've just thought - your Zen koan of a meal might perhaps also be described as a Russian doll of a repast?

The Solitary Walker said...

Dominic, hopefully Tibby & Tiggy refer to cats, hamsters or goldfish - rather than being affectionate names for any of your (erstwhile) friends or relations?

Sorry, that was macabre. Must have been reading too much early Ian McKuen.

Dominic Rivron said...

Cats. There's a goldfish called Beethoven too, but not under the rhubarb.

Mister Roy said...

Tonight had lasagne made with long thin strips of courgette instead of pasta. Nice.

Alan Sloman said...

Was that 'The Cement Garden'?

My garden could definitley do with a nice bit of concrete instead of all that grass and moss that I have to continually mow...

The Solitary Walker said...

Yes, that's the book, Alan.

If you do go down the concrete route, remember you'll have to get an old rusting Ford Escort, several motorbikes in various states of disrepair and a Rottweiler on a chain to fill up the space on top of it.