Pickled courgettes

After using up some of our home-grown courgettes in a loaf cake, the plants are producing yet more. Pickled courgettes are a good thing to make, so we can enjoy the mid-summer bonanza all year round.

I found a simple ‘pickled zucchini’ recipe on the Bon Appetit website to which I made just a couple of little tweaks. I couldn’t find any dill seeds or saffron threads in the supermarket, so I used fennel seeds in place of the former, and omitted the latter completely.

Instead of simply slicing the courgettes with a knife, I used our mandoline which gave the slices attractive grooves.

We’re really looking forward to trying the pickle – served on the side or incorporated into the dishes themselves. We’re thinking burgers, sandwiches, salads and stir fries.

They need to steep for at least a week, but we’ll probably wait till the autumn before tasting ours.

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Pickled courgettes

Bon Appétit

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Course Condiment

Cuisine British

Ingredients

1 kg/2lb small courgettes preferably about 4 or 8 inches long, trimmed
4 tbsp coarse sea salt or pickling salt divided
12 sprigs fresh dill
2 tsp yellow or brown mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp dill seeds
¼ tsp saffron threads
4 cloves garlic halved
4 red chillis split lengthwise
600 ml/21fl oz white wine vinegar
50 g/1¾oz sugar

Instructions

If you're using 10cm/4-inch courgettes, halve lengthwise. If using 20cm/8-inch courgettes, halve crosswise, then quarter lengthwise
Put them into in a large bowl. Add 2 tbsp of the salt and 4 cups of ice. Add cold water to cover. Top with a plate to keep the courgettes submerged. Allow to sit for 2 hours. Drain and rinse
Divide the dill sprigs and next 6 ingredients between 2 clean, hot 1-litre glass jars and set aside
Bring the vinegar, sugar, remaining 2 tbsp of salt and 300ml/10½fl oz water to a boil in a large saucepan
Working in batches, add courgettes and cook, stirring occasionally, until khaki in colour and slightly pliable, about 2 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the courgettes to jars
Divide the hot syrup between the jars to cover courgettes, leaving a 1cm/½-inch space on top
Wipe the rims, seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes

Allow at least a week to pickle before eating

Keyword courgette, pickle, preserves, zucchini

Cakes & Bakes: Courgette loaf cake

We’ve begun to harvest a couple of nice crops from our little veg patch now (apart from the strawberries, which provided a running fruit buffet for the local mice). We had some lovely new potatoes this week, and the courgettes are doing very well indeed.

So, what to do with them? They’ll be perfect in all manner of stir-fries and other savoury dishes, but we decided to start with a courgette loaf cake.

They’re incorporated into the batter as you would with carrots in the better known carrot cake. In this recipe they’re combined with walnuts, sultanas, nutmeg and cinnamon.

The resulting cake was a great success and has proved very popular here at H is for Home headquarters. We’ve had it for the past few days with our afternoon brew. It’s very moist as it is, but we’ve found that a scrape of butter works fantastically well. There’s not a huge amount of sugar in the recipe – but I think it works. It’s well worth giving this cake a try… with either shop-bought or home-grown courgettes.

Gardeners and allotment-holders often say that they have a glut of courgettes, so this is a perfect use for some of them. Also, if you have trouble getting vegetables into your kids, they’re wonderfully well hidden – they’ll never know!

You can be very versatile with this recipe. Substitute pecans for the walnuts. Swap raisins and/or prunes for the sultanas. Add a couple tablespoons of orange juice instead of the vanilla extract. Use honey or maple syrup as an alternative to the brown sugar… or you can sprinkle golden granulated over the top just before it goes into the oven, if you’d like it sweeter. Similarly, for additional sweetness, you could top it with a cream cheese frosting.

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Buttered slices of home-made courgette loaf cake | H is for Home

Courgette cake

BBC Good Food

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Cook Time 1

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 10

Ingredients

2 large eggs
125 ml/4fl oz vegetable oil
85 g/3oz soft brown sugar
350 g/12oz courgette coarsely grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
300 g/10½oz plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
85 g/3oz walnuts roughly chopped
140 g/5oz sultanas

Instructions

Heat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease and line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment or paper liner
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and sugar
Add the grated courgette and vanilla extract
In another bowl, combine the remaining (dry) ingredients with a pinch of salt
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then pour into the loaf tin.
Bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes away clean
Allow to cool in its tin for a few minutes before removing it and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack

The cooked cake can be frozen for up to 1 month

It's delicious sliced and spread with a little butter

Keyword courgette, loaf cake, tea loaf, zucchini

On our radar: Grow your own mistletoe kit

BUY IT HERE

Every year, we look out for alternatives to the usual flowers and chocolates Valentine’s Day gift options. Did you know you can buy a grow your own mistletoe kit? Yes, the plant is usually associated with Christmas, but February-April is mistletoe sowing season. And, besides, what is it that you’re meant to do under the mistletoe?

Each mistletoe kit contains 50 freshly-picked berries (enough for about 10 plantings) with detailed instructions, labelling material and a recording form to keep track of planting.

The seeds need to be sown on the bark of trees – mistletoe loves to grow on apple trees the most; however, it’s also happy on hawthorn, lime, poplar and many others.

**Since writing, the English Mistletoe Shop are now only despatching in March 2020. Nonetheless, they can take pre-orders from autumn 2020 onwards for early 2021 delivery… so that’s next Valentine’s Day sorted!**

Home-made damson cheese

After making use of some of the plum crop in our garden, I needed to find something to make with the damsons.

We inherited two mature damson trees – both about 20 foot tall. This autumn, they’ve both been laden with fruit, some we gave away, some we couldn’t reach to harvest. We kept about 5 kilos of fruit for ourselves.

I found lots of recipes for jam and jelly – however, it was a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe for damson cheese that I fancied trying. There are only 2 ingredients; damsons and sugar – and you don’t need to undertake the time-consuming task of de-stoning the fruit either.

The damson cheese mixture sat bubbling away on top of the simmering hob of our new Esse for a couple of hours until it resembled a thick chocolate sauce. All it needed was the occasional stir to make sure it didn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. I could get on with other little jobs while it did its thing.

Like jam and jelly, damson cheese keeps for months once wrapped and refrigerated. Have it as a component on your cheeseboard – it’s lovely with a ripe brie. It’s also a great accompaniment to hot & cold meats.

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Home-made damson cheese

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall

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Course Condiment

Cuisine British

Ingredients

5 kg damsons washed
2 kg granulated sugar approx.

Instructions

Put the damsons in a large preserving pan, add a couple of tablespoons of water and bring slowly to a simmer, stirring as the fruit begins to release its juices. Leave to simmer until completely soft
Tip the contents of the pan into a sieve and rub it through to remove the stones and skin, leaving you with a smooth damson purée
Measure the purée by volume. For every 500ml, add 350g sugar
Combine in a large, heavy-based pan bringing it to a simmer over a low heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then cook gently, stirring regularly so it doesn't catch, until reduced to a thick purée. It's ready when you drag the spoon across the bottom of the pan and the base stays clearly visible for a second or two. This can take up to an hour of gentle, popping simmering and stirring
Pour the 'cheese' into very lightly-oiled, shallow containers and leave to cool and set

It will keep almost indefinitely in the fridge. Serve in slices with bread and cheese

Keyword baked cheesecake, damsons, fruit

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: grow your own

Pickled courgettes

Pickled courgettes

Ingredients

Instructions

Cakes & Bakes: Courgette loaf cake

Courgette cake

Ingredients

Instructions

On our radar: Grow your own mistletoe kit

Home-made damson cheese

Home-made damson cheese

Ingredients

Instructions