Tag: zucchini

Pickled courgettes

Home-made 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.

Courgette with stainless steel mandolin Courgette sliced using a mandolin

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.

Pickled courgette spice seeds, fresh chillis, garlic and sprigs of dill

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.

Large jar of pickled courgettes

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

Click here or on the image below to save the recipe to Pinterest Pickled courgette recipe

Home-made pickled courgettes

Pickled courgettes

Bon Appétit
Print recipe Pin recipe
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
Pickled courgettes ingredients
Allow at least a week to pickle before eating
Keyword courgette, pickle, preserves, zucchini

Cakes & Bakes: Courgette loaf cake

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

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.

Courgettes growing in our veg plot

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.

Grated courgette and oil & sugar mixture Courgette loaf cake wet & dry ingredients

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.

Courgette cake batter in a lined loaf tin

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.

Cooked courgette cake in a lined loaf tin

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.

Click here or on the image below to save the recipe to Pinterest

Courgette loaf cake recipe

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

Courgette cake

BBC Good Food
Print recipe Pin recipe
Cook Time 1 hour
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
courgette loaf cake ingredients
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