Adventures in Cooking Our CSA Share: Zucchini and Summer Squash

I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks now, as you'll see from the array of collected recipes. And zucchini is still in season! When we came home from our weekend at Ma and Gong's, we had three squash to pick from our garden: a nice plump yellow crookneck, a long (10"?) striped Italian zucchini, and a (gulp!) almost 24" striped Italian zucchini. That last one was hiding, I think, because it would've been there last week; we just didn't see it. I think it will be a perfect candidate for baking if only because it's so impressively sized. And I can seed it and use other zucchini for the stuffing. Ma cooked some of our zucchini this weekend (we took her our entire CSA box): cut in chunks (which are more fun than rounds), stir fried, and topped with a bit of sesame oil. Yummy!

Also, KAF just added their own Chocolate Zucchini Cake to their blog (it looks richer than the one I have below). I have all the ingredients . . . if only I can sneak the zucchini past Sis!

Some notes:

• Zucchini and summer squash can be eaten raw or broiled, steamed, fried, grilled, sauteed, stir-fried, or baked.
• Store zucchini and summer squash for up to 3-4 days.
• Grated or pureed zucchini can be frozen and saved for adding to soups, sauces, and baked goods later.
• I like the smaller zucchini and summer squash.

*These are tried and true; the rest are on my list to try. I have only included here recipes in which zucchini is a primary ingredient; otherwise, I use it in soups, stews, ratatouille, etc.

*Curried Zucchini Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

coarse salt

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 1/2 pounds zucchini (about 3 medium), sliced 1 inch thick

1 baking potato, peeled and cut into 1" chunks

1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted, for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, adding onion and 1 tablespoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and curry powder ; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add zucchini, potato, and 4 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes.

Puree in batches until smooth; serve immediately or let cool. Garnish with toasted almonds.

Great Food Fast, From the Kitchen of Martha Stewart Living

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*Baked Squash

2-3 yellow squash
olive oil or butter
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Cut squash in half or in even thinner slices, depending on thickness of squash (but not too thin). Spread evenly in pan. Drizzle with oil or dot with pats of butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 30+ minutes until tender.

Gommie Hungry

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*Gommie's Zucchini Bread

4 eggs beaten
1/2 cup oil
1 clove garlic, minced
dash pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup bisquick
3 cups zucchini, sliced.

Mix in 9 x 13" pan. Bake 30 minutes at 350F, until brown.

Gommie Hungry

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*Zucchini Fries

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

3 medium zucchini

water or milk

1 cup fat-free or low-fat spaghetti sauce

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450°F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Place bread crumbs, cheese, and garlic powder in Ziploc bag and shake well to combine all ingredients. Set aside.

Cut each zucchini lengthwise into 8 pieces; cut each piece again in half lengthwise. Fil a pie plate with water; then dip each zucchini stick first in water, then into bag of crumb mixture. Shake until zucchini are coated on all sides. Place on cookie sheet. Repeat with rest of sticks.

Bake on cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes or until brown and tender. Serve with warm spaghetti sauce.

Note: Use 1 medium eggplant, sliced into thin rounds, instead of zucchini.

Eating Expectantly

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TO TRY:

Zucchini Oven Chips

• 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fat-free milk
• 2 1/2 cups (1/4-inch-thick) slices zucchini (about 2 small)
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Place milk in a shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in milk, and dredge in breadcrumb mixture. Place coated slices on an ovenproof wire rack coated with cooking spray; place rack on a baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until browned and crisp. Serve immediately.

Cooking Light

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Layered Zucchini

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 6 cups sliced zucchini (about 3 medium)
• 1 pound ground round
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups low-fat spaghetti sauce (such as Muir Glen Organic)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 cups fat-free cottage cheese
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs, divided
• 1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add zucchini; cook 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and cool.

Place the beef and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in the spaghetti sauce, salt, basil, and oregano; cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Combine the cottage cheese, parsley, and eggs in a medium bowl.

Arrange zucchini slices in a shallow 3-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle the zucchini with half of the breadcrumbs. Spread half of cottage cheese mixture over breadcrumbs; cover with half of the meat mixture and 1 cup mozzarella. Repeat the layers with the remaining breadcrumbs, cottage cheese mixture, and meat mixture; reserve the remaining mozzarella. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes.

Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella, and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Cooking Light

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"Zapple" Bars

Filling

5 1/2 cups peeled and diced zucchini

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Crust

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

In a nonreactive saucepan, combine the zucchini and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Simmer, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes, until slightly thickened.

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter 9 x 13" baking pan.

To make crust, in a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and vanilla. Process until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press half of the crust mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Spread the zucchini mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble the remaining crust mixture evenly on top of the zucchini. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars.

The Classic Zucchini Cookbook

Note: A similiar recipe called Sweet Zucchini Crumble appears in the Farmer John's Cookbook, using 4 1/2 cups flour, 3 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 cups butter, 6-8 cups zucchini (4 large), 2/3 cup lemon juice (about 3), 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Directions are almost exactly the same.

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Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake

3/4 cup oil

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

1/2 cup sour milk or buttermilk

3 tablespoons cocoa or carob powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and cloves

2 1/2 cups flour

small bag of chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350F; grease a 9 x 13 pan. Mix all ingredients and bake 30-35 minutes.

From Asparagus to Zucchini

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Zucchini Spice Bread

Nonstick cooking spray

1 large zucchini

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, and set aside. Grate zucchini on the large holes of a box grater (to yield 1 3/4 cups); set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together sugars, oil, vanilla, and eggs.

Into a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, and stir to combine well. Stir in grated zucchini.

Pour batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack, then reinvert, top side up. Cool completely before slicing.

Martha Stewart Everyday Living

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Zucchini Bread

3/4 cup fat-free milk

1 cup shredded zucchini (about 4 oz)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups bread flour

1 cup whole wheat

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon gluten

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place ingredients in the pan according to the manufacturer's instructions. Set crust on medium and program for Basic cycle; press Start (do not use delay timer).

When baking cycle ends, immediately remove the bread from pan and place on the rack to cool before slicing.

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

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KAF Zucchini Lemon Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

grated peel of 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup (or more) chopped walnuts

1/2 cup (or more) raisins

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup (packed) shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine flour, sugar, powder, salt, and lemon peel in large bowl. Stir in walnuts and raisins. In a smaller bowl, combine eggs, milk, and oil.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Stir just until barely combined and gently fold in zucchini.

Spoon the batter into a greased, 12-cup muffin tin. Bake 20-25 mintues or until the muffins spring back when you press them with your fingertips.

KAF 200th Anniversary Cookbook

Stuffed Zucchini--Bloodroot

Choose 5 medium sized zucchini. Cut in half crosswise and use an apple corer to make hollow tubes by first working from one side and then the other. Chop 1 medium onion. Saute it in 2 tablespoons olive oil until soft. Remove pan from heat and add to it 1/2 cup raw white rice, 2 tablespoons chopped straight leaf parsely, 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, 1/4 cup dried currants, and 2 tablespoons squash corings, chopped fine. Also add salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup pignoli nuts. Make a "broth" by mixing 1 teaspoon tamari in 1 cup water and moisten the uncooked rice mixture with a few tablespoons of this. Taste for salt and pepper. Use your fingers to stuff zucchini tubes. Place in a pan and add the "broth" to 1/2" deep in the pan. Cover and refrigerate until dinner time.

Half an hour before serving time, bake zucchini covered in a preheatedc 400F oven.

Zucchini Latkes

Grate 2 medium zucchinis in a food processor or by hand. Grate 1 small onion. Turn into a colander and let drain 5 minutes.

Beat 2 eggs in a bowl large enough to hold zucchini mixture. Squeeze zucchini handful by handful and discard exuded moisture. Add squeezed zucchini to eggs. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons cornemeal, 2 1/2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, fresh ground pepper, and a pinch each of baking powder and sugar. Stir all together and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil in frying pan. Use a fork to pat out small pancakes (4-5") and fry until brown on one side. Turn with spatula, pressind down on trhe latke to flatten it.

Serve with sour cream on the side.

Bloodroot

Adventures in Cooking Our CSA Share: Hidden Zucchini

I made the cookies . . . and Sis wouldn't even try them. I'd like to be able to blame the fever she

developed today for her lack of appetite, but I think she sensed the zucchini. Even though I called them

"Summer" Chocolate Chip Cookies. It's just a summer

cold, I'm sure, so she'll be fine. But I don't think that means she'll try the cookies, which were

good (enough--I like mine crispier so I'll need to fiddle with it a bit, maybe somehow strain the

shredded zucchini) and not even a bit green.

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"Summer" (ZUCCHINI) CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

(Makes about two dozen)

1 egg, beaten

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Combine in large bowl.

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

Combine in a separate, small bowl and blend into liquid mixture

1 cup finely shredded zucchini

12 oz chocolate chips

Stir these into other ingredients, mix well. Drop by spoonful onto greased baking sheet, and flatten with the back of a spoon. Bake at 350°, 10 to 15 minutes.

from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Adventures in Cooking Our CSA Share: Squash Overload

The Best Zucchini Recipe:
1 bushel zucchini
1 raincoat
1 pair of sunglasses
A moderately fast car
Directions:
Go to a busy parking lot. Drive around until you find an unlocked car. Put the zucchini in the back seat and drive away FAST before you are discovered!

--Darius

I have something like 8 lbs of zucchini and summer squash in my fridge (and yes, I recognize that, by comparison, that's not much). And pretty much only me to make a dent in it, since the kids won't readily eat it and Mama gets lunch at work (though, she'll see squash every night!). Friends don't eat it or don't want it. And I don't want it to go bad--it's in my crisper, frozen in my freezer, on the menu for dinner! I usually eat it baked or in soups, but I need a way to devour it faster, especially because there will be more coming out of my garden and more in my CSA box next week!

I was going to make the zucchini chocolate chip cookie recipe in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or some kind of "zapple" (that's zucchini-for-apple) crumble mentioned in my Classic Zucchini Cookbook, you know a baked good that takes 1-2 cups and hides it from the kids. But, see, I bake during the day and they would be suspicious of grated green stuff going into the mixing bowl. I guess I'm going to have to do some stealth baking!

And, if you happen to know any other great zucchini recipes, please pass them along. I'll do a post with a compilation of zucchini recipes later in the week.

So, no need to lock your doors, dear neighbors . . . .

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How to Use Three Squash Recipe

2 yellow summer squash, whatever shape you like (I like half circles or wedges)

1 zucchini, whatever shape you like

1 onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup picante sauce

olive oil

Heat olive oil in skillet, adding onion and then garlic. Saute squashes in skillet, adding picante sauce when translucent. Reduce liquid in dish to desired consistency. Serve with pinto beans, tortillas, and avocado!

Mommy Hungry

What's the Magic Word?

Jessica Seinfeld would be proud. In our house, the magic word is "zucchini."

I'm not exactly sure how it all started, really. We were building a castle with couch cushions on a summer day so hot that we were taking refuge in the air conditioning. I put cushion gates up and then kept asking the kids, who were stocking said castle with necessities--food and musical instruments--what the magic password was. And at some point, "zucchini" was suggested. Let it be known that DD suggested it. DS wanted "avocado." I teased them for a bit with "broccoli" but "zucchini" won out. And they thought that was hilarious. So they kept running up to the gate, beaming excitedly, and yelling out, "ZUC-CHI-NI!"

Now, it turns out, that "zucchini" is our magic word for everything. If you are trying to get them to say please by asking "what's the magic word?", you aren't going to get what you expect. If we're posing for a picture, it's not "cheese" on everyone's lips. And if you need a gate opened or a chinny-chin-chin house protected from the huffy-puffy big bad wolf, your answer is a vegetable.

And we've noticed that consumption of said vegetable has actually increased. This summer I made Summer Squash Soup and they both determinedly ate the green ones before the yellow ones. Same thing earlier this week when we were eating steamed vegetables at Longhorn Steakhouse with my folks. I think we might actually have to see about planting some next spring.

But what brings me to this today is naptime. As I've mentioned, we aren't napping very well now that we sleep in toddler beds. For the last few weeks, with Chicago and my parents visiting, we've done most of our napping in the car. But today was back to "normal." I knew it wasn't going well when they started discussing books, which meant they were no doubt both out of their beds perusing the bookshelves (which would normally make a parent proud, but not during naptime). They ended up stuffing all the thin books underneath the door, which they can no longer open since DP installed those babyproof handles this weekend (It's almost people-proof. All my art group guests today had trouble opening the door to the downstairs bathroom!).

And then I heard it, right after pleas for mommy to come open the door could be heard over the rattle of the new plastic handle cover. DD sang out the password, "Zucchini," hoping the door would magically open.

DS chimed in, "ZUCCHINI!"

And what do you know? It's magic.