As the courgettes in my
garden seem to be thriving and producing a bumper crop we are having to think of
many different ways to use them. We have
been eating them in the usual stir fries and steamed, but I’ve had to be a bit
more inventive with some of the bigger ones.
Firstly I made some
courgette, pea and spinach soup from a recipe I got out of my New Convent
Garden Soup book. This was delicious and
had a lovely texture. I think I will be
making up a nice big batch of this and freezing some. I wouldn’t normally eat much soup this time
of year, but as the weather has been so cold and wet I’ve needed something hot
at lunchtime a little more often.
Next came a bit of an
experiment.....courgette cake! I had a
look on the internet and found a recipe that sounded nice for a courgette and
lemon cake. I was a bit sceptical, but I
love carrot cake and I do have an awful lot of courgettes to use so I had
nothing to lose. The result was lovely,
a little lighter than a carrot cake, with a lovely hint of cinnamon. It is lovely and moist, but lemon didn’t come
through as much as I’d like so I think I would add more next time. Another success I look forward to repeating
in the near future.
Lastly I made some
chutney as we had just finished off last years supplies so it was the perfect
time to get out the Maslin pan and my collection of old jam jars. I used a recipes from my river cottage
handbook that I used last year for a Apricot chutney, and although the results
look good and initial tasting was good we will have to wait a couple of months
while it matures for the final verdict.
While reading some
magazines I found some lovely recipes for dishes using courgettes, including
pizza and risotto, so as long as my plants are giving me the courgettes I will
continue to experiment.
