courgettes

[diver]

I've a glut of courgettes, probably the same as many other people, any one any ideas for things that I can cook to use them up...something that will freeze...or perhaps a courgette relish or pickle???

[Shirley]

Hi Diver

Good to see you

Congrats on the good crop of courgettes... I'd come and buy some from you if you lived closer lol.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/datab ... 2377.shtml

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... 3f363aa43d one from the forum last year... courgette cake!!!

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... 69f585f4a6

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/courgette.htm

and... you might even want to add to the 101 uses for...... (Gunners has some spicy relish recipes too) - http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... f09771c7c5

[Tigerhair]

I just put a few in stuff most days and we're using them up!

[Chickpea]

I've had a rant about this on my blog recently - how can you find information on how many plants to plant to avoid ridiculous gluts/undersupplies? Someone told me to plant two courgette plants and pray one of them dies. What's the general opinion - how many courgette plants is the optimum?

[Shirley]

My thoughts on avoiding gluts.... share your gardening plans with local friends... suggest that each of you grow different things ... and you share the harvest. This may only work well with things that you expect to give a good crop from...

OR you could buy your seeds together and split a packet between 2 or 3 gardeners....

OR simply sell the excess!

[Biscombe]

I'm going to make marrow and ginger jam today, got a recipie from the OH's mum! You need same amount of sugar and marrow 3-5 lemons with zest and some ginger. cover the marrow (why not courgette!) with the sugar and lemon zest for 24 hours then cook up with the lemon juice water and bashed ginger for about 2 hours! Well im trying that today hope its nice!! I also love grated cougette and feta binded togethre with minted mashed potatoes then grilled of fried! Yum yum! xxxx enjoy your glut!!

[hedgewizard]

I've had a rant about this on my blog recently - how can you find information on how many plants to plant to avoid ridiculous gluts/undersupplies? Someone told me to plant two courgette plants and pray one of them dies. What's the general opinion - how many courgette plants is the optimum?

Depends how many you're feeding and how much you use them! We're into trying to go through the winter on our own preserved stuff, although we won't manage it until next winter I think... but at any rate you can preserve your excess if you have any, or trade it. It's probably best made up into chutneys and freezable dishes like ratatouille, though, since the "glut" is actually pretty spread out for this crop and so time-consuming to preserve unless you do it alongside other things you're preserving anyway.

Year before last we had three plants and were knee deep in the damned things. This year we have one plant, and it's just enough to keep us going. Next year I'll grow two with the aim of preserving half. We're a family of 2 adults (one courgette-hating), one teen, and one littleun who adores eating them raw. Sometimes.

Also depends on how young you pick them. They're tenderest and subtly flavoured when maybe 10cm long. They're most versatile at about 15cm long. Once they get much over that they may get a little seedy and then are best treated more like baby marrows. We tend to take ours at around 15cm but it's easy to miss them!

Drying: We have a dehydrator but you can use racks in a solar drier or site in full sun and finish in the airing cupboard. If making read-to-eat courgette crisps (haven't tried this) then slice thinly, but for cooking slice more thickly and steam for 3 minutes before drying, and add to soups and stews.

Freezing: Slice and steam as above and then freeze (the consistency isn't great done this way), or grate coarsely and blanch very briefly (just in and out) in boiling water. The grated stuff is good to bulk up a tomato sauce or add to any muffin mix to add moisture; I lightly oil the inside of a muffin tray and then put dollops of the grated stuff into it, then freeze. Once hard the patties of courgette come out easily enough and drop into a sealable box or bag.

[Chickpea]

Hedgie, you're a star. Thanks a lot. Sounds like the "plant 2 and pray one dies" advice is about right, although I also like your idea about having 2 plants and preserving half. But 3 or 4 courgette plants (or more!) would result in a ridiculous unusable glut for a normal family. This year we have 3 - we had 4 but one died. I think we had a narrow escape!

There's a lot to be said for sharing produce with friends and neighbours and building up a healthy deposit in the "goodwill bank", but I'd rather aim for producing the amount we need and give away accidental oversupplies, not deliberately plant far too many of one thing.

[diver]

thanks, everyone, my trouble was that I planted what I thought were cucumbers and they weren't they were courgettes.....I pick them everyday, give them away freely to anybody who will have them and still have 31 courgettes in the fridge...we eat them everyday. I have lots of marrow and ginger jam ( old war time recipe, with lots and lots of ginger ) and my tomatoes aren't ready for the ratatoille ( sorry, can't remember how to spell it) Thanks for all of the ideas and links I am on to them all now...ps just made a pile of cucumber relish with my cucs...with a recipe from this site last year.

[Shirley]

hoorah!!!!

Would love to see your marrow and ginger jam recipe if you get a minute to post it

[Millymollymandy]

Sounds like the cucumber and ginger jam that I made last year. Still got 4 pots of it left - well we don't eat jam that often!

I have 3 courgette plants this year. Last year we had 4 so I decided on 2 only this year - a round one and a yellow one. However I just can't do that plant 2 seeds and pull one out - I let them both grow!!! And now I have about 8 round courgettes in the fridge and more ripening every day......... aarrggh!

P.S. Ratatouille is really horrible after freezing. Don't do it! Make your courgettes into soup!

Somewhere I have a recipe for courgette, basil and parmesan soup on this site - try a search for it. You can get thru loads of courgettes this way. We are still eating last year's soup!

[Millymollymandy]

Here it is:-

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... mesan+soup

[hedgewizard]

Wonderful! But I can't quite crack growing basil... gets washed away in the soil beds, and never seems to do all that well in pots. Any tips?

[Chickpea]

Are you growing it from seed, Hedgie? I have no luck with basil outdoors because the bloody slugs always eat it right down to the ground. I buy it in a pot from the supermarket and it can last for months on my kitchen windowsill.

[Shirley]

I've grown quite a lot of basil from seed this year - I do it in pots indoors and find that works best... YUMMY!!