Gluttony – The Next Course

Encouraged by my success with the courgette fritters yesterday, (which were also a hit with DH), I went on to make a courgette-based main course for dinner: namely, Lasagne with strips of courgette instead of pasta. I wimped out a little and did have a layer of actual pasta (fresh lasagne sheets) but, in truth, it was rather superfluous and barely noticeable. If anything, the slight crunch of the courgettes was an improvement on the usual slight rubberiness of the pasta. DS reverted to his usual stance of “I don’t like courgettes”, despite wolfing them down in the form of fritters earlier, and left his courgettes uneaten, but DD did eat some, including the courgettes (bins were checked to ensure no cheating), and apparently enjoyed it. (The promise of an ice cream if she finished it all may have helped). I thought it was absolutely luverly! 🙂

I won’t do a blow by blow recipe – it is a standard lasagne which can be found in any basic cookbook….Oooh, as I am writing this, the warm, spicy chocolate scent wafting in from the kitchen tells me that my courgette muffins are done – more about that later 😀 Yes, where was I…umm…lasagne, basic: mince, onions, garlic, chopped tomato, passata, herbs, a cow cube and seasoning for the sauce. Cut strips of courgette not too thinly lengthways, using a mandolin (if you have one) to ensure even slices and lightly fry on both sides in olive oil. I used my largest courgette so the slices were the length of the dish. Layer the courgettes and sauce, finishing with a layer of courgettes, then a layer of white sauce (see your basic cookbook) and top off with grated mozzarella.

Bake for half an hour or so until the cheese is melted and brown like this:

So, that was three courgettes down (in a most satifactory fashion) and three to go and there are going to be at least another four before long. First thing this morning, I whipped up a batch of courgette muffins, those of the aforementioned scents. Oh my! Now these were a universal hit and if you have a surplus courgette, I guarantee you won’t regret making these. I based mine on this recipe but with some variations, so here’s mine.

Double Chocolate Courgette Muffins

Ingredients:

2 eggs

100g golden caster sugar

75g dark brown sugar

125g melted butter, slightly cooled

1 medium grated courgette (approx 180g)

375g plain flour

5tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (oops! Forgot to halve the quantity, hence the double chocolate)

1tsp (a generous slosh) of vanilla extract

1/2tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp or so ground cinnamon

1tsp or so mixed spice

Whisk the eggs with the sugar and gradually drizzle in the butter. Mix in the remaining ingredients, stirring well and add the flour last. Divide into a dozen muffin cases and after baking at 180C for 25 minutes, you’ll have these: (Umm, well, you’ll briefly have a few more of these)? Simples!

The dark brown sugar and spices give the muffins a lovely, chocolatey-gingerbread flavour and you(r kids, assuming you are prepared to share the muffins with them) won’t even notice the courgette. Enjoy!

Tomorrow…two courgettes remain, the mission continues with courgette bread 🙂

Addendum: Really useful gadget of the week for making short work of slicing, dicing, grating etc is the mandolin