Gluttony – The Good, The Not Bad and The Experimental

I left you last time with two courgettes still to use up, which I did manage as you will see, but picked three more large ones. At this point, you may be expecting me to sigh in a faintly exasperated fashion but, in fact, I am rather looking forward to trying some more courgette-based recipies. So, once again, I’m going to share with you the fruits of my culinary adventures so far (and if you think three posts on the topic of courgettes is excessive, just wait until my two already-really-quite-large pumpkins are ready). Gluttony for punishment 😉

Recipe 1 – Courgette, Bacon and Cheese Quiche

We had a surfeit of cheese, which was due to expire imminently, so I made this mostly using Applewood Cheddar and a little grated Mozzarella left over from the lasagne I made the other day. The Applewood gave the quiche a lovely flavour and it was a hit with everyone (except DD, who doesn’t like quiche). The small quantity left over (deliberately) was extremely nice eaten cold the following day. Unfortunately, due to the feeding frenzy resulting from my having not eaten all day, I didn’t take a picture, but if you imagine a home-made Quiche Lorraine…it looked like that.

1 Courgette (thinly sliced)
3 rashers of smoked bacon
handful of grated cheese
2 eggs
5 fl. oz. milk
250g shortcrust pastry
Dill tops
Butter/oil
Seasoning

Oil a suitable dish for your quiche and line it with pastry. If you are making your own shortcrust, it will be much nicer, but I already had some ready made stuff in the fridge that I’d bought on a whim to make a quick apple pie a couple of days previously but didn’t use, because it was too hot to do any more sweltering in the kitchen. I used about half the pack, rolled quite thinly and baked blind for about 15 minutes at about 180C. If the pastry still looks wet, bake for a little longer.

While your pastry case is baking, thinly slice your courgette and soften in butter. Cut the surplus fat off the bacon, chop into smallish pieces and cook lightly. This is mainly to drive out the surplus water in the bacon, if you are using ham or pancetta, you won’t need to do this. Once the pastry case is done, layer the courgette slices along the bottom of the pastry case, add the bacon, sprinkle over the grated cheese(s) and season. Whisk the eggs with the milk and pour over the top. The mixture will rise a little so don’t worry if it doesn’t fill the case to the top, though if you want it deeper, add more eggs and milk in the same proportions allowing extra cooking time. Sprinkle dill tops over the top and bake for about half an hour at 180C. The quiche will still be quite soft until it has cooled, so test by pricking with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. Very Good

Recipe 2 – Courgette Linguine with Salmon

This is a quickie. Bake the salmon for 20 minutes at 200C, wrapping it loosely in oiled foil, topped with a slice of butter, some lime juice and a sprinkle of dill. Meanwhile, cook the linguine. Julienne or make narrow ribbons with the courgette and soften in a pan in a little butter, together with some garlic. When the pasta is cooked, toss it with the courgettes, adding a little extra virgin olive oil, some more lime juice and seasoning. Serve with the salmon, pouring the cooking juices over the pasta. You can use lemon juice if you prefer, but I find that lime has a more distinctive flavour. Not half bad 🙂

Recipe 3 – Courgette Bread

I am going to defer this recipe until I have had time to try it again. It is a proper yeast bread, not a tea bread (cake) like most recipes for courgette bread, but I used too much wholemeal flour and it came out rather heavy. I know what needs to be adjusted and will report back when I have had a chance to perfect the recipe, as the flavour was very good indeed. (You’ll have to wait to find out what else was in it 😉

Happy Eating