It’s that time again. The time you think will never come so in the spring you plant one more of this and one more of that. The weather this year has been particularly challenging – cold winds battering seedlings, followed by cold and persistent rain which stunted the growth of warm climate plants and then brought forth the snail invasion. They, along with their cousins the slugs, started eating things they didn’t normally bother with – like hairy baby courgettes. So you sow one or two extra and what do you end up with but courgettes coming out of your ears. Now, I long for courgettes in January and, although I try to eat seasonally, I might sneak one into my shopping basket. Such a treat. But in August I’m sick of them… I have fried them, steamed them, baked them, roasted them, pickled them, put them in cakes, fritters, soups, sauces, muffins. I thought, therefore, that I’d put some simple recipes down.
The simplest way to cook courgettes is to sauté them slowly with garlic. You can toss them in a bit of flour. Add black pepper and lemon juice – or Japanese ume sauce which really perks them up. Elizabeth David has another simple classic way, which is to slice them (2kg for 4-6 people), salt them and leave them to stand for 30 minutes in a colander. This stops them soaking up too much oil. They may need rinsing if they are too salty. Cook them in 125g of butter on a very low heat. Add half a kilo of peeled and chopped tomatoes after about ten minutes and cook for another ten minutes.
This next very easy recipe was given to me by an American friend.
Zucchini Bread
Mix:
3 Eggs
1 cup oil
At least 1 1/2 cup sugar
2 cups zucchini (grated and drained)
1 tsp vanilla
Add:
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda/ bicarb
3 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Mix all together and bake in a well-buttered dish at 375F for 45 mins.
I did have a recipe for grated courgette fritters with feta but I can’t find it. Will carry on the search and update this as it’s a good one and uses up a lot of them.
Cordwainers Garden 
You can grate them and mix with just enough egg to bind. Like a fritata.
You can cook them slowly in czech lager, with garlic.
Dont add flour – except for when you eat the flowers – dip in egg then seasoned flour and cook for 15 seconds – or not v long.
Thanks for your nice ideas. Can’t have too many courgette recipes!
You can also grate them, add to whipped eggs, some flour (or better, use pancake mix) and top with generous amount of grated cheese (jarlsberg, parmesan, whatever you like) and bake in oven at 350 until firm. But here across the Atlantic we’ve had a super hot summer and our glut has been in tomatoes–the zucchini were mostly devoured by various critters!