101 Uses for Zucchini

Budapest, July 27, 2022 I sent this email and link to a video I liked. I bought a huge patty pan squash at the farmer's market here near our flat here in Budapest. What do you do if you have a mega big zucchini? I will add the photo here:

Barbara Carlson Tue, Jul 26, 9:20 AM (23 hours ago) to me, bcc: Joe, bcc: Thomas, bcc: Rose, bcc: Elizabeth, bcc: meli.carlson@gmail.com, bcc: Maria Hi Joe, Thomas, Rose Ann and Elizabeth, I saw this food and music video just now and thought of you. I could see us making this together. I bought a mega big patty pan at the farmers market here at the church park where I live. I was going to cut it into pieces and roast it but I think I'll grate it instead and make this. I never saw such big patty pan squashes like they have here. They also have this one that they sell grate already and it bag and with a smaller bag of dill. I don't know what it is called, but it is a very loved squash dish here. Joe and I make a grated zucchini and parmesan cheese, salt, pepper baked in a pan like brownies things that this is similar to. 'Backen macht Freude', right? I love you and God put you in my thoughts as I was watching this food music video. LOVE again from Barbara

One summer I took care of my friend's garden while she was in Switzerland.  We had so much zucchini and joked about writing a pamphlet called "101 uses for Zucchini."  My neighbor, Mr. Bill Little, gave me a few excellent recipes.

This first one was on an index card.  Bill said Arlene was a friend of theirs.

Here is Arlene's Zucchini Casserole

5 yellow and or green zucchini squash (about 8 inches long)  sliced
4 to 6 strips of bacon (chop and fry til crisp---drain grease)
1 medium onion chopped
1 Tbsp. butter or bacon grease
3 eggs beaten
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Put zucchini in water and bring to a boil for 1 minutes--then drain and run under cold water to stop cooking.  You don't want the zucchini over-cooked and mushy.

Saute onion in the bacon grease until just cooked.

In a 2 quart casserole dish, put 1/2 of the zucchini, onion, bacon and beaten eggs.
Repeat for second layer and top with grated cheese.

Bake in 350 oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until the eggs are cooked and the cheese is melted.

This dish is also good reheated in microwave and for breakfast.

The Little's Meatloaf

Dan Howard's wife's Zucchini Bread

The Best Cookie Press Cookies I have tried

These are good cookies to give as a gift because they look like store bought but taste so much better.   They look like the Danish butter cookies you can buy in round or square tins.  I also remember Julia Child wrote advice to not "over finger" the food you make.  Don't make the food look like you over handled it.   The dough of these cookies is squeezed by you through a press so you don't have to over handle the dough by rolling it between your palms and etc.

A few years ago I signed up to bring butter cookies to a bridal shower so I tested a lot of cookie press recipes.  I said already that I like that cookie press cookies look like store bought cookies but taste homemade because they are.  One of the recipes I tested, was a Martha Stewart recipe and used corn meal as well as flour.  The cookies were grainy and gritty because of the cornmeal  My husband, Joe said the cookies tasted like I made them at the beach!

That made me laugh long and loud----aerobic laughing.  Maybe this kind of laughing gets a person's heart rate up and/or burns calories?

I found this recipe called Cream Cheese Bows in Martha Stewart's Cookie book.

3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter at room temp.
3 oz. cream cheese at room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
powdered sugar for sprinkling

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Put the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium speed until creamy.  Mix in granulated sugar. Add egg, lemon zest, lemon juice and mix well.  Reduce the speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place the dough in a cookie press.  You may need to chill the dough a little to get the right consistency to press the cookies.  Press the cookies onto a cookie sheet.  I decorate with sprinkles before I bake the cookies.  Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom about 12 minutes.

I am going to try to make these for St. Patrick's Day, March 17th and use yellow and blue food coloring mixed together to make them green.

Homemade Braided Egg Bread

This bread is also called challah.  It is important to use all of the 2 tsp. of salt otherwise the bread doesn't have taste.

1 pkg. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of water and 2 tsp. sugar.  Cover and let bubble up in a warm place.  Sift 4 cups of flour together with 2 tsp. salt into a large mixing bowl and add 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp. melted butter or oil and 1 cup warm water and the yeast mixture.

Stir together until all is well-blended.  Dust a large board with flour and turn the dough out to knead.  Knead in as much flour as needed to make a smooth, elastic, non-sticky dough.

Grease the mixing bowl and put the dough into it.  Cover and leave it to rise in a warm place without a draft for about an hour.  Punch the dough down and on a lightly floured board, divide the dough into three equal pieces.  Roll these pieces into logs or strips.  Braid these strips into a fat even braid on the board or on a buttered baking sheet so you don't need to move the braid once you have made it.

Cover the bread with a light tea towel and let rise for abut 1/2 an hour.  Brush the loaf with a slightly beaten egg yolk and sprinkle the loaf generously with poppy or sesame seeds or leave plain.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes.

Homemade Peach Jam

One of my teacher friends gave me a spiced peach jam recipe.  She adds
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
to each batch of the peach jam.

Streuselkuchen aka Streusel topped Cake aka Tennis Team norishment aka "fruit pizza"

Streuselkuchen

In Germany, most bakeries sell Streuselkuchen.  My mom made it from scratch and showed me how.  One of my brothers calls it "fruit pizza" because it is made with a sweetened pizza-like dough, covered with fruit (like plums, pluots, applesauce, etc.) and then topped with streusel crumbs.  My friend, Lura, had a green pluot tree in her backyard and that fruit made an amazing, memorable streusel kuchen.

Steusel crumbs are made with 1 cup softened butter, some salt mixed into 1 cup of flour (or more) and 3/4 cup of sugar more or less.  I sometimes add some lemon juice like 1 Tbsp. I add lemon juice  to make the streusel dough crispier/crunchier.   The very best batch of Streuselkuchen I made was during the summer of 2011 because the streusel had a great texture.  It was crispy and tasty.

When I taught in Zarqa, Jordan and in Beirut Lebanon I was inspired to make streusel kuchen because the plums were so tasty. 

The sweetened pizza dough:
2 cups flour and 1 tsp salt mixed with 1/3 cup sugar (more or less is okay)
My husband noticed that the yeast doesn't like touching high concentrations of salt.  The salt can keep the yeast from rising and even kill it.
1 package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp.) dissolved in 2/3 cup of warm water and a Tbsp of sugar (or more) and
2 Tbsp of vegetable oil.

Put the 2/3 cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Mix in the Tbsp of sugar and the package of yeast into the water.  Cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place.  Don't let there be a draft on the yeast.

Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients for the crust:  2 cups flour, 1/3 cups of sugar and 1 tsp. salt
together in a plastic or glass mixing bowl.  My husband also noticed that yeast doesn't like touching metal as much as it likes plastic or glass so try not to use a metal bowl or metal spoons.  Pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients when the yeast starts to bubble.  Mix the liquid and dry ingredients together to form a ball.  Don't forget to add the oil.  I have used corn oil, coconut oil, etc. You may need to add/sprinkle more flour in at this point to form a dough ball that doesn't stick to your hands.  Put the dough ball out on the counter and start to kneed it.  The dough should feel soft, springy and nice to the touch. Good work!  Then put the dough back in the plastic or glass bowl and cover with the clean cloth.  Put in a non-drafty location.  My mom used to put the dough on a picnic table bench in front of the fire place.  Let the dough rise until it is twice the size.

Stretch the dough (and toss it if you can like a pizza parlor employee) so it fits into a jelly roll pan or in a cookie sheet with sides.  Make a few fork holes so the dough doesn't blister while it is baking.  If the dough is too small and doesn't fit into the cookie sheet I let it rise again on the cookie sheet covered.  Next, pour over the applesauce or cut the plums or pluots to cover the entire surface of the dough.  My favorite fruit to use is plums but most of the time I use applesauce because it is more readily available.  One time my friend gave me green pluots from her tree and that cake tasted so great because the pluots (like plums) were sour and a great contrast to the sweet streusel.  You don't want the fruit topping to be that thick otherwise the yeast dough stay soft and gooey even after baking.

Cherries are also a great filling.  We used to go pick Bing cherries in Brentwood, CA every summer and take the pits out and freeze them so my mom could make Streuselkuchen with cherries all year round.  Crumble the streusel on top of the fruit.

Bake at 350 or 325 for 25 to 30 minutes.  When I was little I used to take off the baked streusel and eat it without eating the pizza dough part.  Now I like eating the fruit part and the yeast bread part. I think I liked only the streusel topping because my mom baked the Streuselkuchen so the crust was darker brown and harder than I liked it.

I have tried pumpkin pie filling but I didn't like it as much as the plums, pluots, cherries or applesauce.  My mom liked a ground poppy seed filling called Mohn best.  That is an Eastern European specialty.   One of my high school friends called poppy seed Streuselkuchen "dirt cake" because the ground poppy seeds look like dirt.  My husband likes when I add cinnamon to the apple sauce or to the streusel.  I have done that and I have also added nutmeg and cloves and sometimes cardamon instead of the cloves. 

Recipes using cucumbers

Sunomono Salad

This is one of my favorite cucumber recipes

Mix together
5 thinly sliced tomatoes
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
2 to 3 cucumbers, thinly sliced
a generous drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and 2 splashes of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Let stand about 20 minutes for the flavors to mix.  Re-toss and you can serve with crusty bread for mopping up the juices and oil.

This is a pickled cucumber salad 

2 to 3 cucumbers

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar, white vinegar, or apple cider

1 Tbsp sugar

a few drops of soy sauce
green onions (optional)

Peel and slice cucumbers into very thin slices.  Sprinkle sliced cucumbers with salt and let stand a few minutes. Drain out excess moisture.  Combine vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce and mix well. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumber slices and mix well.  

I found this refrigerator quick pickled cucumber salad during the summer of 2017 on the internet and it might be the best recipe. 

Quick Pickled Cucumbers – Refrigerator Pickles

Quick and easy pickled cucumbers with onion made in the refrigerator; our favorite way to use summer cucumbers!

• Author: Melissa Griffiths
• Prep Time: 5 min
 
• Total Time: 5 min

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vinegar (apple cider, white, and rice wine are all good)
• 1/3 cup sugar (optional)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons salt
• sliced garden cucumbers (about 2 cups)
• sliced onion or green onion (about 1/2 cup)
• additional vegetables as you like (bell pepper, whole cherry tomatoes, etc.)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine and until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion. Taste and adjust the ingredients to your liking.
2. All the cucumbers should be covered in the brine, if you have lots of cucumber or are making a big batch, make more brine.
3. Let the mixture rest in the fridge until you are ready to eat. The flavors develop over time, so an overnight soak is great but mine are normally gone by dinner.

Notes

I love adding the sugar and my mom does too, but my grandma doesn’t add that much (she only adds a few tablespoons). I say try it and see what you like.

White vinegar is the traditional vinegar for this recipe and a great place to start. If you know that you like apple cider or rice wine vinegar they are also good.

You really can’t mess this up. Just adjust to taste and enjoy!

An Asian-Style Cucumber Salad

This recipe comes from the August 2003 issue of Good Housekeeping.  The woman who submitted it, Cindy Alleman, says it comes from the Quark's Bar and Restaurant at the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek: The Experience.

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. Thai sweet chili sauce
3 medium English cucumbers (2 1/2 pounds)   I have used regular cucumbers and taken out the seeds and this works too.
1 Tbsp. black sesame seeds, lightly toasted

In a medium sized bowl, stir rice vinegar, sugar, Thai chili sauce, and 1/2 cup cold water together.
Cut unpeeled cucumbers into 2-inch lengths.  With a mandolin or with a chef's knife, cut cucumbers into 1/4 inch-wide, matchstick-thin strips.
Add cucumber strips to the dressing in the bowl; toss to coat.  Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight to blend flavors, stirring occasionally.
To serve, throughly drain cucumbers strips; transfer to serving bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Roasted green, red, yellow or orange peppers

Roasted green, red, yellow or orange peppers

I always need to double check the oven temperature and cooking time for this recipe.  Set the oven at 375 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The rest of the recipe I have memorized.

Cut peppers in half and use a small knife to cut away the core at the top and the seeds inside.
Rub the skins on the outside with olive oil and put the peppers skin side up on a baking sheet.
Bake them in a 375 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the skins are browned and blistery.
Take them from the oven and let them cool off.
Use your hands to pull off the browned skins.
Cut the peppers into slices, and put in a bowl.
Moisten with some olive oil and add a bit of salt.
These will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for 5 or 6 days if you don't eat them all up before then.



Roasted Bell Peppers

Roasted peppers are flavorful, right from the oven, or they can be stored in olive oil in the refrigerator, for up to two weeks.

4 large bell peppers, halved, seeds and ribs removed

Preheat oven 500 degrees F.  Place peppers cut side down on a baking sheet, and roast until charred, about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Place in a large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap;  let cool.  Slip off charred skins, and slice peppers.  Peppers can be stored, covered in olive oil with herbs, if desired, in the refrigerator up to 10 days.