Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[missuscluck]

I have just come back from my holidays to find two enormous overgrown courgettes in the garden. I made this with them......

 

Courgette bake.

 

Slice up the courgettes (lenthways or in rounds, dosent matter). Slice an onion.

 

Grease a casserole dish.

 

Place a layer of chopped courgettes on the bottom of the dish, then a layer of sliced onion. Cover this layer with a spread of tinned chopped tomatos. Repeat this a couple of times, ending with a layer of courgettes.

 

Pour over a mix of 6 tablespoons of olive oil, 6 tablespoons of vegatable stock ( I made mine with a veg stock cube), a tea spoon of sugar, 2 cloves of garlic (crushed), 2 tablespoons full of chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

 

Then cover the top of the bake with breadcrumbs and bake in a moderate oven for an hour.

 

Garnish with black olives. I like mine with some grated cheese on the top too!

 

Makes a great cheap meal if you have got the courgettes. Or you can eat it as an accompniment to something else.

The boys had liver last night so I made this to go with it as I cant eat liver so am happy to eat this on its own.

 

[Valkyrie]

Sounds nice missuscluck, how about using them in a cake?

Dragon in Law gave me this recipe and this is the first time I've tried it (just out the oven and had thumbs up from DD). The ingredients sound wierd, but it works!

 

8 oz plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt (I didn't put this in mine)

8 oz soft brown sugar

1 oz walnuts or pecans chopped (I had pecans)

1 oz sultanas

6 oz (2 ripe) bananas mashed

3 large eggs beaten

8 oz finely grated courgettes/marrow

5 fl oz sunflower oil

 

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb (and salt if you want to) into a large bowl. Add sugar, nuts and sultanas. Mix well and then add the mashed bananas and beaten egg. Stir in grated veg and oil. Beat the mixture thoroughly for one minute - it will be very sloppy and lumpy.

Butter or line a tin with greaseproof paper/baking parchment). You can use a 9inch cake tin or large loaf tin. I used a loaf tin and I have ready made liners for it. Pour in the mixture (mine nearly came level with the liner, so just made it). Bake for 1 hour at gas mark 4 or equivalent until the skewer comes out clean. I have quite a hot oven, so mine was ready in just over 50 minutes - it rises very well.

 

With the veg part you can do half with grated carrot and half with courgette. Try 4 tablespoons of cocoa and one teaspoon of vanilla for a choccie one. But I haven't had a chance to test these versions.

 

Since starting this, DD has pinched more cake and it is still hot!

[Valkyrie]

PS having tried some more, it is quite moist in the centre and I think it would work very well with chocolate, almost like a brownie texture.

[missuscluck]

That sounds interesting. I would never have thought of putting them in a cake! I have got LOTS comming so I dont think I will be short of a few courgettes for some time! Ill give it a go.

 

We have just had the remains of last nights courgette bake with some sausages and it works really well with them. Tomatos and onions go well with sausage.

[Looney]

MMmmm, I love courgettes!

 

If I get any that are past their best and going a bit manky I use them in soup (along with other bendy veg such as carrots and celery!).

 

Never thought of putting them in a cake.....

[Valkyrie]

Another thought about this cake (stuffing another slice) is that adding ground ginger would be really good too. Or if you prefer it to be less moist, cut down the on the courgettes a little. OH's opinion was "interesting, but I wouldn't eat much of it" - I guess it depends on your palate - it isn't very sweet, but that could be remedied again.

Other than that OH makes a good marrow chutney - secret (not so secret now) ingredient is whisky.

[Valkyrie]

Update on the chocolate version.

Very sickly and very moist (added 15 minutes onto the cooking time) and it nearly overflowed, yet at first testing it wasn't so sweet. The bananas must have been a bit stronger flavour this time, although the chocolate might be bringing the flavour out more. But it is lovely hot and would go down very nicely with some custard - almost like a steamed choccie pudding.