Beat the Glut

Marrow stripes - July 2008

August and September sees our harvest in full swing and with a number of crops in glut. Courgettes (zucchini) are notorious for this - back in June/July you may find just one small courgette per plant, then the next time you look there's armfulls of them. We always host a curry evening in August and put a crate of them out for our visitors to help themselves, having tried the product already in my husband's vegetable curry.

With this in mind, I've put together a few of my favourite 'glut busting' recipes. Some may already be old favourites of yours or you may have a similar version, but I think there should be something new here to tempt and tickle your tastebuds. Let me know how you get on if you decide to try any of them.

Any allotmenteer worth their salt is also a great soup maker. Here's my version of the genre. I've also added New Covent Garden Soup Company's Courgette and Brie Soup as a variation.

Soup should have lots of fresh, homemade bread to mop it all up - Courgette, Tarragon and Lemon Bread gives an easy to make more unusual, flavoursome twist on the old classic.

No soup, but you have some cheese to go with your bread? Then Glutney chutney's just the thing to go with it.

It's teatime? You love carrot cake? Then this Courgette Cake recipe's going to blow you away.

Right, we have enough recipes for snacks and tea-time treats. Here's a few more savoury recipes to make a more substantial meal.

For starters there's my favourite dish from Greek holidays - Courgette Fritters. For a main course I have two choices for you - Baked Courgette Omlette or Butternut Squash Risotto.

Oops, I appear to have overlooked tomatoes somewhat in the glutbuster stakes. It's probably because I had total crop failure last year owing to blight and this year's only just coming into production (I only grow outdoor varieties). So lets redress the balance a little with my favourite basic tomato recipe, Roasted Tomato Sauce.

What's your favourite Glut Busting recipe?

VP's Recipe Book

Today's menu:

Tea Time Treats

• Scones
• Chocolate Cake
• Halifax Building Society Fruit Cake
• Bramble Jam

Glut Buster

• Roasted Tomato Sauce
• Allotment soup
• Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Glutney
• Courgette Cake
• Courgette, Tarragon and Lemon Bread
• Courgette Fritters
• Baked Courgette Omlette
• Butternut Squash Risotto

A Stronger Tipple

• Elderflower Champagne
• Elderberry wine

Do you have a favourite recipe you'd like to add? Do tell me about it in the Comments section below...

Allotment Soup/ Courgette & Brie Soup

Most weekends NAH and I have 'Allotment Soup' ('Assortment Soup' for those of you who don't have an allotment) for lunch. This tends to be whatever is in abundance at the time (seasonal and therefore cheapest if you're buying), so naturally at this time of the year courgettes (zucchini) form a major component. The onions, garlic, and herbs fresh from the garden are constants. I use potato if the soup will need a thickener (for example you won't need potato if you're making a parsnip centric version) and the courgette component will be whatever glut vegetables you have to hand - 1 vegetable or a mixture, it's up to you. Note I don't use salt in my cooking, so you may want to add your own to taste. This quantity will generously serve 4-6.

Ingredients

• 2lb courgettes or other vegetables of your choice
• 1 large onion
• 8oz potato (washed, but not peeled)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bunch fresh herbs - type and amount to your taste. I've used sage this time - mixed herbs, thyme, oregano or rosemary also work well, or powdered coriander (cilantro) seed
• 4 bay leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pints vegetable stock (either home made or a stock cube made up to the amount needed with hot water)

Method

• Peel and chop the onion into rough slices
• Pour the olive oil into a large pan and set on the stove
• Add the onion and set the pan to a medium heat
• Peel and chop the garlic and add to the pan
• Gently soften the onion and garlic until they are transparent
• Add the vegetable stock and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Roughly chop the remaining vegetables and add to the pan
• Destalk the herbs and add to the pan along with the bay leaves
• Bring the pan to a rolling boil, then cover and turn down the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust seasoning about half way through
• Allow to cool, then remove the bay leaves with a spoon (you can leave them in if liked - this makes for a spicier version, but you may get the odd fragment of stalk)
• Process the soup using a blender until smooth
• Reheat and serve with fresh crusty bread

Variation: For courgette gluts, my neighbour makes a delicious courgette and brie soup taken from the New Covent Garden's soup recipe book. And here's the recipe - I've only been able to find a metric version, so you may need to use the measure converter below.

Courgette and Brie Soup (serves 6)

Ingredients

450g courgettes - chopped
350g potatoes - peeled and chopped (I leave the skins on as I prefer them that way)
225g Brie - ripe with rind removed
1 large onion - chopped
1.2 litres vegetable stock (home made, or 1 stock cube made up to the required amount)
Seasoning to taste

Method

• Put all the vegetables in a large pan, add the stock and seasoning to taste
• Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender
• Cool slightly, then process the soup using a blender until smooth
• Add the brie, bring back to near boiling point, stirring constantly so the brie is combined with the liquid
• Taste and adjust seasoning if needed

Measure converter - for ounces, cups, grammes etc.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Glutney

Photo courtesy of: Easygardener

I first came across this recipe in Kitchen Garden magazine a couple of years ago in their version of 'glut buster' recipes. Anyone who can call their chutney 'glutney' has my vote - it turns out to be a great pickle too. Here's the recipe in Hugh's own words.

This lovely pickle is a fantastic way to use various summer veg gluts, and overgrown courgettes are one of my favourites. You can alter the recipe according to what you have, and chop and change the spices to suit your taste, too. Makes about 10 jars.

Ingredients:

• 1kg courgettes, unpeeled if small, peeled if huge, cut into 1cm dice (or use pumpkin later in the season)
• 1kg red or green tomatoes, scalded, skinned and roughly chopped (or 1kg plums, stoned and chopped)
• 1kg cooking or eating apples, peeled and diced
• 500g onions, peeled and diced
• 500g sultanas or raisins
• 500g light brown sugar
• 750ml white-wine or cider vinegar, made up to 1 litre with water
• 1-3 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp salt

Measure converter - for ounces, cups, grammes etc.

For the spice bag:

• 1 thumb-sized nugget of fresh or dried ginger, roughly chopped
• 12 cloves
• 12 black peppercorns
• 1 (generous) tsp coriander seeds
• A few blades of mace

Method:

1. Put the vegetables and fruit in a large, heavy-based pan with the sultanas or raisins, sugar, vinegar and water, chilli flakes and salt.
2. Make up the spice bag by tying all the spices in a square of muslin or cotton. Add the spice bag to the pan, pushing it into the middle.
3. Heat the mixture gently, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, and bring slowly to the boil.
4. Simmer for 2-3 hours, uncovered, stirring regularly to ensure it does not burn on the bottom of the pan.
5. The chutney is ready when it is rich, thick and reduced, and parts to reveal the base of the pan when a wooden spoon is dragged through it. If it starts to dry out before this stage is reached, add a little boiling water.
6. Pot up the chutney while still warm (but not boiling hot) in sterilised jars with plastic-coated screw-top lids (essential to stop the vinegar interacting with the metal).

Leave to mature for at least two weeks - ideally two months - before serving.

Courgette Cake

The office at my last job had a very good coffee bar with an afternoon coffee and cake offer that was extremely bad for the waistline, but such a bargain it was hard to resist - Americano and a large slice of cake for 99p. A different cake was baked on the premises each day and their version of courgette cake was one of my favourites.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
250g butter, broken up into pieces (at room temperature)
450g (1 cup) caster sugar or brown sugar
4 eggs
350g (3 cups) self raising flour
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
350g (3 cups) courgette (zucchini), grated
50g (1/2 cup) walnuts, roughly chopped
80g (1/2 cup) sultanas (optional)

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:
125g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon

Method:

Courgette Cake:

1. Grease and line 2 x 8inch (20cm) cake tins with baking paper
2. Preheat an oven to 180°C
3. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy
4. Add the eggs one at a time while mixing until the eggs are well incorporated
5. Sieve the flour with the cinnamon and mixed spice
6. Fold in a 1/3 of the flour, followed by 1/2 of the lemon juice and zest, repeat this using the remaining flour and lemon, so that all the ingredients are well combined
7. Stir in the courgette, walnuts and sultanas (if using) and incorporate well
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins and place on the centre shelf of the preheated oven
9. Leave the cakes to cook for around 30-40 minutes or until the cake is firm to touch
10. Turn the cakes out on a rack and allow to cool

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy
2. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice and zest until you have a smooth creamy icing
3. Spread half the icing over the top of the one cake and sandwich the two cakes together
4. Cover the top of the cake with the remaining icing

Variation: Zest and juice of oranges or limes can be used instead of the lemon

Measure converter - for ounces, cups, grammes etc.

Courgette, Tarragon & Lemon Bread

This recipe is taken from The Bread Book by Sara Lewis and is another cunning way of using up some of that courgette glut. To keep things (relatively) short, I'll just post the bread machine recipe. Do post me a comment if you'd like the hand-made version.

Ingredients

• 150g (5oz, heaping half cup) courgette - grated & patted dry with kitchen paper
• 500g (1lb, 4.5 cups) strong white flour
• 1 lemon, grated rind only
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped French tarragon (don't bother with Russian unless you really don't like the aniseed flavour)
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1.5 teaspoons fast-action dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 200ml (7 fl oz, scant 1 cup water)

Method

1. Assemble ingredients.
2. Lift the tin out of the breadmaker, fit the kneader blade and then add the ingredients in the order advised by your breadmachine's manufacturer
3. Insert the tin into the breadmachine and shut the lid. Select basic large (750g/1.5lb) white bake and select the preferred crust setting if your machine has this option. (I used the dark crust setting for the loaf you see in the photo) Press start.
4. At the end of the programme, lift the tin out of the machine with oven gloves and turn the bread out onto a wire rack to cool. Loosen the bread with a plastic spatula if it's reluctant to leave the tin.
5. If you don't have a crust setting option and you find the loaf is rather pale on top, brush a little butter over the top and brown under the grill.

Makes 1 large loaf. Delicious with tuna or soup, such as my Allotment Soup

Variations
I find it very hard to keep to a recipe, so here are some variations I've tried:

• Substitute the same amount of peeled butternut squash for the courgette. This is a good way of using those teeny tiny squashes we get from time to time
• Fennel foliage (bulb or herb) instead of tarragon for a stronger aniseed taste
• Use 30-40ml juice from your grated lemon and make up to the 200ml liquid needed with water. Tip - microwave the lemon for 10 seconds and you'll extract the juice much more easily
• Substitute strong wholemeal flour for the white flour to make an even healthier bread. However, you'll lose some of the green speckled effect from the courgette and tarragon. Also, remember to change the baking option to brown bread!

Courgette Fritters

These are delicious and remind me so much of holidays in Greece where NAH and I would order a large plateful as a starter at a lovely restaurant looking over the sea at Finnikounda. Sometimes as a variation, we'd order a plateful of aubergine fritters instead.

Fritter Ingredients:

• 2 lb courgettes (or aubergine or a mixture of the two)
• 1 medium egg, beaten
• 6 tbsps plain flour
• Oil for frying
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sauce Ingredients (optional)

• 1 lb tomatoes skinned & chopped
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped (optional - can use chopped basil/oregano instead if preferred)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
  ½ onion, chopped

Method

1. Cut courgettes into thin slices (round, lengthways, or oval - it's up to you)
2. Salt slices and put in colander to drain for half an hour
3. Rinse and pat dry
4. Put all sauce ingredients in a liquidiser and process to a puree
5. Put puree into a small pan and let it bubble gently on a low heat while the fritters are made
6. Pour the beaten egg onto a flat plate. Spread flour onto another plate, seasoning with salt and pepper.
7. Heat oil in a frying pan. When hot dip the vegetables first in the egg, then the flour. The idea is to have a light dusting of flour on the courgette. Fry a few at a time until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.

Serve immediately with the sauce served seperately. Serves 4.

Variation: Finely grated Parmesan cheese can be added into the flour (adjusting the amount of flour used accordingly) or used instead.

Measure converter - for ounces, cups, grammes etc.

Baked Courgette Omlette

Here's a simple, oven based recipe from Kitchen Garden magazine that can be baked at the same time as your other cooking to make more efficient use of oven space. Useful now that our utility bills are going up so much! It makes a simple lunch or supper dish, served with your freshest salad leaves and crusty bread.

Ingredients

• 2 courgettes, grated
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 4 oz (125g) Cheddar cheese, grated
• Freshly chopped herbs to taste - oregano, thyme, marjoram or a mixture
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a basin
2. Pour into a greased, oven-proof dish
3. Bake in a moderate oven until set and golden brown

Serves 2.

Butternut Squash Risotto

My brother-in-law and family are vegetarians and were coming down for the weekend a couple of years ago. I had a major glut of squash and needed some inspiration for an evening meal. A quick Google search and voila! I found the following recipe on the BBC website. It went down very well with my discerning visitors...

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• About 15 sage leaves, chopped
• Flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large knobs of butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 400g/14oz arborio or other Italian risotto rice
• 2 glasses white wine
• 1 litre/1¾ pint vegetable stock (or chicken stock if your guests aren't vegetarian!)
• Good handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
• 75g/3oz pinenuts, to serve

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
2. 2. Cut the butternut squash into 6-8 wedges, remove the seeds and place in a roasting tray
3. Pound or chop the garlic and add a generous glug of olive oil, half the sage leaves, sea salt and pepper. Tip into the tray and rub over the butternut squash with your hands
4. Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes until softened and becoming golden in colour.
5. Once the squash has cooked, cool slightly, then scrape the soft flesh away from the skin into a bowl. Lightly mash with a fork or potato masher until it is fairly chunky in texture. Scrape any sticky juices left in the roasting tray into the bowl and keep warm while making the risotto
6. Heat the olive oil and a good knob of butter in a deep, heavy-based frying pan or saute pan
7. Gently fry the onion until softened
8. Add the rice and stir for about a minute until the grains are coated with the oil and butter
9. Pour in the wine and stir continuously until it has cooked into the rice
10. Add a good ladle of hot stock and the remaining sage and season well with salt and pepper
11. Turn the heat down so the stock is simmering gently. Keep adding ladles of stock as it cooks into the rice, stirring and moving the rice around in the pan
12. After about 15-20 minutes the rice should be soft but still have a bit of bite left in it. The texture of the risotto should be thick and creamy, but not too loose. Add extra stock if necessary. It may seem tedious standing and stirring but the end result will be worth it
13. Remove the pan from the heat and gently stir the roasted butternut squash into the risotto with the parmesan, the remaining butter and seasoning to taste. Add any extra stock if the risotto seems particularly thick. Cover with a lid for a couple of minutes as this will give the risotto an even creamier texture
14. During this time, place the pinenuts in a fairly hot frying pan and toss around until golden. Spoon the risotto into warmed bowls and scatter with the pinenuts and extra parmesan.

Tip: For a smoky non-vegetarian finish to the risotto, fry 6-8 slices of smoked streaky bacon cut into thin strips or 200g/7oz lardons until crispy and scatter over the risotto with the pinenuts.

Serve with garlic bread and salad. Serves 4.

Measure converter - for ounces, cups, grammes etc.