Zucchini Pancakes - 2 Ways

The end of summer is approaching, and in gardens and farmer's markets everywhere, the attack of the giant zucchini is commencing!

 To be frank, these giant zucchini have lost the tenderness and sweet appeal of the manageable zucchini the require only one hand to pick up. When they start to out weigh small pets and babies it is tempting to pass them by, or send them straight to compost (where they will faithfully grow your first zucchini plants of the year).

Five Acre Farm from Whidbey Island
is starting to see the monsters!

What if there were a recipe that actually took advantage of the drier, starchier, large zucchini, and possibly some other late summer veggies?

 Well, it turns out there is! Zucchini pancakes - and the versatility is impressive.

 One mixture gives you two pancake options - a flat, griddle/sauté pan pancake, or something more along the lines of a pan fried latke/potato pancake option.
 And there are do ahead/make ahead and customization options as well.




 1. You can make this recipe start to finish and consume everything in one go.
 2. You can grate the vegetable matter in the summer, freeze it... Only to bring it out in the fall or winter, thaw it, drain it, and mix up the pancakes from there.
 3. You can make lots of pancakes, freeze the extras and reheat them as you need them.
 4. You can flavor these pancakes to better suit their use, with your own add-ins, dill, basil, oregano, parsley and jalepeno peppers have all particularly successful.
 5. These are a great side dish, and make the best base for huevos rancheros - ever.

Zucchini Pancakes with bacon and (greek) yogurt for breakfast.
A great start to a day spent replacing faucets.

The Recipe: Zucchini Pancakes - 2 Ways 

This is a proportional recipe - all around 2 Cups of grated zucchini.
I'm going to guess you will have a different amount. Double or triple or halve as you need.
The best news is the recipe is very forgiving, and a little more or a little less is not going to mess things up. And I have yet to figure out how to add half an egg.


Equipment:
Large knife
Cutting board
Mixing bowl - medium or large depending on how much zucchini you are taking on
Grating Device - I highy recommend a food processor for this one
Salad spinner or collander
Non-fuzzy cotton kitchen towels
Measuring cup
Mixing spoon/spatula
Flipping spatula

 Griddle/sauté pan
 -OR- Dutch oven/deep sided skillet/fryer

Ingredients:
2 C grated zucchini
1 C grated potato
1/2 an onion - also grated
1/2 C flour - gluten free flours/flour mixes work well here, you need the starch, not the stretch
1 egg Pinch of salt and pepper
Handful of your favorite herbs, roughly chopped (start with dill if undecided, that's the classic.)

Oil for cooking - amount varies by method (Canola & vegetable oils are fine.  Definitely no place for fancy oils)

Prep:

With the large knife, chop the large zucchini into manageable size pieces.
If the seeds look particularly spongy and dry, scoop them out.
Grate the zucchini, and place the result in your salad spinner/collander for the first round of draining. Go ahead grate it all, you can freeze the extra.

When it is all grated, spread out a thin layer over you kitchen towel,

roll it up and squeeze mercilessly to get out extra water.

You may need to do this in several batches depending on how much zucchini you have.

Measure out your 2 cups, and put the rest in a zip top bag, squeeze out the air and stash in the freezer. Grate the potato and onion.  Use clean hands to stir these together*, add in the herbs, flour, egg, salt and pepper as well.

Combine until just mixed.  (My hands were too goopy to take the photo... and I was getting hungry.)


Cook!

1. Flat Pancake way - heat a griddle/sauté pan over med-high heat. Give it a light coating of oil.
When a bit of the pancake batter sizzles raucously on the surface, it is hot enough. (about 3-4 minutes) Spoon heaping tablespoons of batter onto the griddle. 
Press down with your spatula to flatten then out.
After a minute or two, peek and see if the bottom is browning nicely. If yes, flip! If no, wait until it has, then flip.
Set aside on a cooling rack or paper towels. Eat the first one as hot as you can with some pepper. 

2. Fried Pancake way - heat 1/4 to 1/2 inch of oil in a Dutch oven or other high-sided, heavy pot to 350˚F, or until a dot of batter sizzles merrily, and cooks by the time you count to ten.
(You should be well below the smoke point of you oil, turn it off if you start to see smoke.**)
Fry zucchini pancake patties that are about 2 heaping tablespoons in size. Only cook 2 or 3 at a time so you don't cool the oil down too much.
Each pancake will take about 3 - 4 minutes on each side to get golden brown on the outside, and soft and wonderful on the inside.
Eating of several test pancakes may be required.
 Drain on a cooling rack over paper towels.

For Both Ways -

When you get the timing down,  cook all the rest.
You can keep these warm in an oven that has been preheated to 250˚F and turned off.
Don't cover them, or they will get soggy.
Extras can be refrigerated/frozen, and reheated in a toaster.

*you can also stop and freeze the ingredients here.
** Always have a large lid on hand and a kitchen fire extinguisher when frying.  And NEVER use water to put out a grease fire.

Some quick suggestions: Pan fried zucchini pancakes with lots of dill and a little mint are a classic middle eastern food.  Enjoy with hummus, or yogurt with cucumbers and mint (tzaziki).

Add a north African flair by adding smoked paprika and turmeric to the flour. And serve with the North African version of crockpot food, a Tagine

Add a little sugar, cumin and cardamom for a sweet/ breakfast version, and use a sweet onion instead of a regular one.

Make tiny pancakes, and serve with smoked salmon and a little dilled sour cream for zucchini based party food.

Summer of the Green Tomatoes

Which is better than the summer of the wilted, baked garden.
But all the same I know North West gardeners are staring at their tomatoes (that didn't go down to blight in the 3rd week of July), and glaring at the calendar.

What to do with all the darn things?  (Check at the end for a freezer tip!)

Step 1:  Fried Green Tomatoes - Simplified

Crispy, crunchy, slightly sweet,
 pleasantly sour
and lovely tomatoness 

It was time to delve into the array of Fried Green Tomato recipes out there.  And many are these elaborate, double dipped, long soaking, deep fat frying, intimidatingly time chewing operations.  Great for the restaurant industry - but what does it do for the tomato?

Green tomatoes are nice and crunchy, but the secret is, the tomato goo, where the seeds live, is pleasantly sour.  And the seeds are immature and soft, so they don't have the seediness and bitter flavor that makes people want to remove them from the ripe fruit.

Coating them too thickly with batter and crumbs, then frying them for too long, and turning the tomato to mush does a disservice to the whole experience.

Fried Green Tomatoes in 10 Minutes Flat

Ingredients: For Each Tomato

1 hard, green tomato
1/3 C fine cornmeal (or 3 Tbs cornmeal & 3 Tbs flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning (or 1/4 tsp pepper)

Enough oil to completely cover the bottom of your frying pan in a thin layer (2 Tbs of bacon drippings works for my 10" cast iron skillet).
This can be any high-ish smoke point oil - canola, peanut.  Including some bacony-goodness can only make things better.

Prep:

Mix together all the dry ingredients on a small plate, or in a small flat bottomed plastic container that is roomy around the tomato.
Slice the ends off the tomatoes, and remove the core (stem).
Cut the tomato into 1/4" slices.

Cook:

Heat your frying pan with the oil/fat over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes (check that it's hot enough by dropping in a little scrap of tomato.  If it sizzles - it is ready.

Dredge the tomato in the cornmeal mixture (Thoroughly cover the cut sides of the tomato with the cornmeal mixture).
Place the tomato in the hot fat, and let it cook for about 2.5 - 3 minutes.  Flip when the side is browned, but not too dark.  Cook the other side the same amount.

Drain on paper towels for a moment, so you don't absolutely torch the inside of your mouth.

Yum!

But what if I can't eat that many fried green tomatoes Right Now!?

Freeze them!  After you have dredged the tomatoes, place them on waxed paper on a flat pan - with teh waxed paper separating layers, you can go 2 or 3 high.   Place this in the freezer for at least 5 hours (Overnight is better).  Store them in layers - still separated by the wax paper - in zip-top bags.  Remove as much air as possible from the bags.

When it's time to cook, fry them straight from frozen.  (Do Not Thaw!)  You will need to fry for the whole 3 minutes, and MAY need tp add an extra flip, re-frying the first side of each slice for an additional minute.

Can you imagine, Fried Green Tomatoes for Thanksgiving!

Applesauce!... or The Perils of Procrastination.

Even the modern girl can Can.

So, I've been trying to find time to make applesauce again.  If you've never had good, homemade applesauce, you most likely won't find this exciting, but good applesauce is like fresh ground, fresh brewed coffee vs. Sanka (that weird freeze dried, de-caf coffee-ish stuff).  A whole different animal, and totally worth the trouble.






When we moved into our current house, the dwarf apple tree produces a BUMPER crop of apples, and about 1/2 way into the apples growth, my son and his friend (both about 3 1/2 and the time) pick about half of the apples.  They were still somewhat green but tasty, and I hated to see them all go to waste.  So I made applesauce for the first time.  Pretty easy, except for the straining.

Did that through a sieve.
What a pain.

Everything old is New Again... Why did we give this up?
 This is better than a bendy straw! 

This year, I have a food mill for the first time.











And so, when I finally went to the fruit stand to get a box of apples, I was relieved to see that Gravensteins were still there.  I was worried I had missed them.
I almost had.

Ugly Apples get a Bath

And since the end of the season was approaching, the "scratch and dent" boxes were out - for $5, I could get about 15lbs of ugly apples.

Looks don't matter for apples sauce (or chutney for that matter).  So I got three (3) boxes. (see also; 3x15 = 45 = ARE YOU NUTS!)
I made a small kiddy-pool's worth of apple sauce.  It is good.  Very, very good.  Especially the cinnamon spiced.  I made so much I had to break out the canning equipment.




If I had just gotten apples when they were first coming off the tree, I would have gotten 1 box, and that would have been the end of it.

 And I wouldn't have gotten into this fix.

 Ah well, we have apple sauce for a big chunk of the school year, and I don't have to think to hard about how to round out my son's lunch.
And it is so good, it deserves to be eaten with ice cream.

How does one do this?

I'll give you the starter size recipe.  Once you taste the results and get the hang of it, you can decide if you want to make the plunge (in my case literally) into large batch applesauce.  Because I love my new toy so much, I will give the food mill instructions.  NOTE: If you only have a sieve and a spatula, you MUST peel and core your apples.  And where I say, pour it into the food mill and turn the crank, you just need to use a spatula to press it though the sieve.

Ingredients:

8 new summer apples (what ever size you have) (you can us.e ANY apple... but the best sauce comes from new crop apples, sweet, flavorful, fruity.)

about 1 C water
1/2 tsp salt

(for spiced applesauce - 2 Tbs cinnamon, 4 cloves, 4 allspice berries, & maybe more cinnamon)

Equipment:

1 BIG pot (about 8 quarts - a spaghetti pot)
chopping knife
cutting board
non-conductive spoon (wood or plastic, not metal)
food mill (or sieve... see note above)
spatula
zip-top bags or tupperware you are willing to freeze

Cook!:

Cut the apples into quarters (if you have  a food mill, throw in everything.  The extra pectin from the skins etc., will make for a richer sauce.  Just try it.  Trust me this once.) and throw everything into the big pot.
(For spiced applesauce, also add the whole cloves and allspice berries)
Pour in the 1 C water, and place over high heat for 10 minutes.

Turn down the heat to med low,  and stir the apple occasionally for about 20 more minutes or until the apple flesh turns mushy (feel free to squash the apple pieces with the back of the spoon).

Pour the apple mush into a food mill placed over a large bowl, and turn the crank to separate the yummy from the yucky.

Discard the yucky bits, and stir in the 2 Tbs of cinnamon.  Taste.  Adjust.
Add more cinnamon if you want (red hots are always a fun way of doing this, they give the sauce a fun pinky-red color).

If the sauce seems too thin, return it to the original pot (rinsed out) and cook at a high simmer/low boil to steam off excess water and thicken up the sauce.

As soon as it is delectable, ladle into zip-top bags or tupperware, and cool & freeze for future consumption.

Since this is high in sugar & acid, it will keep well frozen for at least a year.

If you a a canner, this is prime canning material.  Unlike jelly, this is not rocket science.  Just get it hot, and process it.

P.S. I highly recommend Snoqualmie Honey Cinnamon Ice Cream as a pairing.

I have Zucchini in the freezer... Now What?!

Ever had Huevos Rancheros? Know how the gummy tortilla always kills the love?

For this - and for so many other reasons, it is time to embark on the Zucchini-Potato Pancake.

Much like the traditional potato pancake it has the crispy edges, the soft inside, but the zucchini works it's magic and makes it something entirely new. Suddenly zucchini under everything is a great, GREAT idea. And the subtle sweetness of the zucchini means you can monkey with the spices and make it sweet or savory. Breakfast through Dinner! (I concede... dessert might be pushing it. Wait for the Mexican Chocolate Zucchini bread.)

In fact this is the Very First original zucchini recipe that made my husband dive in head first.

So get out the salad spinner, the food processor and a cast iron skillet (or other heavy bottomed 8" - 12" pan that is NOT non-stick. Browning is IMPORTANT here).

Ingredients: (for the very BASIC version)

1C Grated Zucchini (thawed and spun/drained if coming from the freezer)

1 C Grated Potato (Waxy or Medium... NOT FLOURY. This means little yellow or red Thin Skinned potatoes. Russets will make something different) Drain this by giving it a spin too.

1/2 Grated Yellow Onion - you guessed it... spin it too!

about 1/4 cup flour or other granulated starch (potato flour, arrowroot starch etc. for my NO GLUTEN friends)

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg beaten

1 Tbs oil for your skillet

***See bottom of Post for variations***

How To:

Get everything grated and spun. Mix together all the vegetable matter. Mix together the flour (or other starch) and the salt. Sprinkle on the veg. mixture. Toss it around gently with your hands, making sure the flour(etc.) gets everywhere.

Heat up the skillet - about 3 min - over med-high heat. Then add the oil and heat 1 more min - until oil gets hot enough to sizzle a shred of something.

While the pan is heating, break the egg in a small bowl, lightly beat it - just to get it all stirred up - pour over the zucchini & etc. Stir in gently, but quickly with a fork or your hands.

As soon as the pan is ready, make pancakes the size you want - from silver-dollar-sized to the whole pan. Just make sure they are no more than 1/4" thick.

Keep an eye on it (you can even peek underneath). When the bottom begins to get golden brown - FLIP! When they are golden brown in crispy on the bottom too... they are done!

Eat some as soon as they are cool with black pepper.

Eat the rest however you want. I would suggest with Garlic & Mint Yogurt Cheese, or Basil Vinaigrette, or w/ Green Tomatillo Salsa, or under Huevos Rancheros, or as a side to Fajitas....

OK, stopping now.

This recipe can be doubled, tripled and so on... just so long as you do the flour and egg adding in batches. Also, when you run low on oil, add some more to the pan so you keep getting that nice browning. Then when you have made as many as you can stand...

These can be cooled and frozen, stored in a nice airtight container, then toasted in your toaster. You look like a genius.

Next Time... time out for Yogurt Cheese (AT LAST!)

***Variations***

Add sweet onion instead of yellow onion, nutmeg and cardamom (about 1/4 tsp each) for a breakfast version.

Grate some jalapeno in with the onion, and top with lime juice for pairing with Mexican dishes.

Grate in some cornichons - or even good ol' dill pickles and top with tuna salad.

Sprinkle some smoked paprika, cumin and tumeric into the flour mixture and serve w/ Spanish or North African dishes.

And on & on & on!