Courgette Slice, with Bacon and Herbs

I make this recipe more often than I write about it, as it's become a staple warm weather dish; it makes an excellent meal when accompanied by salads. Depending on how filling the salad selection is, it will feed 4-6 people. The added flour also makes it sturdier than a frittata, so it's ideal for carrying to picnics, and of course, with no pastry, it's quicker and easier to make than a quiche.

This time, I was starting with bacon, so there was an extra step involved to fry the bacon until crisp and drain off the excess fat. If ready-cooked ham is used, it's just a matter of chopping and grating the vegetables and mixing everything together. The resulting mixture is then baked in a 23cm/9" parchment lined round baking dish at 195C (175C fan) for about 50 minutes, until firm and golden. I find that it's best eaten at room temperature, or even slightly chilled, rather than warm.

Ingredients:
300g coarsely grated/sliced vegetables (I used 200g grated courgettes, 70g grated carrots and half a red pepper, which I sliced very finely)
1 large onion, finely chopped
100g grated cheddar cheese
200g smoked bacon lardons, fried until crisp, then drained of fat (or 150g ham, cut into small strips)
A small bunch of fresh mixed herbs, finely chopped (I used sage, winter savory and lemon thyme)
5 large eggs
125mls sunflower oil
130g SR flour
Seasoning to taste - a little salt and plenty of pepper, plus a few chilli flakes, if liked

Courgette and Apricot Cake

This was a last ditch attempt to make a light and sponge-like courgette cake. After the numerous attempts I've made, I've always said that I wanted a cake which was as light as the 'Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake' (I can't bear that name!) on the Good Food site, and that each particular version I tried wasn't quite right!

Finally the light dawned - why not use that recipe, with courgettes instead of carrots?

As I've often thought that the problems with courgette cakes are down to courgettes being a much more watery vegetable than carrots, I grated about 30% more courgettes than the recipe required and squeezed out as much excess water as possible, using a clean tea-towel, before weighing the 140g needed. I replaced the raisins with chopped dried apricots and used 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg as the only spice, leaving out the cinnamon. Everything else followed the recipe!

Surprise, surprise - it worked! I'm sure that part of the reason this recipe was more technically successful was that it used a smaller proportion of courgettes than other recipes I've tried, and the other part was probably down to squeezing out excess water. The flavour of the cake was less successful -  I didn't feel that the dried apricots and nutmeg worked well together - but that's easily remedied in the future.

I'm happy to find a courgette cake recipe which gives me what I've been looking for, although it isn't one that will make a huge dent in the usual summer glut!

Courgette Cake

There was nothing really wrong with this cake - it had a pleasant flavour and contained sultanas and pecans for variations of texture (chewiness and crunchiness) - but there was nothing there that excited me! It was just 'pleasant', which is low down on my judgement scale for cakes!

I used this recipe from Nigel Slater. The recipe was easy to follow, although my loaf took a few minutes longer to cook than the time suggested in the recipe.

I think the basic problem is that I want courgette cakes to be light and fluffy, like many carrot cakes I've tried, including my favourite from Good Food, but because there is so much more moisture in a courgette, even after squeezing out as much as possible, this just isn't going to happen. Adding apple probably only makes things worse, in this respect. If anyone has a recipe which does make a light sponge-like cake, please let me know!

Courgette, Sultana and Pistachio Loaf

I managed to make one more recipe from Honey and Co: The Baking Book, before the library demanded it back from me. It was down to a choice between this courgette loaf and a carrot cake, and the courgette loaf won because I had all the ingredients already (allowing for a couple of substitutions).

I used sultanas instead of golden raisins, and orange zest instead of lemon, neither of which were going to have a major affect on the flavour of the cake. I also chopped the pistachios roughly, as I dislike whole nuts in cakes.

I didn't really encounter any problems while making the cake, although both the loaf recipes I've made from the book have almost filled my 2lb loaf tin, leaving me worried (needlessly, fortunately) about cake batter ending up on the floor of the oven.

This cake was moist and dense but not too heavy. The pistachios, sultanas and flecks of green from the courgettes made it quite colourful, and the chewy sultanas and crunchy pistachios gave some variations in texture while eating. However, once again, it was the spices used that made this cake something special - star anise and ginger, combined with the citrus zest, gave a really unusual sharp and peppery flavour, which was balanced nicely by the sweetness of the sultanas.

Ham and Courgette Slice

This savoury bake is ideal for summer, especially when the forecast is for weather so hot that you wouldn't want the oven on, and you have enough warning and time to bake ahead. It's also good for when the courgettes are producing fruit faster than you can harvest them, or there's a glut on the market. We're not quite at the over-production stage, but I'm determined not to allow things to get out of hand this year - I don't want any marrows!

My inspiration comes from this recipe on Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, which I've written about before. This time I used two thick slices of smoked ham instead of the bacon, and added a sliced chilli and some shredded sage leaves for extra flavour.

This is what I used, but it seems a very versatile recipe, so a little more or less of any of the flavouring ingredients probably won't make a lot of difference, as long as you keep the batter the same (the eggs, flour and oil). I guess it would also be OK to add things like leftover cooked vegetables to the mixture too, as part of the total weight of vegetables.

300g coarsely grated vegetables (I used roughly 220g courgettes with 80g carrots for colour contrast)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely sliced
about a dozen sage leaves, finely shredded
100g grated cheese (I used 60g strong cheddar and 40g parmesan)
100-150g smoked ham, cut into small strips
5 large eggs
125mls light olive oil
130g SR flour
salt and pepper to taste

Just mix everything together, pour into a parchment-lined baking dish (I used a 23cm (9") cast iron pan) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 175C (fan) for around 50 minutes until firm and golden brown. The baking time depends on the depth of mixture which is determined by the size of the dish you use. A 20 x 20cm (8 x 8") square dish would be a similar size - anything smaller will give a deeper mixture which takes longer to cook.

This is best eaten warm or at room temperature. It's probably OK hot too, but I haven't tried that - I'd still let it rest for about 15 minutes after coming out of the oven.

Although this is very similar to a quiche filling, or a frittata, the SR flour makes it a little sturdier, whilst still keeping it light because of the raising agent, and the oil keeps the texture moist. The added bonus over a quiche (besides not making pastry, thus avoiding a soggy bottom) is that the onion doesn't need pre-cooking - any moisture given out during cooking is absorbed by the batter, which doesn't happen with a quiche filling.

I'm sending this to Belleau Kitchen's Simply Eggcellent bloggers' link-up. Dom is allowing us free reign this month saying that 'anything goes'! This dish makes a quick and easy main course, could easily be made vegetarian  and is robust enough to hold up in a lunch box or picnic basket, making it a useful recipe during the holiday season.

Courgette and Hazelnut Loaf

This is another recipe suitable for the unseasonable dull weather that has characterised most of August - this cake, from the BBC Good Food website, made from an over-grown courgette and some foraged fresh hazelnuts, has warmth from nutmeg and cinnamon, and sweetness from sultanas rather than a lot of sugar.

I haven't had a particularly good year in the vegetable garden. What was once a triangle of land which received sunlight in the afternoon is now a dark and cold corner of the garden which receives much less light, as our neighbours trees are getting so large. However, the courgettes have produced enough fruit to keep us well supplied, although it's nowhere near the excess we've had in previous years. The courgette I used for this recipe is one which hid under a leaf until it was too big to be called a courgette. After taking out the seeds and wringing out any excess moisture in a tea-towel there was just the right amount needed for the recipe (350g).


Fresh Cobnuts



Hazelnut Thief!

Although I moan about the shade from our neighbours trees, and blame them for our poor harvest, they have provided some of the hazelnuts used in this recipe. We also managed to get a few from the small twisted hazel tree in our garden, before this squirrel took them all, and my husband has been coming back from his morning walk with pockets full of what look like cobnuts, found in a local park.

Shelled Fresh Nuts

One advantage of really fresh hazelnuts is that they don't have the thick brown skin which needs removing before use. Once I'd shelled the nuts for the recipe, I chopped them roughly, then roasted them for 10 minutes to accentuate the flavour. I then used them in place of the walnuts in the recipe. This was the only change I made, apart from squeezing out some of the moisture from the coarsely grated courgettes. Even after this, I found the cake took 75 minutes to cook, rather than the hour suggested in the recipe.

Any cake containing grated fresh fruit or vegetables runs the risk of turning out too dense and very close-textured because of the extra moisture, but this cake turned out very well. It wasn't as light as the Courgette and Lemon Cake I made back in May, but I think it's the next best attempt at getting a light-textured cake, so far. The cake crumb still had a springy texture, and the fruit and nuts were well dispersed. Green flecks from the courgette skin could still be seen in places, which I always like to see! I also liked the large pieces of hazelnut - I usually chop nuts a little finer than this, but here the crunch was a good contrast to the chewy sultanas.

Courgette and Bacon Gratin

If there's one over-riding reason why I don't post many savoury recipes, it's because I don't often follow a recipe when I make something for dinner. Obviously there's a general template to follow to produce something like a lasagne, or a sausage pie, and I'm often inspired by recipes I've read, but I don't make things exactly the same every time, and I don't often take note of the quantities I use, particularly when I add things to adjust the flavour and seasoning as I go along. Generally, cooking of this sort is a lot more forgiving than baking cakes, where more precision is usually needed.

I did take a bit more notice while I was making this gratin, partly because Hubs has accused me of thwarting his efforts to lose weight by making too many cakes and desserts, so I might have less to post unless I write about my savoury cooking. As I say, I took a bit more notice, but it's still a fairly loose recipe - a little more or less of anything would probably have worked just as well, and it could easily be made a vegetarian recipe by leaving out the bacon and choosing a vegetarian-compatible cheese. I used this recipe by Ina Garten as inspiration.

Ingredients (to serve 2)
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
half an onion, finely chopped
100g smoked bacon or pancetta pieces
3 medium courgettes - around 500g - cut into 0.5cm slices
1 clove garlic, crushed
12 sage leaves, finely shredded
1 tablespoon plain flour
milk, as necessary - roughly 200mls
salt and pepper to taste
50g fresh white breadcrumbs
50g grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon pine nuts

Method
Heat the oil on a medium heat, in a large frying pan, and fry the bacon pieces and onion until the bacon is beginning to brown. Lower the heat a little and add the courgettes and garlic, and continue frying, turning occasionally, until the courgettes are beginning to soften.

Add the sage leaves, then stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add the milk gradually, allowing the sauce to thicken between additions. There will be more liquid coming out of the courgettes as the gratin bakes in the oven, so you want a very thick coating sauce at this stage, otherwise there will be too much thin sauce at the end of cooking. Season to taste - I didn't need any extra salt because of the bacon. Put this mixture into an ovenproof dish.

Mix together the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and pine nuts, and scatter in an even layer over the courgette mixture. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes, or until the topping is crisp and golden and the courgettes are really soft.

We  really enjoyed this accompanied by a mixture of runner beans and mange tout peas. Hubs doesn't really like completely vegetarian meals, so adding the bacon made it tastier for him. I was also trying to keep this meal relatively low in carbohydrates; for a more filling dish cooked pasta or potatoes could be added, but then I think the sauce would need to be a little thinner, as pasta goes on absorbing moisture during baking.

Looking at the photographs, I feel I ought to explain the idiosyncrasy of cutting mange tout peas in half. Hubs is basically lazy, so eats with just a fork where possible (although just a spoon is even better!). Mange tout peas sometimes have a long stringy bit along one side - if you haven't got a knife handy, this can make them unpleasant to eat whole, as well as difficult to fit into your mouth!

Another Attempt at a Courgette and Lemon Cake

Over the last couple of years I've had a few attempts at trying to make a courgette cake which was as light and fluffy as a sponge cake, only to produce cakes which tasted good but were heavy and close textured.

When the apple cake I made last week turned out so well, I immediately wondered if it could be adapted to make a courgette cake. I also wanted to have another go at getting a better lemon flavour into a courgette cake than I did with this effort last year, when lemon marmalade was used. I didn't have lemons, but I did have a jar of Sicilian Lemon Dessert Base, bought from the cheap 'end of line' shelf in Tesco.

It's a blend of lemon juice concentrate, sugar, lemon zest, butter and cornflour and is designed to make quick desserts - for example, mix with whipped cream to make a mousse or with cream cheese to fill a pastry case. It sounded perfect for adding intense flavour to a cake batter.

So, I adapted the apple cake recipe a little and produced a courgette and lemon cake which was the best I've made so far! It was much lighter than previous efforts and had a pronounced lemon flavour. It was also quite pretty, with the flecks of courgette peel still visible.

Ingredients
225g SR flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g unsalted butter
150g golden caster sugar
150g coarsely grated courgette
2 large eggs
100g lemon dessert base (without this I think I'd use the zest of two lemons and 50g natural yogurt)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare a 7" diameter round cake tin.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and rub in the butter as for making pastry.
Mix in the sugar, then all the other ingredients, and mix to soft batter.
Transfer the batter to the baking tin, level the top and bake for  around 60 minutes, or until a test probe comes out clean and dry.
Cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

I didn't think the cake needed frosting for everyday eating but a lemon glacé icing would pretty it up for a special occasion.

Celia's friend Genie's Courgette Slice

Yet another attempt to use more courgettes, or, in this case, one monster that had been hiding underneath a leaf and had expanded quickly after a heavy rainfall. This recipe for Courgette(zucchini) Slice, found on Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, is a recipe give to Celia by her friend Genie, who passed away a few years ago. Celia writes very eloquently and often very movingly about her family life on her blog, and really values her friends and neighbours, and the recipes they share.

I followed the recipe closely - only adding a sliced red chilli for an extra zing. I was a bit worried as the slice cooked, as there seemed to be a lot of grease sizzling on top of the slice, but this was absorbed as it cooled, and the finished dish wasn't at all greasy.

This was more like a frittata or tortilla than a savoury bread, but the addition of flour makes it more sturdy and perfect for eating cold. I found it very useful as a protein-rich breakfast, and it was also very tasty as a lunch dish, with salad. The only thing I think I'd change is to grate the vegetables more coarsely next time, to give more texture.

Courgette and Lemon Marmalade Cake

I'm still using the abundance of courgettes growing in the garden - they've been added to sausage casseroles, pasta sauces, used as a side vegetable, and FB took a bag full for her work colleagues, but still they come! I'm going to try some sort of fritter next, in the savoury line, but I thought a cake would help reduce the stock building up in the fridge.

I liked the look of this recipe for a courgette cake because it used lemon to flavour the cake instead of chocolate or spices. I thought this would make the cake seem more summery. I was guided by the recipe, but made a few changes. I replaced the wholemeal flour with white, and the brown sugar with white too, as I wanted a lighter cake, both in colour and texture. I used just sultanas, rather than a mix of dried fruit.

I also separated the eggs and whisked the whites before folding them in as the last step of mixing the batter, in an effort to help the cake rise. This was only partially successful - the cake rose well during baking but sank a lot as it cooled. This left a cake which was moist and dense - too dense really, as there was a distinct layer of unrisen dough at the bottom of the cake.

The lemon marmalade wasn't really successful at getting a lot of lemon flavour into the cake either. I added a lemon glacé icing, decorated with shreds of lemon zest, to the top, which brightened the flavour, but overall this was not really a successful cake. I had hoped for something as light as the carrot cake I make from this recipe, but I think that courgettes hold more moisture than carrots, which would make such a light texture difficult to achieve. I might just try the carrot cake recipe with courgettes as a substitute, before giving up on the idea of a light cake being possible.

It's not often that Hubs makes many comments on what I bake, unless it is extremely good or overwhelmingly bad, but he asked me not to make this cake again!

Courgette and Ricotta Tart

With a  long hot sunny spell followed by a lot of warm rain, the vegetable garden has run amok. It's not all good news - the tomatoes are very leggy, trying to catch up on missed growth when it was so cold, and the beans don't seem to be getting the usual second flush of flowers, but at the moment we are getting regular supplies of beans and peas, and more courgettes than we know what to do with.

This courgette and ricotta tart was ideal for both using up some of the excess and for providing a light meal on one of the recent hot days. We ate it with coleslaw and a tomato and green bean salad.

I followed the recipe more or less exactly (!!!).  The first change was that I used a pack of Tesco ready-rolled puff pastry which was flavoured with dill and lemon - I thought these flavours would complement the courgettes and cheese well. I used four small courgettes for the topping, and my tart looks as if it has more courgettes on top than the one in the recipe. I also added some seasoning to the ricotta and egg mix, as I didn't have much basil to add. (I recently trimmed the basil plant for a batch of pesto and could only glean a couple of tablespoons of very small leaves from it.)

The results were delicious. All the flavours worked well together, and the tart was very light and refreshing - just right for appetites blunted by the heat. The only thing lacking was seasoning - next time I'll add more salt to the ricotta and also season the courgettes while frying them.

I was really impressed with the flavour of the pastry - I could taste both the lemon and dill, but neither were overwhelming. The pastry didn't rise as much as I expected, but that might just be the recipe, not a problem with the pastry.

Hubs thought he would prefer a quiche, with it's deeper filling, but I really liked that the courgettes were the dominant flavour  here - I think they would have been lost buried in a deep custard.

Hazelnut and Courgette Fruitcakes

This recipe contains ingredients better suited to Autumn - courgettes, apples, hazelnuts, spices and dried fruit - but I was looking for something to use up excess courgettes without using citrus flavours, which have dominated my baking recently.

The recipe comes from the revamped Good Food site, and all I did differently was to bake the mixture in two 1lb loaf tins, rather than a 8" round cake tin. I also squeezed out some of the moisture from the grated courgette and apple. For the dried fruit, I used a mixture containing raisins, apricots, pineapple and papaya. After tasting, I realised the tropical fruits were a mistake and I should have stuck to fruits more in keeping with the other flavours from more temperate regions  - dried pears, peaches or cranberries would have been better additions to vine fruits and apricots.

The cake was very moist and quite dark in colour - I think it might have been better made with white caster sugar rather than  light muscovado, as more of the colour from the courgettes might have shown through. As it was there were only occasional flecks of green to be seen.

Although the cake, as I made it, wasn't quite to my taste, with a little tweaking and a better choice of dried fruit, I'm sure it would make a good cake for colder afternoons in front of the fire.

Cake Salé - Courgette and Feta Loaf

I've been interested in savoury cakes for a while now, but never seem to have the opportunity to make one. As I'm attempting to lose weight, following CT's departure (although not related to it, except that I don't need to bake as much now), the time has come to think about eating less sugar. FB has been worrying about eating too much sugary food at work too, so any new direction in baking will benefit her too, by making her lunch boxes healthier.

Cake Salé has been growing in popularity in France for a few years now, and although the classic combination of flavours is Ham and Olives, there are dozens of delicious sounding combinations around in recipes on the internet. Anything you have, as long as it's not too wet, can be baked into a savoury cake! A slice of Cake Salé served with a salad makes a light summer lunch, or serve alongside a robust soup with complimentary flavours as a more filling winter meal.  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall suggests thin slices as pre-dinner nibbles and it also seems an ideal transportable food to me, either to summer picnics or warmly spiced and served as you stand around the the bonfire, watching fireworks and celebrating the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot. If you like savoury food for breakfast, then these cakes should go down well then too as they are so versatile; I just had a small slice with my evening coffee!

My savoury cake was made primarily to help demolish the courgette mountain - because we let a few grow large while we were away, we can't seem to catch up and get back to the point where we can pick small courgettes. I based my recipe loosely on this one from The Kitchn, which in turn was adapted from an article and recipe in the NY Times. I made a few more adaptations to suit the ingredients I had in the store cupboard, and to give a fuller flavour. I also 'translated' the ingredients to metric weights:

225g coarsely grated courgette (skin on), salted with 1 teaspoon salt and left to drain while the batter is prepared.

225g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
plenty of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
3 large eggs
80ml milk
80mls extra virgin olive oil
50g crumbled feta cheese
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
5 garlic-stuffed green olives, halved and sliced
about 50g pinenuts to scatter on top

After mixing the flour, baking powder, pepper and oregano in a large bowl, the eggs were beaten with the oil and milk until amalgamated. The wet ingredients were mixed into the dry, then the cheese, olives and thyme leaves were folded in. Lastly the drained courgette was stirred in, after pressing well to remove as much moisture as possible. The batter was transferred to a 2lb loaf tin lined with baking parchment, levelled and sprinkled with pinenuts. The loaf was baked at 180C for about 1 hr - the original recipe suggested 45 minutes, but my loaf tin is broad and deep so cooking took a bit longer!

I really enjoyed this savoury cake. The feta cheese gave a salty tang, but the over-riding flavour was from the garlicky olives and the very green and grassy extra virgin olive oil - one occasion when a good oil makes a huge contribution. As with the sweet courgette muffins I made recently, the flavour of the courgette was negligable, but they add moistness and contribute to the appearance with the green flecks from the skin. I'm looking forward to trying some more flavour combinations in the future! As Hugh F-W says in his Guardian article - stick to the same proportions of flour, eggs, fat and liquid, and play around as much as you like with the other additons!

Courgette and Lime Muffins

with added peach - a variation for AlphaBakes.

We came back from a few days in Normandy to find the garden running riot in the unexpected warmth of a late summer. I don't mind excess runner beans, as they can be frozen, but courgettes which are almost marrow-sized need a bit of lateral thinking to use them up. Time for courgettes in a bake, I thought - something I've been meaning to try for ages.

After searching around, and realising that nearly all the recipes were just variations of carrot cake - with similar additions and flavourings - I settled on this recipe, from goodtoknow.co.uk,  for courgette and lime muffins, which sounded fresh and summery and different to most of the recipes I'd looked at. I decided I wouldn't add the frosting - it seems superfluous for muffins!

At this point I thought of the blogging baking challenges that I usually take part in every month - could these muffins somehow be used for one of them? Fresh, summery flavours spoke to me of fresh fruit, and I just happened to have a bowl of French peaches which were rapidly ripening. I decided to add a slice of peach to some of the muffins, and enter them into the AlphaBakes challenge, which this month is featuring the letter P. I cut a peach into 8 wedges and added a slice to the top of 8 of the 12 muffins, before baking. As my courgettes were so large, I quartered one lengthways and removed the centre seedy area, before grating. Other than this, I followed the recipe exactly.

These were really pretty and tasted good too! The lime zest and green skin from the courgettes flecked the crumb with green, although the courgettes didn't seem to add anything to the flavour. In the muffins with added peach slices, the flavours of peach and lime blended together surprisingly well. The muffins with the peach slices didn't rise as evenly as the plain muffins, but it was good to eat a large chunk of peach in the muffin - and I think adding small chunks of fruit might have made the batter too wet. I was also impressed by how light these muffins were - either I'm getting better at making muffins, or better at choosing recipes!

The AlphaBakes Challenge is a monthly baking challenge to make something  featuring a randomly chosen letter - this can be part of the name of the product or one of the major ingredients. It is hosted jointly by Caroline, from Caroline Makes, and Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker, who take turns to generate a random letter and collate the entries. This month Caroline picked the letter P.