Pajama Pundits

Our neighbor's garden is producing lots of very large (3") diameter zucchini, some over a foot long. As good neighbors do, he shared. And as we're southerners, the first thing we think to do with a gift of food is: Fry It!

These were so large, that slices were too large for our liking, so I cut each slice into bite-size wedges. To bread them, I put them in a bowl and cover with undiluted buttermilk, tossing them a bit so they are all coated. Then, in the one large tupperware bowl for which I haven't yet lost the lid, I mixed together approximately:

1 1/2 cups of yellow cornmeal 1 cup flour 1 tablespoon Lowry's seasoning 1 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon black pepper

The thing is I don't measure stuff, I just toss it in. I always start with a little less flour than cornmeal, and then just add stuff I've got, though I consider the above ingredients to be essential. Other additions might be dried herbs, such as parsley, tarragon, cilantro, or basil, perhaps some ground cardamom or cayenne pepper. The thing is to come up with a combination you like.

Next step: Drain the excess buttermilk from the zucchini wedges. I used a strainer, but you could dip them from the bowl with a slotted spoon. Then put them in the container with the dry ingredients, put the lid on, and shake with a sort of "flipping" motion.

I then dump the zucchini into another strainer and shake until all the excess cornmeal mixture is removed. If some of them stuck together and didn't get coated on both sides, I toss them back into the cornmeal for another shaking.

This process is messy. I've just messed up four bowls and two strainers. You could do this by hand, individually taking each piece from the buttermilk to the dry ingredients, but that's messy in another way: you bread your fingers as well, even if you use one hand for the "dry" and the other for the "wet" ingredients. Plus, you'll end up needing to strain the cornmeal mixture to get the lumps out anyway, so it's really only one extra bowl and strainer getting messed up.

Then again, with the hand method, you'll also have a lot of dry coating that will immediately fall off when it hits the grease. You'll either end up using that fourth bowl and strainer to strain hot oil or throwing the oil away. I generally use peanut oil for deep frying, and it is expensive enough that straining it is worth the effort. But I don't want to do it any more often than I have to.

Now that I've fried what we can eat today:

and since I've got this big mess already made, I bread the rest of this particular huge zucchini for freezing:

I put it in the freezer on the plate without a cover for about an hour, then put the pieces into ziploc baggies and pop those back into the freezer.

There are two similar sized zucchini still in the fridge. Look for another zucchini recipe next week. I've got zucchini-tomato quiche in mind.

3 1/2 cups zucchini, cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt (or salt & pepper)

Mix all the above together and marinate 2 hours, or overnight.

In large non-stick skillet, saute the mixture until the zucchini and onions begin to soften. Add:

1 - 28 oz. can Italian style diced tomatoes (I used Hunt's Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano)

Heat until it just begins to boil, turn heat off and add:

1/2 cup heavy cream

Mix thoroughly and serve over angel hair pasta, garnish with fresh parsley. Serves 4 to 6 people, depending on their appetite, gender, age, etc.

Try this with just the tomatoes and a little less cream for a very easy, quick dinner.

Our favorite neighbor gave us a bag of tomatoes and another large zucchini yesterday. I finally got around to making the zucchini quiche.

3 slices thick bacon, cut into 1/4" - 1/2" pieces
1 small to medium onion, chopped fine
3 to 4 cups zucchini - sliced thin
1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
2 medium tomatoes - peeled and sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream

Fry bacon until done, add onions, zucchini and Lawry's, continue cooking until all the bacon grease is absorbed. Set this aside to cool.

Mix bread crumbs and butter together. Pat into a large, deep dish pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over tomatoes.

Whip eggs and cream until frothy (I use a blender for this step).

Layer zucchini mixture in pie plate. Top with 1/2 the egg mixture. Arrange tomato layer, and pour remaining eggs & cream over them.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, reduce heat to 300 degrees, bake for another 20 minutes. Adjust baking time if you use a shallow pan. The dish I use is 1 3/4" deep and filled to the brim.

Quiche is fun because there are so many variations. To the eggs and cream, you can add whatever is in your larder. The crust is variable also. Whole wheat or rye crust would be good, and there are recipes using Bisquick or refrigerator crescent rolls.

Considering my husband (with a little help from our male gardening neighbor) ate more than half of this pie immediately (I barely got a photo) I think I've proven real men do eat quiche.