Look what “beached up” here on the homestead!
With massive squash plants (all that good compost) one’s bound to miss one or two… more like three! Aye, aye! But what to do with these here “whales”?
They are great for things like:
Muffins – sweet & spicy or do a savory one with cheese & chives
Or you can grate ’em and freeze for later
Already put one of them to good use.
Zucchini chocolate bread - super moist and delicious!
What creative ways, besides dumping them on our neighbor’s front porch at night, do you use the ‘one that got away?’
Comments(20)
Alice Crawford says:
August 5, 2011 at 5:15 amEver try Zucchine Crab Cakes?
2C. grated Zucchine
2 T. grated onion
1T old bay seafood seasoning
2 eggs beaten
2 C. bread crunbs
#1 squeese zucchine as dry as possable
#2 Mix all ingredients together
#3 Mak into patties and fry in oil until brown on both sides
JBB says:
August 5, 2011 at 5:59 amCarve it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/batzel/952114279/in/photostream
🙂
JBB
babz says:
August 5, 2011 at 6:14 amYou’ve not left these long enough. The little known sport of zucchini canoe racing does have to start with a giant zucchini to hollow out.However, they do look the right size for a bit of zucchinni baseball.
lucie mayer says:
August 5, 2011 at 7:53 amCabbage and zucchini Croquettes
Grate and mix:
1/2 Spanish onion (or white, or red, to add colour)
1 zucchini
1/2 green cabbage (for cole slaw)
1/3 cup parmesan or other aged cheese
Beat 2-3 eggs, add a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and mix in with the grated preparation.
With a spoon, place the croquettes on a cookie tin, covered in foil. Brush on a bit of olive oil.
Bake at 200°C for 20 minutes, turning them after 10 minutes.
Let them cool down a bit before you eat them. Soooo yummy!
lucie mayer says:
August 5, 2011 at 7:54 amJust a thought: if you don’t know this blog, take a gander. She’s wonderful!
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/
Lori from PA says:
August 5, 2011 at 8:40 amThis is an old favorite that my mother-in-law gave me a quarter century ago:
2 slices of uncured bacon, cut up
1 c. mushrooms, chopped
1/2 c. chopped onions
dash garlic salt
3 med. zucchini grated or shredded
1 c. whole grain cracker crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. salt
2/3 c. Monterey jack cheese
Cook and drain bacon slices. Combine all ingredients, topping with cheese (I always press the moisture out of the shredded zucchini in a colander first). Bake in covered casserole, 30-40 minutes @ 350 degrees F.
Bon appetite!
Julia says:
August 5, 2011 at 2:21 pmI haven’t used zucchini a lot but plan on trying these recipes, especially the chocolate zucchini cake. Yummy!
V Schoenwald says:
August 5, 2011 at 3:59 pmI just finish today the last of the “whales” that I totally missed, and I grow in large pots and I missed “these”
I put up Zuke relish, some with a little pepper heat and the rest today, with colored sweet peppers, carrot and a mix of zukes and crookneck and gold zukes.
I got a quart and 22 pints, from 5 large zukes, don’t have to worry about relish for a year at least.
Enjoy your whales!
SouthCoastGuy says:
August 5, 2011 at 4:52 pmI always like them sliced up with a little olive oil then wrapped in tin foil and steamed on the grill
Ruth G says:
August 6, 2011 at 10:22 amwe came back from vacation and found 6 whoppers. I grated them up and after making two batches of zucchini bread, froze the rest. But one of my favorite ways to use them, is to replace some to all of the shredded potatoes in latkes with shredded zucchini. We also love chocolate zucchini bread.
c says:
August 6, 2011 at 1:54 pmZucchini Tomato and Cheese :
Cut off the ends. Cut in half length wise. Hollow out the seed core. Add a mixture of what you have on hand plus grated cheese. I like to use leftover cooked rice or bread torn into small pieces. Mix that with seasonings. You could go Italian, oriental, greek, mexican etc. Then in the summer place them on the side of the BBQ gill and top with thickly sliced fresh tomatoes. Or in winter place in a cassarole dish and add a jar of canned tomatoes all around them. They don’t take long to cook and boy are they good.
Nan says:
August 6, 2011 at 2:29 pmZucchini Lasagna
Slice the ends off and cut “whales” thin and lengthwise like lasagna noodles. Grill or saute slightly and then use as lasagna noodles in your favorite lasagna recipe. I let zukes turn into whales on purpose just for this! Good for gluten free diets, too.
Laura says:
August 7, 2011 at 2:45 pmYou can also shred it and can it in a pressure canner: http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/07/comment-from-reader-zucchini-help.html
Matt Johnson says:
August 11, 2011 at 11:56 amWe like to slice the big ones and make large bread and butter pickles. You only need one on your sandwich. We also bread them with herbs and fry them (makes a great patty for a sandwich) Yum!
Lois Filipski says:
September 17, 2011 at 7:04 pmThese are great for breakfast!
Lois
ZUCCHINI FRITTATA
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. shredded zucchini
1 t. cooking oil
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 t. salt
1 c. (4 oz. ) shredded Swiss cheese
In an 8 in. ovenproof skillet over medium heat sauté onion and zucchini in oil for 2-3 min. Pour eggs over top; sprinkle with salt. Cook until almost set, 6-7 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 350 for 4-5 minutes or till cheese is melted.( I think you could just put a lid on the pan unless you have the oven going)
Yield 2 servings
Carol, in a magazine article, said this recipe was always one of my family’s favorites and it remains so for my husband and me.
When we plan a trip by car, I make the frittata the night before, stuff it into pita bread in the morning and microwave each one for a minute or two. Then I wrap them in a towel, and down the road an hour or so we enjoy a still-warm breakfast.
Linda in FL says:
October 30, 2011 at 9:37 pmWe love to slice them thin and dehydrate them for yummy potato like chips. Sooo good you cant keep them around more than a day no matter how many you dehydrate. 🙂
Numbers Merales says:
November 6, 2011 at 11:25 pmCan any one recommend a good dailies guide?
gina says:
December 15, 2011 at 12:27 pmZUCCHINI COBBLER recipe (This tastes JUST LIKE APPLE! Promise! It is really, really good. Sometimes I play around with the crust recipe to cut down on the sugar but I’ll let you play with it however. The filling would be good with whatever cobbler/crisp type topping you prefer.) This is an AMAZING and FUN recipe to share because people are SO SURPRISED that its zucchini.
Ingredients:
8 cups chopped seeded peeled zucchini (about 3 pounds) (peel the zucchini first, then slice lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and slice the zucchini. These little slices, when seeded and peeled this way will look JUST LIKE apple slices for a totally foolproof way to serve this zucchini as “apple” cobbler!)
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
CRUST:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups cold butter, cubed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15-20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat; set aside.
For crust, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining crust mixture into a greased (I sprayed with cooking spray)15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Spread zucchini over top; crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon (I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar mixture that I keep in a spice container for making cinnamon toast!)
When I made this: I used a 9 x 13 pan. It made a thicker cobbler and was divine!Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
Liz says:
January 4, 2012 at 6:07 pmI don’t have a garden in at this house yet, and I had been hoping and hoping that someone else would gift me with their “forgotten whales” this summer. Why? Because I love to make stuffed zucchini.
Cut the zucchini horizontally about 2/3 of the way up. Hollow out the bottom, leaving about 1/2″ for the shell. Chop what you took out of the bottom and the 1/3 that you cut off. Saute up whatever chopped vegetables you have that sound good — mushrooms, garlic, celery, bell peppers; add the chopped zucchini. Cook some ground sausage; remove from heat and drain off the fat. Mix the sauteed vegetables with the sausage, add some cooked brown rice, diced tomatoes, bread crumbs, and an egg. Add desired spices; I usually add Italian seasoning and a little bit of marinara sauce. Place the zucchini into a 9″ x 13″ pan. Fill the zucchini shell, mounding the filling. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and sprinkle the top with shredded cheese and bake uncovered for about another 15 minutes, until the zucchini shell is tender and the cheese is melted and lightly browned. Slice and serve. Yummy!
bake cakes says:
March 3, 2012 at 3:35 amAmazing… amazing… amazing…. Keep up the work.