Using all that Zucchini

ReaLM, If you bag a female blossom and a male blossom before they open and then hand pollinate them, you should get true seeds. Keep the female blossom covered until you know the squash if going to grow. Bagging the male prevents a bee from possibly leaving a different type of pollen. Mark that squash and let it mature.

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I tried that last year, they came out pretty good. I put a clove of garlic and a little hot pepper flakes, black peppercorns, and mustard seeds in the bottom of a jar, then filled with sliced zucchini. Dissolved 1 tablespoon of pickling salt in 2 cups of water to cover the squash. Weighted it down to keep everything submerged. I forget how long I let them go, but I think it was about 10 or 12 days. You could start tasting them before that and put them in the refrigerator whenever they get how you like them. They were spicy, garlicky, with a good texture.

Edit: I forgot to add, I also put in a small pinch or turmeric.

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Do you add any type of starter when you ferment, like a little liquid from yogurt or sour kraut? Or do you just let the bacteria find their way in?

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I’m not positive, but I don’t think I used any starter on that batch. I really haven’t done much fermenting of veggies other than sauerkraut, which I make pretty regularly without a starter. I’ve tried carrots both with and without and not seen much difference, so I usually just go with the bacteria that are already there. I don’t consider myself much of an expert, though! :grinning:

Btw, I need to edit my post above because I just remembered that I also added a bit of turmeric to those zucchini pickles.

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Thanks. I’m starting my second hot sauce ferment and didn’t have anything for the starter, so I’m trying without which will be interesting to see how it compares to the one I tried with a starter. I’ll be looking forward to trying your pickled zukes next.

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I make fermented pickles and sauerkraut every year. Love it. I have even done mixed veggie ferments as well that turned out good too. Personally I like to use a starter, primarily because it just gets it going faster and I feel that allows my veggies keep some good texture (crunch). I have had my fair share of kraut and pickles that were fermented without starter, and they are still good…but texturally not the same.
The brand I use is by Body Ecology, called Culture Starter or Veggie Culture Starter, not the Kefir Starter. I can buy it locally at health food stores in the refrigerated section, but it is also available online. There is a “use by” date printed on the package which is usually a year, but it works just fine 2 years later also. I keep it in the fridge.

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Don’t know why I didn’t add this in my first post here. My biggest uses for zucchini every summer are Curried Zucchini soup and Calabacitas. I like them both the best with small tender zucchini and use the bigger ones for bread. The soup uses zukes, onion, chicken stock(or veg for you vegans), yellow curry powder, and heavy cream which gets pureed to a nice smooth soup which is delicious hot or cold. Eat it with some fresh crusty bread and man-o-man! I use an immersion blender in the soup pot to keep things simple. Calabacitas I believe is a southwestern native American recipe (I think?, could be Mexican I suppose) which uses chopped zuke, onion, hot pepper(such as Anaheim, Poblano…or whatever mild to medium hot you have on hand), and corn. The method I go by incorporates a bit of milk and tops it with shredded cheese, but I met someone else who makes it once who thought that adding cheese was blasphemy.(but I like mine better than theirs :grin:) It’s excellent as a side dish, or sometimes I use it along with scrambled eggs in a tortilla as a main dish. You can add a little mild sausage and potato to the burrito too if you like but it stands alone fine without them.

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@puggylover75, that was a delicious recipe! I made it last weekend for my family who were down visiting from Portland. It was a hit! I put everything in two 9x5" pans and baked for 45 min on convection heating. Turned out wonderful! I’m going to have to make some more this weekend.

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Here’s a site my wife found with supposedly 96 zuke recipes. Have not tried them yet but a few look good.

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There was a font problem in recipe. Now ok.
I wanted this slightly healthy so I used 1/2 cup brown sugar instead of 2/3 and 1 cup white flour plus 1/2 whole wheat instead of 1 1/2 white.

Butter, for the pan
1 1/2 cups/185 grams grated zucchini
2/3 cup/140 grams light brown sugar
1/3 cup/80 milliliters olive oil (or other oil such as safflower or canola)
1/3 cup/80 milliliters plain Greek yogurt
2 large eggs
1teaspoon/5 milliliters vanilla extract
1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
½teaspoon/3 grams salt
½teaspoon/3 grams baking soda
½teaspoon/2 grams baking powder
1½teaspoons/4 grams ground cinnamon
¼teaspoon/1 gram ground nutmeg
1teaspoon/2 grams finely grated lemon zest
½cup/55 grams chopped walnuts (optional)

Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch loaf pan.
Step 2
In a large bowl, use a rubber spatula to mix together the grated zucchini, sugar, olive oil, yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract.
Step 3
Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, lemon zest and spices in a separate bowl. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the walnuts if using.
Step 4
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 55 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking. The bread will be done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Step 5
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a rack completely before cutting and serving.

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My favorite way to used up the overabundance is to prevent it in the first place. I like to harvest very young, within 3 days of pollination. The largest I’ll let them get is about 75% of average supermarket size. Flavor is much more concentrated at this stage. Failing that, I sure do love zucchini bread!

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There is a Greek dish, called “boureki,” that uses zucchini or squash, cheese, and potatoes to make a savory casserole. Like with most things, there are quite a few variations, some with pastry dough and some without. Important: Greek recipes use a lot of extra virgin olive oil, and it’s intentional and important to the dish.

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I’ve never tried Boureki but I’ll give it a try. Here is one of the simpler recipes I found. I’ll give my opinion once I try it. Any have a good recipe?

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This is one style:

And another option:

There are many, many variations. Even in my grandparents’ home village. We don’t really have myzithra cheese here in the US readily available, but I enjoy it with plenty of other cheeses for sure.

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I’ve tried it. They are okay, but not great. They turn into chips that are sharp and hard to eat if you dehydrate them all the way, but if you leave them with a bit more moisture they’re fairly edible. The taste is fairly bland though, mildly sweet with a mild zucchini flavor. They also don’t re-hydrate very well. I probably won’t do it again. I’d probably go barbecue and freeze instead.

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Depends on size for me. I grill them -shiskabab style when medium or small. Good in stir-fry if not too big. Good on pizza. Zoodles can be mde out of biger ones that haven’t got the hard outer shell yet, just toss the seedy/pithy core out. Ive made a variety of soups… broth based with hunks, blended with olive oil to make it creamy, blended with actual cream like cream of zuc, my favorite is blended with broth oil and curry… like a pumpkin soup. If you got a lot try stuff, and toss it if you dont like it. It freezes ok, but won’t be as firm when thawed. Ill make all sorts of stuff with it but I dont think i can ever eat another piece of zucchini bread. My iguana loves shredded zucchini.

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