Zucchini Solutions

It's been a bit long since my last post, I'm sorry. This past week I've been producing the quarterly newsletter for the Isolated Children's Parents' Association of WA, a volunteer group that lobbies for access to appropriate education for rural students, so most of my computer time has been taken up with that. I was away the week before that.

I've been picking heaps of peaches over the last couple of weeks and they probably only have ten days to go before they are finished. We've eaten them mostly fresh, but of the ones that have been damaged by rubbing on the tree or by insects, I've cut the 'bad' bits out and sliced the rest into a plastic container to either cook with or put on top of our breakfast cereal.

Julia, my son Tom's girlfriend, made Belinda Jeffrey's Gooey Butterscotch Peach Cake from her book, Mix and Bake and it was a scrumptious dessert, served with homemade custard. Belinda is my absolute favourite cake cook and her recipes are always winners. For some unknown reason we didn't take a photo.

As I said I went away for a few days and, as they sometimes do, one of the zucchinis grew, unnoticed, into a monster! This is half of it next to a cherry tomato. The first half went into making this lovely, moist, reluctant-vegetable-eater-tricking cake.

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
170 g butter
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
375 g plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Beat the first five ingredients for 3 minutes on medium speed in an electric mixer. Add the zucchini and mix through. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients.
Pour into a 24cm round springform tin and bake at 160 deg C for about an hour, depending on your oven. Cool 5 mins before taking out of the tin. Leave to cool completely and ice with chocolate icing if desired.

The second half I made into these zucchini fritters. Lovely and crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. Fritters are eternally popular with men and children in my experience.....even vegetable ones!
You could serve them with a salad for a meat free meal, or do as we did and have some barbecued lamb chops alongside.

Zucchini, Corn and Feta Fritters

Mix together:


2 cups grated zucchini
1 x 420g tin of corn kernels, rinsed. Or better still you could strip a cob or two of fresh corn.
2 spring onions, finely sliced
150 g crumbled feta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
3 beaten eggs
100 g plain flour
1 large clove crushed garlic
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
Finely chopped red chilli - to taste (optional)
Salt and pepper

Heat a frying pan and add enough oil and a bit of butter to cover the base. Spoon ladles-full of mixture into the pan and gently flatten so that the fritters are the same thickness all the way through. Cook over medium heat until one side is nicely brown and crisp, then flip and cook the other side.

This mixture should make about 10-12 fritters.