Tuesday 31 July 2007

Aaand we're off


It's official. The annual race to keep up with the courgette plants has begun.

And as you can see we're off to a bad start already - it was only the size of my little finger a couple of days ago. We shall obviously have to inspect more frequently as I really don't want any of the behemoths we had last year. They're much tastier when smaller and I run out of things to do with marrows. Any tasty courgette recipes are welcome, please post them here.

I'm off to pick runner beans now, they're threatening to overwhelm us too. I suspect the majority will end up in the freezer just so we can keep up with the courgettes without distraction. I learnt from Matt's dad this weekend that the correct way to cut a runner bean for the freezer is in the opposite direction to which its fibres run (if you look at a bean lengthways there'll be diagonal fibres running across its width, apparently), otherwise they just get soggy when you defrost them (as we learnt last year). Hands up who knew that one.

4 comments:

lorenzothellama said...

I knew that!!! My mother used to prepare runner beans and salted them down for the winter. It was before freezers became common household appliances.
Do you have a juicer? I tend to juice anything I have too much of and then slurp it down, sometimes followed by an 'urghhhhh'!
Which one is the black and white kitty in the photograph?
LtL

Unknown said...

I had a suspicion you might. I almost added ´(and Lorenzo you don´t count)´ at the end.

I´m not sure if I could manage runner bean juice and courgette juice sounds a bit iffy, although very healthy, but thanks for the tip anyway.

It´s Elbi in the picture - I needed somehthing to add perspective so you could see the size of the courgette properly and she was to hand.

lorenzothellama said...

Oh well, there's always marrow soup, marrow au gratin, boiled marrow, roasted marrow, marrow and rice, marrow and mash, etc. etc. etc.
Must admit I've never tried courgette or runner bean juice, but I notice there are a few left over French beans in the fridge so I might give them a whirl to see what they are like, mixed with lots of apple, ginger and carrot!

Elbi is very pretty. Give them all a stroke from Scaredy and me!
Lorenzo.

Unknown said...

Yes, one of our favourites is courgette and blue cheese soup - always good for the freezer and can still be done with marrow. Otherwise marrow goes in curry quite well or you can sauté it in butter with some partly crushed fennel seeds and then bake it in the oven until golden. This is my personal favourite. I could have it every day but Matt gets fed up with it very easily.

Elbi is very pleased you think she´s pretty and enjoyed the strokes very much - she´s a little love addict and always wants extra cuddles. The other two are eplaying outside somewhere so will have to wait for theirs.