Experiment–cooking something for the first time “before your very eyes“– as the Music Hall magician’s would shout…
This recipe sounds promising–I found it buried deep in an old file–and I have the ingredients to hand.
(Apologies to the original author should they come across it.)
I picked one of the courgettes/zucchini from our garden early this morning!
Not overwhelmed with the supply yet–but it’s early days.
It’s going to be spicy hot with that much cayenne.
If that is not to your taste, you can either half the quantity of cayenne or add more yogurt .
Eight fluid ounces of water seems a lot; but the 25 minutes or so of simmering will concentrate the taste I hope.
Here goes!
"under starter's orders"
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion–thinly sliced
3 medium zucchini/courgettes [a yellow one for the look– if available]- sliced
a clove garlic–finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
225ml (8 fl oz) hot water
1 small *dessertspoon [warning–see below] cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
3 whole cloves
7 whole peppercorns
1 large/2 medium tomatoes–chopped
2 tablespoons low/no fat yoghurt
- Heat the oil in a medium frying pan.
- Sauté the onion and the garlic over a medium heat until golden (about 5 minutes).
onions and garlic on the go
- Add the courgettes, salt, chilli powder, turmeric, coriander, cloves, peppercorns, tomatoes and yoghurt and turn everything over several times.
ready for the water...
- Add the water and cover to bring up to a simmer.
- Leave the mix covered, to bubble contentedly over a low heat for 10 minutes.
- Uncover and let it continue to chugger gently until the courgettes are tender.
chuggering contentedly
Serve over Basmati brown rice with green beans and some garlicky yogurt on the side–lunch on a sunny Sunday.
We’ll see…
Post lunch report:
Tasty–a little overcooked–and toooooo hot!
*The original recipe above called for a dessert spoon [roughly 2 teaspoons] of cayenne powder–which I included.
Meredith’s eyes watered and there were choking noises from the other side of the table, as I reached for the water jug.
The cooling yogurt was there one moment and gone the next!
So next time a teaspoon or less depending on your preference of cayenne powder and the courgette slices could have more bite, i.e. cooked a little less.
A standby for the coming zucchini glut.
Robin Ellis 
Definitely one to try, but even before I’d read all the way through I’d decided one tsp would be fine! We already have the glut (which I love) picking at least 5 a day – but we have got about 40 plants 🙂
wow! 40 plants!–feeding the village clearly!
Thanks for so “colour” recipe (and good too)! I have a problem: in my life I never see and find yellow zucchini. What I can do??? Love u.
Good morning!
Grow them?!–would that be an option for you?
oh, yes, thank you!!
A belated comment to thank you for the recipe in this post, since the zucchini have just “struck” this week in a neighbor’s garden. So I will be trying this one. On a related note, I have a huge bowl of freshly dug carrots from another neighbor’s garden. So any carrot ideas would be welcome as well. Thanks again!
In New Mexico, we enjoy a similar dish called “calabicitas”, but we don’t simmer for as long – the zucchini and yellow squash – are sauteed briefly in olive oil with already sauteed onion, fresh corn and green chili strips (or dice), and then I raise the heat a bit, give a quick shot of water (about 2 oz) and cover with the pan lid to flash steam for about 2 minutes. Lovely.
The green chili type we typically use is the NM developed “Big Jim” variety which is roasted, peeled, then seeded before use.
I like the name–calabicitas, merrybee.
[…] Today we make a nice spicy zucchini recipe from https://robin-ellis.net/2011/06/26/anticipating-the-what-to-do-with-the-zucchini-season/. […]
Robin, just made this the other day. I made two small alterations. I used 1 more clove of garlic(I love garlic) and halved the cayenne. It was delicious and just the right amount of heat. Looking forward to your book. Next to try the gazpacho recipe 🙂
Thanks–good idea about the garlic!