About Zuchini

[elementfiftyfour]

Does picking the zuchini cause the plant to produce more fruits? I have quite a few growing as is but I kinda like them to get around 10-12 inches long before picking them. I'm worried though that if I don't pick them often enough the plant will stop producing new fruits.

[opabinia51]

Zucchini plants are usually very prolific so, it is wise to pick the fruits as they come. If you wait to long the zucchini themselves will become monstrous in size and the seeds will become slightly woody. So, pick the fruits when they are nice a small.

I don't think this actually increases your yields but generally speaking a Zucchini plant will give you a lot of fruit.

[elementfiftyfour]

Thanks opa, I was just curious about that since I have heard so many times that "the more you pick the more you get". I didn't know if that was necesarily true with zuchini too.

As for the size I don't want them to grow into marrows but I don't like them to be pinky sized. Actually I like em best when they are just about to form seeds. They aren't quite seeds yet but they have that cucumber look on the inside when you slice them open.

[doccat5]

You will be up to your ears in zucchini in next to no time...........LOL And btw they freeze wonderfully. I normally blanch and shred mine, for zucchini bread etc in the winter. Yummy!!

[opabinia51]

The first year I had my vegetable garden I planted all this zucchini and was up to my eyeballs in it during the summer. I couldn't pick it fast enough and ended up with all these huge fruits.

I ended up shredding something like 240 cups of zucchini (on one day and more the next) and giving it to a local soup kitchen. I swore I'd never do zucchini again. But, it's been a decade or so now and I'm ready to plant them again. At least now I know that one or two plants will be more than enough!

[Spud Murphy]

Hi,

Being from Ireland, I had to check to find that courgettes and zucchinis are like six and half a dozen !! I eat them in salads and find that they can reach a oversupply / glut very quickly and so was interested when Doccat 5 ( correct name?) mentioned shredding zucchini for bread in winter. Now that`s an interesting concept and I wonder if we could have more info., maybe even a recipe , please ? .

Spud Murphy

[opabinia51]

Zucchini bread would be very similar to a banana bread recipe.

2 cups shredded raw zucchini
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons vanilla

PREPARATION:
Put zucchini in strainer and press or squeeze with hands to get excess liquid out. Beat eggs, sugar, and oil together. Add flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, , vanilla, and. Mix together by hand.

Add drained zucchini. Mix well. Pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake 55 to 65 minutes at 350°, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out with very little cake clinging to it.



Or you could do a yeast zucchini bread by adding a package of active yeast to a cup of warm water and covering with a tablespoon of sugar. Let sit for ten minutes.

Then add 1/2 cup of milk, 2 beaten eggs and a cup of shredded zucchini, some cinnamon, 1 tblespoon of vanilla and mix well.

Add a couple of cups of AP flour and mix with a spoon until you form a loose batter.

Then add whole wheat flour until your form a dough. Knead more Whole Wheat flour in until the dough stops sticking to your hands.

Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and let rise for 2 hours.

Punch the dough down, cover again and let rise for another hour. Repeat.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes (you'll probably need to add more flour) then let rise for another half hour and roll out on a well floured surface. Dust the underside of the dough with some more flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter. Cover the dough with damp tea towels and let rise for another hour.

Now use a bowl or cookie cutter to stamp out nuggets of bread place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Takes a long time but, worth it.

[opabinia51]

Best of bridge has a great Banana bread recipe, you could also just substitute zucchini for banana in that recipe.

[doccat5]

Opa, yummy recipe. I'll dig for mine. I have most of those things in storage right now as we are doing some remodeling. But, yes you can substitute zucchini in almost any banana bread or muffin recipe.

[Spud Murphy]

Thank you Doccat5,

I have never eaten either zucchini or banana bread.My daughter has a bread making "machine" maybe we could give that a try .We will go with banana first and try zucchini when we harvest courgettes ( oops zucchinis) later in the summer. The yeast recipe seemed to take a LONG time.but without the yeast it might be like Australian damper bread .....kind of slab like.

Thanks agin,

Spud.

[canuck]

Here is a great healthy recipie for zucchini muffins:

2c whole wheat flour
1c sugar
1c chopped pecans
1c chopped apples
1c grated zucchini
3 eggs
1c applesause (unsweetened)
1c grated carrot
3/4c golden raisons
1 tbsp cinnomon
2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
1tsp vanilla

combine flour, sugar, pecans, carrots, zucchini, apple, cinnomon, baking soda and salt.

In anothere bowl combine egg, applesause, vanilla---mix this with flour mixture and add raisins.

Pour into muffin tins and bake at 375 degrees for 25 min.

ENJOY!!

[opabinia51]

Well after a long hiatus I am planting Zucchini again this year so, I'll try that recipe out. I really enjoy zucchini bread.

When I was a young lad my grandmother used to make these lovely zucchini tarts and I've tried a bunch of recipes but, have not been able to reproduce them. Anybody have any recipes?

[elementfiftyfour]

Ha, I have one chunk of zucchini bread left out of the two loaves I made.

The recipee I have is verry similar to the first one you posted opa but I don't bother to press out the extra juice from the shredded zucchini. Probably only necessary when you have larger fruits with more water in them.