Friday, July 20, 2007

The mother of all zucchini




I fell out of the blogging loop for a few days, due to an unexpected and last-minute trip to New York City. (I'm not complaining, though!) This is what I wanted to blog about on Monday...

During June, a small new farmer's market opened here in Syracuse, right in our own neighborhood! Even though it's still very small, Daiku and I were excited to go check it out and support local (very local) farmers and organizations. (Read another Syracuse blogger's report on the Eastside farmer's market here)

And look what we found!



The mother of all zucchini! The guy selling them assured us that they would taste great and that all we had to do was scrape the seeds out. We bought it mostly for novelty value, but when we cooked it up it turned out to be very tasty indeed!

Here's the recipe for stuffed zucchini. Go to a farmer's market and find the most comically large zucchini possible and make this! Well, you can also make it with 4 regular-sized zucchini too.

Daiku's Middle-Eastern Stuffed Zucchini

Spice mixture:

(Daiku created this spice mixture, going for a middle eastern flavor. Experiment and vary the amounts of spices to taste)

1 tsp. black peppercorns
4 allspice berries
4-5 cloves
fenugreek
ginger
cinnamon

  • grind together and toast briefly in pan

Stuffing:

olive oil
1 tsp. red pepper
1/2 small onion
2-3 garlic cloves or garlic scapes, chopped finely
3 soyboy sausage links, chopped up
spice mixture from above
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 - 1 cup kidney beans
dash sour grape powder
salt to taste
1 cup water
3/4 cup whole wheat couscous
2-4 TB toasted pinenuts



(our garlic scapes have bloomed! Is that bad...?)
  • Pre-heat oven to 350
  • Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, add red pepper flakes and heat through to bring out flavor
  • Add the onion and sautee 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add sausage and garlic and sautee together with onions to combine
  • Add spice mixture, tomatoes, salt and sour grape powder, allow to heat through
  • After 5-10 minutes, add water and couscous, cover and take pan off from heat
  • Meanwhile, cut your giant zucchini open and scrape out the seeds, making room for the filling
  • Stuff zucchini with mixture, patting down to pack it in if necessary. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35-45 minutes. Take foil off and bake another 5 minutes. Top with pine nuts and eat!


Enjoy the freakishly abundant produce of summer!


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19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love zucchini...big, small, in between--it is all good! Your stuffed version looks great. I always look for the giant zucchinis at farmer's markets for stuffing too!

Courtney

Susan from Food Blogga said...

That thing looks like a baseball bat, Bazu! I love it!! We had a similarly gargantuan zucchini last year and were pleasantly surprised at how tender it was. Course it would have been even better with Daiku's spice mixture.:)

Susan Voisin said...

I bought a romanesco zucchini from the farmers' market that was about that size. If I see them again, I'll get one and use your great-looking recipe to stuff it.

laura k said...

That is a huge zucchini (and I love Daiku's shirt in that pic)! The zuke recipe sounds fabulous.

urban vegan said...

That zucchini could feed the Waltons--and a few guests.

KleoPatra said...

WOW! That's abundance, Bazu. Or shall i dub you Bazucchini?! Love what you did with this massive edible. Yummers!

Hope you had a great trip to NYC!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

that is perhaps the largest zucchini I have ever seen in my life, haha. I LOVE stuffed zucchini - thanks for posting this recipe!!

Neva said...

I've always been afraid of zucchinis that big, it's interesting to know they're not too tough. It looks so good stuffed.

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

I grew up in fear of these huge vegetables... because they meant "Bland-steamed-zuchinni-for-the-next-three-meals"...

My Mom was so proud of her giant garden produce though!

Now my kids are probably just as scared, but we try and incorporate them into something slightly more creative than Mom's old standby...

I'll definitely bookmark THIS option!

Anonymous said...

One year I decided to plant zucchini in our front yard in Irvine. Marty's initial embarassment turned into mortification when the plants sprouted like weeks and grew zucchinis faster than we could eat them. Unfortunately our giant buddies didn't taste as great as yours did. They really seemed much better the smaller they were. I'll have to look out for this variety the next time I'm at the farmer's market.

Theresa said...

Wowie, that is one serious zuke! The stuffing looks so good! And those garlic blooms are gorgeous!

Emmy said...

Wowza, that a huuuuuge zucchini. The stuffed zuke sounds delicious. I've been making a variety of stuffed squashes lately but haven't had time to blog about them yet. BTW, that's a great shirt Daiku's wearing.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Oh my that's one big honkin zucchini. The stuffing looks and sounds wonderful! Now I just have to find me a zucchini that size...

Mikaela said...

Love the zucchini boats! :D

vko said...

Hey- I demand that you let me know when you come to NYC so that we can have a meal together!!

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

That's 3 words:

ZUC - CHI - NI

Jackie said...

Wow what a big zucchini and love Daiku's T-shirt as well.

Thanks for the recipe. I shall use it on some small organic zucchinis I bought yesterday. Finnily enough I bought fenugreek recently and was trying to figure out the best way to use it.

Anonymous said...

Wow !! really big.

TB said...

yum yum yummmmmm. i love stuffed anything. i am definitely filing this recipe as a must-make when i get back to civilization (i.e. my kitchen).