It's August and the one thing most people dread hearing more than, wanna come over and see the videos from our vacation? is , hey want some zucchini?
I grew up Italian, and ergo, I grew up eating zucchini, or in my case not eating it. They say eskimos have 200 words for snow, Italians have about 200 recipes for zucchini and I think I've had most of them. It's not the most exciting vegetable in my pantry and I'm always hesitant to prepare it..so i don't. Indian recipes are so full of a variety of vegetables, okra, and spinach, and green beans ,cauliflower, bitter melon potato and drumsticks..yes drumsticks are a vegetable, but that's for another day.
Zucchini are so plentiful this time of year, and so cheap that it seems a crime against the bankbook not to cook with them.
There's a Bangaladeshi recipe that I ran across in the cookbook Mangos and Curry Leaves that's just perfect for a hot summer lunch or dinner on the deck. It's comfortable next to other Indian vegetarian dishes, or a plain roast chicken as I did the other night.Zucchini stands in for the Indian potal squash. Plus, it only has 4 ingredients and takes about 8 minutes to cook, and you can't beat that.
So, get those zukes ready here's how it goes.
Start with
1.) 4 small zucchini
2.) slice them in 1/2 inch thick rounds.
3.) Mix together 1/4 tsp. of turmeric
4.) 1/4 tsp. of ground black mustard seeds
5.) 1/4 tsp. of cayenne
6.) 1 tsp of sugar
7.)Heat 2 Tbs of oil in a deep pan or Indian karhai and when the oil is hot pour in your spices and stir fry for a few seconds.
8.) Add the zucchini and move them around and stir them up keeping them moving.
9.) They'll be done in about 4 minutes. Sprinkle them with about 1/2 tsp. of salt and serve.
So there you have it, a great way to get rid of all those pesty zucches the neighbors keep leaving on your doorstep.
Say.... anybody wanna see some home movies???
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