Courgettes galore

I am completely useless at self- control.

Way back in the month of march, when the seedlings of the towering crops of the fields today were just beginning to feel the springs thawing warmth through the frozen soil, my over excitement in planning this year’s vegetable plot had got the better of me.

Not only did I enthusiastically get the other half to make it double the size, but I had a minor fixation with sowing every seed from all the vegetable packets I had accumulated over the winter months.

With seed catalogues arriving in the lifeless months of winter, you are enticed into believing that you can grow all over your necessary edible kitchen contents over the more hospitable spring and summer months.

My downfall came in the furrows of an early, fresh crispy spring morning. My eagerness for a summers worth of home grown stocks led me to sowing every courgette, squash, zucchini and patti pan seed I had available to me. In a sun radiated greenhouse I devotedly popped the flat pumpkin – like seeds on their sides in a carefully concocted mix of compost and perlite.

Courgettes and alike are my fail safe vegetables. Even if everything else fails to rear a small sign of life, the courgette will always prove to have the stamina to burst into action year after year.

What my squash adoring senses failed to remind me is that one courgette plant harvest is more than enough to feed a family of two, so what exactly I was going to do with the other 37 jungle like plants perplexed me.

If it was just me and the veg patch, I would have allowed all my swelling family of cucurbits to take over the plot, but the voice of strict reason that is my other half wouldn’t allow it.

He made me, no, forced me to give some of the now emotionally attached plants away. Separation from loved ones is never easy, but having to choose the blessed few that were to stay on and become my summer companions was heart wrenchingly difficult. After a few sleepless nights and tormented days, I whittled it down to 15 plants of 5 different varieties. The others waited in the greenhouse- come- orphanage for their foster parents to come and collect them and give them a loving home or at least that it what I was told.

Having nurtured them through the disorganised weather over the last couple of months, the time has finally arrived for the plants to burst into action. Daily I am bowled over by the vigorous blooms of the brightly coloured courgette flowers and the many unusually shaped fruits they are continuing to omit. Picking them quick is obligatory, unless you want something that resembles the size of a Russian submarine and carries more water than succulent squashy flesh.

Although it pains me to give them away, I offer them to people like bright bundles of joy, hoping to spread a little bit of the sunshine vegetable that invigorates me so greatly, but more often than not I am received with an ungrateful reply of rejection. I agree that back in the microwavable years of the 1980s the (as it was then) exotic courgette from distant shores was labelled insipid and bland, always being used as filler in a tinned tomato ratatouille or shoved in to bulk up a vegetarian lasagne.

With the recent revival of home grown foods, the courgette is once again making a welcoming come back and used for a multitude of dishes. If the last time you tried one you were wearing neon leggings, legwarmers and Margaret Thatcher was PM then maybe it’s time you reawaken your taste buds to one of the easiest home-grown vegetables around.

There are countless ways I have found to use up a surplus glut and although preserving them in oil is on my agenda, I have given you the recipe I find is the most expressive way to extract as much flavour out of the courgette as possible. To slowly pan fry them with a smashed clove of garlic, lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper is one of the most versatile recipes I have in my repertoire.

Serve them under a freshly grilled fillet of fish, mix them through a tomato sauce and serve with pasta or do what I did last night and griddle some sliced pieces of sourdough bread rubbed with a garlic clove then pile your summer coloured vegetables on top and drizzle seductively with extra virgin olive oil. Simple but impressive.

Multi – talented courgettes

3 or 4 varied sizes of courgettes, yellow or green, big or small

2 cloves of garlic – peeled and bashed but kept whole

2/3 big strips of lemon zest

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Very carefully slice your courgettes into rounds with the width similar of that to a 10pence piece.

Drizzle a welcome amount of olive oil into a pan, throw in your garlic cloves and lemon zest and heat very slowly. Once some of the garlic has infused with the oil place all of your courgettes in to the pan, season with a generous amount of salt and pepper then allow to cook once again very slowly, stirring every five minutes or some to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Once they have softened and are decidedly floppy in appearance they are ready to do with as you please.

Courgette flower salad

Pick the most vibrantly bloomed flowers from  your courgette plants and tinkle through a splash of water, just before serving squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

          Whilst the rest of the summer house awaits furnishing, poppy seams to be taking full advantage of her very own hand - crafted Laura Ashley dog bed. Only the very best for princess poppy!