What to do with Courgettes, Marrows, Rhubarb and other excess fruit and veg...

There are loads of great ideas on squidoo for courgettes and marrows (or zucchinis is you prefer) so here are links to zucchini pages, and some recipes of my own.

Made with the various courgette varieties in the picture!

an easy and great tasting rhubarb pudding, as made by my sister at her yearly birthday BBQ

This is really so simple, yet I only found out how to make it this year. Its always been a bit of a draw for my sisters barbeque as it looks great and tastes fantastic.

ingredients

Rhubarb

Ginger biscuits

yogurt

method

cook the rhubarb, then mix in some srushed ginger biscuits and some yogurt - helen normally uses set yogurt, but greek style is what I use.

eat.

you can decorate the top like a trifle if toy want, glam it up a bit.

or courgette and ginger jam, as I have been calling it.

Ingredients

1kg peeled cored apples

1kg prepared marrow

2kg sugar

1 lemon (rind and juice)

60g ginger (I've used crystalised, fresh and powdered, the original recipe wasn't clear, so try it and see!)

instructions (and what I did)

1. Chop everything finely (I grated it all)

2. Put into a bowl in 3 layers, sugar in between, juice on top (I just put it all in a bowl) and leave overnight. (or in my impatient case a few hours)

3. Boil for 30 minutes, then test, keep going if required.

This recipe makes 8ish jars of jam?

carrot cake without the carrot

Any carrot cake recipe will do, just cross out carrot and write in courgette (or zucchini if you prefer!)

Here's the one I use though

Ingredients

310g self-raising Flour

1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

95g sugar

60g sultanas

1 egg

80ml milk or water

290g grated courgette

Bung it all in a bowl and mix it up then fill a 12 muffin tray and cook at gas mark 7 for about 20 minutes, or until they are cooked.

Courgette Cake without the Courgettes

I'm overwhelmed with Beets at the moment, so what to do with them?

Well...cake obviously!

Once again its the same as carrot cake, so just replace the carrot with beetroot, either in your own recipe or in the courgette one above (although then you will have to change courgette rather than carrot...!)

Ingredients

Courgette

Sugar

Lemon juice

Fresh Ginger

Method

Chop and peel your courgette, then weigh it.

Cook the courgette in a small amount of water

add the same weight of sugar as your prepared courgette

Add chopped / grated Ginger to taste

Add lemon juice to taste - I suggest 2 lemons worth per 12oz courgette

Boil till done.

It's a bit vague I know....make it up, I've made it runny and yellow (like the picture) and solid and orange (hard to spread) but always yummy!

Ingredients

2 onions , chopped

500g tomatoes , chopped

500g courgettes , diced

300ml white wine vinegar

2 Granny Smith apples , peeled and diced

250g brown sugar

2 tsp mixed spice

1 tbsp mustard seeds

thumb-sized piece root ginger , grated

4 garlic clove , crushed

Method

1.Put all the ingredients in a large pan. Bring slowly to a simmer, stirring to stop the mixture sticking.

2.Simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours until dark, thick and chutney-like. Pour into sterilised jars and leave for 2-3 weeks before eating.

Nutritional information Per 25g/rounded tbsp

36 kcalories, protein 0.6g, carbohydrate 8.4g, fat 0.2 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 0.5g, salt 0.02 g

I've found myself with a load of windfall pears, so here's a use for them, and the shed load of courgettes.

Ingredients

1.7 kg Courgettes

500g Apples

500g Pears

300g Sultanas

400ml Cider vinegar

500g Soft dark brown sugar

2 Garlic cloves

1 Teaspoon salt

½ Teaspoon of ground white pepper

1½ Teaspoons of ground Allspice

1½ Teaspoons of ground ginger

½ Tablespoon mustard seeds

½ Teaspoon of ground mace

Method

This recipe makes approximately 10 x 227g jars.

Dice the courgettes, peel and dice the apples and pears, and crush the garlic.

Add all the ingredients to a large, heavy bottomed pan and stir to combine.

Heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.

Turn up the heat and bring to the boil, then turn it down again and simmer very gently, stirring from time to time, for 1 hour and thirty minutes until the fruit and vegetables and fruit are soft and glossy.

Ladle into warm sterilised jars and seal.

Store for three weeks before using.