It seems we’re the only ones who weren’t able to grow zucchinis this year!
Diana grew giant yellow ones, my friend Becca was over-run with them, and last week Pete’s baby sister Penny sent down the doozy of them all! For a couple of days, the “monster” just sat on the kitchen bench (it was too large to fit in the fridge), but by Saturday morning I’d built up my chi enough to tackle it.
Not a single bit of the zucchini went to waste! The top and tail, plus all the seeds, were eaten with relish by the chooks. The bottom half was sliced into large chunks and roasted with potatoes, turnips and capsicums as an accompaniment to our Saturday night roast.
And on Sunday, the top half was turned into two large zucchini slices, enough to feed the neighbourhood!
. . . . .
One of the foodie treats that I always buy from Harkola is this Lebanese fig marmalade – a delicious chunky paste of figs, sesame seeds, anise and sugar. It’s ridiculously cheap ($4.95 for 800g) and packed to the brim with large pieces of fruit. The sesame seeds give the marmalade an unusual flavour, and make it perfect for incorporating into savoury dishes.
Last weekend I had a jar of this to use up, plus a bag of turkey breast offcuts from Paesanella, so I made a filled focaccia. The basic recipe is here, and my add-ins for this batch were:
- 200g turkey offcuts, chopped
- 200g fig marmalade
- 65g Picasso sheeps’ cheese
It could have used a little more cheese, but this recipe is always made with whatever I have leftover in the fridge, and that was all I had.
The resultant loaf was a seductive blend of sweet and salty flavours – Pete and Uncle Steve loved it!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Waw!!! Your zucchini slices aka bread or so looks so divine! I just printed the recipe! Your fig marmalade bread must taste awesome too!
We are moving to our 1st house on June the 5th & there are 2 beautiful fig trees in the garden with a lot of fruit on them.
I am searching a lot of fig recipes now!
Sophie, two fig trees! That is going to be sooo exciting! We make a Jamie Oliver fig salad all the time and it’s wonderful – I wrote it up here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/01/19/joyous-figs/
That is one ginormous zucchini! Throughout the year I say I’ll make that, and that, and that when zucchini is in. Then in July when the zucchini is at the farmer’s market I can’t remember all the zucchini recipes I wanted to make. Your focaccia is one of the yummiest I’ve ever seen!!! Bet that doesn’t last long:)
Mel, thank you, the focaccia lasted just one meal! :) The fig marmalade is really interesting, with the sesame seeds…
Figs, cheese and chicken in BREAD! What’s not to love?
I always feel a little more adventurous after I read your blog creations, Celia!
I would love a huge zucchini bat to play around with right now- at $1.99 a pound I am buying small and thin and using them sparingly. :)
Heidi, it was so lovely to have so much to play with in the one vegetable! Best of all, it was all delicious – we didn’t even peel it! :)
Now that is a big zucchini!! It is amazing that it wasn’t tough and a bit woody. I can see from the photo that is was great. I like the look of that fig marmalade – yum. My Finnish cousin brought me some cloudberry jam when she came a few weeks ago. Have you tried it?
Deb, I have a cookbook called Falling Cloudberries, which was the first time I’d ever heard of them! What’s the jam like? Is it tart or very sweet?
I have that book too. Cloudberries grow wild in Finland for a short time. It is difficult to describe the taste. They are delicious but I can’t think what other berry they taste like. It is not too sweet, just right really.
LOL!!!!
I don’t know if I would have enough “chi” to tackle a zucchini this big, I’m impressed!
loved the filled focaccia, something I definitely must try sometime
Sally, it really did take a little deep breathing and meditation to build up the nerve to cut into the monster! :)
The filled foc is a nice, easy way to feed friends for lunch. I don’t even bother kneading it, I just squelch everything together a bit.
That foccaccio sounds amazing – like something young Mick would come up with… You are so inventive :) I’ve never seen fig marmalade, maybe in a London store.
There are lots of recipes for zucchini bread around aren’t there? Quick breads leavened with soda I think mostly. But I would be happy to eat your slice anytime. I love zucchini, or courgettes as we call them. I like them fried with lemon juice and pepper when they are small and sweet too!
I love zucchinis – they never seem to go astray here, because even if we don’t eat them, the chooks will! Young Mick is an inspiration to all of us! :)
Celia that IS huge. Zucchini is one of those happy vegetables that I never tire of eating, (if only The Monkeys felt the same way.)
I like the flavours of the foccacia, yum!
Brydie, you know what to get now next time you’re at Harkola! When I was at an Egyptian restaurant last year, they served a delicious chicken and fig dish, which I think was chicken fillets stuffed with this marmalade. The sesame seed gives it a very grown up appeal.
The focaccia looks really great Celia. I really love checking out the different ingredients you get your hands on. We live in a rural area (Gippsland Vic) and I’m lucky if I can get my hands on exotic products like cake flour! Cheers.
Meaghan, we’re very lucky in Sydney’s inner west to be able to get all sorts of things, but you know what? Cake flour is one of the hardest things to buy! I’ve almost never seen it anywhere! :)
Wow! That is one huge zuchinni! I’ve been growing large zuchinnis too and the slice is next on my list to try to make.
Wow! That is a seriously impressive zucchini. Glad to see it was used so well.
I have a giant egg I was gifted with on Wednesday and I’m still looking for a recipe worthy of its inclusion.
What a marrow! These are great stuffed. Just cut a hole in the top of the marrow to form a lid leaving the ends as they are. Take out the seeds and put in a bologonese sauce. Then put the lid back on. Bake in a moderate oven and serve with mashed potatoes to soak up all the juice which comes out when the marrow is sliced.
What a monster! Daunting for sure!
I love reading your blog. I love your photos even more (I call it food porn!) – for some reason I always get hungry when I’m reading your posts….!
Anyway, I can’t wait to make your zucchini slice recipe….maybe I’ll go do it right now…
Thanks!
Oh thank god! When I saw the title of your new post, I thought maybe you had made marmalade out of figs and a giant zucchini. Wonder how that might’a tasted?
Soy, I wish we could grow zucchinis! We’ll try again next year.. :)
Claire, thank you! A giant egg – that’s a pretty cool gift in my book!
Meg, thank you, I haven’t tried stuffing a zucchini, although we did stuff a button squash a little while ago. The bolognese filling sounds like a good idea…my boys would eat that! :)
Shelley, thanks for reading! :)
Doc, LOL, could you imagine? Not sure they’d go all that well together..
A wonderful weekend of baking, and all looks delicious.Zucchini slice is always a great winner for the taste buds, and that jam bread would have been a delight!
Are you resting this weekend? Have a wonderful time! x
We found one of those monsters in the zucchini patch a couple of weeks ago at the farm too…., everyone got asked did we want to bring it home but I’m afraid my chi wasn’t doing it for me that week, I imagined it’d take a full days baking to use it up….., you did good girlfriend., really good.
Oh., and that fig marmalade…. how good does it look huh, I can’t believe its so cheap too.
Holy mutha! I’ve never seen anything like that before :O You should enter it in a contest!
What a wonderful array of dishes Celia.
:-) Mandy
Hi Celia,
We have had about 7 of that size zucchini (monster) from our vine and like wise with our long yellow squash, we have such an abundance as they are so huge I get stuck with what to do with them all and end up giving them away, just so they dont go to waste. I have however been making alot of chocolate muffins which the kids love (unbeknowns to them they are made with zucchini also, which they hate….lol)
Tracey xx
I wonder at what size a zucchini technically turns into a marrow?!! I’m glad it still had taste. Focaccia also looks very delicious – as does the fig jam!
I’m liking the sound of that fig marmalade Celia – sounds wonderful stuff. When we end up with rather large courgettes, we usually turn it into soup. The delicate flavour works quite well in the summer.
Wow Celia, that is HUGE! I still have some monsters lurking around the veggie patch. When littlej ran the patch last year, we had to strictly enforce the size vs price rule when it came to zucchinis. That was one veggie I wasn’t buying by the kilo from her, I had to teach her smaller sweeter ones were worth more pocket money than the biggies.
That fig marmalade sounds so lovely.
Lorraine, too late! It was cut up and eaten though, which I think is a much better fate for a vegetable than winning a contest.. :)
Mandy, thank you! :)
Anna, I think they’re all part of the marrow family. And I was pretty relieved it was still good too!
Choc, thank you, we’ll try making soup next time. The boys will happily eat zucchini in just about anything…
Becca, I can’t believe how big this one was! And Penny said it seemed to almost grow that size overnight!
I have a giant yellow zucchini sitting on my kitchen bench at the moment figuring out what to do with it, while I have another 3 growing at great speeds in the garden! I made your zucchini slice last time, which was lovely, so I think I will need to roast some this time.
Celia do you think the zucchini slice would bake OK in muffin tins if I adjust the baking time? Thinking of lunch box ideas.
Sarah, I think that might work – I do know it’s a flexible recipe and my friend El bakes it in all sorts of tin shapes, including mini-loaf ones. As you say though, you’ll need to watch the baking time.