Before this season, I would have said that we couldn’t grow cucurbits well in our garden. While everyone else was overrun with zucchini and cucumber, our plants struggled to produce the odd fruit.
Linda assured me that it would happen one day – and that it was largely a product of the climate and the growing season more than anything else. I think experience plays a big part though – we hadn’t realised the amount of space and water these plants needed.
This year, expecting only the low yield we’d had in previous years, we planted three Lebanese zucchini seedlings, four Lebanese cucumbers, and four tromboncinos.
And we’ve had a joyous abundance of produce! The cucumbers have grown well in their pot, and the zucchinis and tromboncinos are producing daily pickings. Still not to glut proportions, but more than enough for our daily eating.
We’re now in the enviable position of trying to manage it all, and I have to be creative, or the boys will notice that they’re eating the same vegetable every night for dinner. My latest attempt was tromboncino bhajis, which Pete and I really liked…
I grated one medium sized tromboncino (a zucchini would work too) and mixed it with:
- besan (chickpea) flour (I didn’t measure accurately, but it was probably about ¾ cup)
- 1 small grated onion
- salt
- cumin
- coriander
- a little turmeric
- chilli powder
- a little sifted bicarb of soda (baking soda)
After stirring all the ingredients together, I added water gradually to create a batter. You don’t want it too sloppy, but if it’s too dry, the finished bhajis will be a little tough.
Preheat a neutral oil to 180C (deep fry temperature) and then drop in a scoop of the batter and deep fry until golden brown. Taste the first bhaji, and adjust seasoning as required before cooking the rest of the batter…
I mentioned these to Linda who sent me the tromboncino seeds and who is herself overrun with them at the moment. She planned to make the bhajis and serve them with cucumber raita – a two cucurbit meal!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Good work Celia, I wonder if they would work with cucumbers:)
I doubt it, unfortunately. You still working through your glut, Glenda? ;-)
Sure are, They appear to be slowing down a bit now.
Heavenly Celi. I haven’t used besan flour since living in Mauritius. Think it high time I sourced some locally.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, I must experiment some more with besan, we don’t do anything else with it. Hope you track some down! x
These look so yummy Celia! What a great ( and sneaky) way to get everyone to eat their veggies! I’ll have to give it a go :)
Hope you like them, Emilie! They’re quite fun to make, and nice with just onions too..
Oh now I AM hungry! :)
These are easy to make, Misky! :D
fantastic, we also have had problems growing cucumbers or zuchinnis and i felt such a failure, maybe we will try this variety, i am just ordering seeds so your post is very well timed! c
Celi, thank you for saying that – I thought we were the only ones who couldn’t grow the darn things!
MMMMMMMM8 I have seen these veggies in a friend’s garden & wonder what they tastes like. I must make these yummy looking bhajis soon!
Sophie, they’re vegan! :D Hope you like them!
I’m on a mission to get my daughter to like courgette – I think this might just be the recipe.
Sally, all the boys will happily eat zucchini slice?
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/04/27/genies-zucchini-slice/
I’m sure the boys could eat those every night and not complain…they look delicious.
Karen, Big Boy loved them, Small Man ate them, but a little less enthusiastically! :)
Yummy!
They really were!
What a great way of disguising a vegetable! I love bhajis but have actually never made them. I’ll have to give these a try. Congrats on the harvest xx
Thanks Charlie! Nice to have you back – I’ve missed you!
Wow Celia, those zucchinis look fantastic. My father in law has a glut of them in his garden, so we are getting lots in our kitchen. Will definitely give this recipe a try : )
Thanks Ella! Everyone is so good at growing them, except us! :)
Oh these look just lovely Celia. I adore bhaji’s of any kind – deep frying is a wonderful thing. ;-)
Wonderful for the taste buds, A, not so great for the hips. Ah well.. :)
The best part is that we get to learn new ways to disguise the veges too! How exciting that you’ve had such a good crop this year.
Claire, it really is, thank you for understanding how excited we are! :)
Great idea Celia, so yummy too! I left my zucchinis unattended over the rainy weekend and yesterday found 5 monsters lurking under the leaves. Finding tasty and interesting ways to use them up can be a challenge indeed- thanks for the inspiration sweetie! Xox
Becca, you’re always so good at growing zucchs – have you have the same luck with the trombies!
I did try making them Celia, and they turned out spectacularly well. I made mine flatter and shallow fried rather than deep fried. And served with raita and a hot chutney. I call them pakora but I think that’s just another name. I can imagine this would be a very kid-friendly way to serve up zucchini.
Linda, I was wondering if we could tempura the next lot? They’ve come back well after the rain, as you predicted, thank you!
Well, I may not usually be into deep-frying but this is one gorgeous recipe! Since I am a tried and true zucchini freak and these look marvellous they will be faithfullly copied, probably shallow-frying like Linda :) !
Linda had a wonderful steamed recipe on her blog too, Eha!
Thank you, beautiful lady – guess where I’ll head next? And a lovely day to you :) !
Those look really delicious!
I wish summer would hurry up and get here!
I made stir fry with a slightly shriveled zucchini from Chili- the stir fry was good- but using veggies that are not fresh and local is hard- it offends my sensibilities, pocketbook and taste buds!
Heidi, I know exactly what you mean – I think it would be hard for us to go back to out of season shop bought now!
If it’s fried, no matter how it’s prepared, I’ll eat ’em, Celia! These look good and I bet they have a nice crunch, too. I can’t wait to see what other ways you devise to “hide” your tromboncinos. :)
John, the trombies grow big yellow flowers – we were thinking of stuffing them like zucchini flowers. Maybe that’s what we’ll do next.. :)
The look really nice and moist inside which is just the way I like them! :D
Thanks Lorraine! They were delicious..
Yum, pakoras! I hadn’t thought of doing them with zucchini. A glut of them here, too and that’s only two plants although I think one has succumbed to all of the weekend rain.
Jo, your plants do much better than ours do! We’ve had daily pickings, but not a glut!
It’s nice to know that there is Spring somewhere in the world. The hub just put in four new raised beds. This recipe looks like a good way to use all the zucchini that he’s going to grow. :-)
Maz, your new beds are looking wonderful! :)
My seed order which included the tromboncino has arrived. Now must wait for the appropriate time to start my seedlings. I have a tendency to start too early, must restrain myself.
Hooray! Hope they grow well for you, Norma! :)
They are such quietly elegant looking fruit! The interior shot of the bhaji looks wonderful and I know there would be no argy bargy :) round here if I made those. tempura sounds like a good way to go too. Our veggie garden was pretty much shredded last weekend when we had a very bad mannered visitor named Oswald. Our neighbour has a beautiful 60 year old Poinciana tree; Oswald seemed to have it by the throat and its huge branches clawed the sky for air. Astonishing to see and luckily it survived unscathed.
Jan, I’m so glad you’re ok! I hope the damage wasn’t too extensive, although a shredded veggie garden is pretty bad. How did the chooks cope? xx
Mmm Celia they would be delicious with a knock your socks off chutney :-)
B, we served the with creme fraiche mixed with chipotles in adobo sauce.. :)
The chooks held their ground apart from the occasional running sortie – they spent most of the time tucked underneath our bottom deck. They’re now enjoying the damp ground and have dirty stockings:)
Glad to hear they’re ok, Jan! x
Your garden has been very generous :)
Tandy, at the moment, it’s giving us beans! :)