Tuesday 29 September 2020

Skins And Marrows Of Outrageous Fortune*

When I was a child, many gardeners grew marrows on their allotments. Huge great things, which were taken to the Church Flower And Produce Show, tape measures were produced, and prizes were awarded for the biggest, greenest specimens. Sometimes these generous growers would pass on a marrow or two to my Mum. But I hated eating them [one relation refused to eat them, on the grounds 'he didn't like the feel of them in his mouth'] The skins were tough and the flesh was watery and bland.

Then in the 1960s, someone realised that if you just grew small ones, perhaps half the length of a cucumber, they were much more pleasant to eat. Courgettes became popular on British dinner tables. [The Americans call them zucchini - Italian for little pumpkin - and have been enjoying them since the 1920s] As foreign travel became more popular, people started making ratatouille - that glorious slow cooked summer stew of courgettes, tomatoes, herbs and olive oil. And then someone discovered that if you had a spiralizer you could make courgetti - a low-carb alternative to pasta.

And these things do grow remarkably easily, I'm told. So all summer I have enjoyed outrageously good fortune, in that my gardening friends have shared their gluts of tomatoes and courgettes with me. I made ragus, I made ratatouille, we ate some, we froze some. [no courgetti, Bob is not keen]

But the final "courgette" I was given really was a marrow - a good 5" across and 12" long. I wanted to do something different. I came across a recipe for borani - a Turkish/Iranian dish which uses spinach, beetroot or marrow. Click HERE for Meera Sodha's recipe. [I halved the quantities for two of us] Hers on the left, mine on the right.


I think I spread my yogurt out too widely on the plate - it is not as photogenic as her dish. [ But she used thick  vegan non-dairy yogurt- mine was thinner home made regular stuff]. Bob found some yellow-stickered wraps for 15p in M&S and I quartered and toasted them to accompany our meal, rather than making my own naan bread. The meal was very tasty, and certainly made a change from ratatouille. I'll cook it again sometime

[*apologies to the bard for the awful pun]





14 comments:

  1. I have to admit that my favorite way to eat a zucchini is in zucchini bread! Here, they are called zucchini, no matter what size they grow into.

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    1. Perhaps I should try making zucchini bread sometime

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  2. I prefer the picture of your version! It looks very tasty :) we've ended up grating and freezing a lot of courgettes - I can sneak them into chilli, bolognese and even cottage pie that way! :)

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    1. I have never considered grating and freezing them. That's a very efficient use of freezer space.

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  3. I didn't realise that eating them as courgettes was a recent thing. How interesting! I do remember not enjoying married hugely when we were kids although Spaghetti marrows were ok. I adore courgettes though and have had so much success with my one plant this year! The yellow ones are scrummy! My tomatoes have been prolific but the wind and rain knocked 40 large San Marzano tomatoes off the plant last week and they were on the soil for a few days as I got home too late to see. It was SO sad.

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    1. Sorry that you lost your tomatoes. Amused by the auto correct which has changed "marrows" to "married"

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  4. Where DO you find those puns? Glad to see the apology to WS. ;)

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  5. Like Macbeth, I think my random thoughts and wordplay are the product of a heat oppressed brain

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  6. My dad loved to cook and to try out what back then would be called rather "exotic" recipes. One night I got home from Uni to find my siblings all at the table but looking rather apprehensive. I asked what was for dinner - Shrimp stuffed zucchini was the answer. My response - "What's a Zucchini"?????? :-)
    I eat them but wouldn't count them as my favourite veg - although I do rather like a chocolate/zucchini loaf - delicious and moist!

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  7. The marrow on the photo was huge! In Norway we call zucchini "Squash". It is not a very typical Norwegian word so I have no idea where we have got that from, since it is not among the different names you mentioned. The Borani looks good!

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  8. Squash is the name they are given in the USA , Marit

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    1. In Canada and the US they are Zucchini - but usually the smaller sized ones. We call squash those very hard skinned things like a Butternut or Hubbard or even Spaghetti Squash (and technically a pumpkin is also a variety of squash). Honestly - the English language will trip you up at every opportunity! :-)

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    2. Thank you Margie - you are so right about the language. People in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia speak "English" but we often have different words for the same object.

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    3. Thank you both of you! Always some new to learn :)

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