I don’t actually have a thing for zucchini. I really don’t. It’s just hard to find an ingredient with as much fiber, vitamins, and few calories as zucchini to bulk up dishes and add moisture to baked goods. Sure blueberries have more vitamin C but try putting them in your lasagna. Zucchini’s flavor is unassuming. Plus it’s cheap and plentiful. Oh boy, it can be plentiful. You carefully survey the garden and retire to bed assured that you have gotten ahead of the game and wake the next day to find several zucchini that have ballooned to human thigh proportions overnight. Zucchini I can’t use immediately gets grated or chopped and frozen for use throughout the year. I’ve been known to sneak handfuls into brownies and pancakes.
Consequently, I need a book like Garden Way’s Zucchini Cookbook by Nancy Ralston and Marynor Jordon, 1977. Now I’m an enlightened socially-conscious person that knows the dangers of making assumptions, however when I read that the authors each left teaching careers at the same University and moved to a farm to live a life of self-sufficiency together, what am I to think? That I’m kind of jealous, actually.
This book includes a recipe for French-Fried Zucchini that the previous owner had marked to make for Aunt Esther on her 92nd birthday on the 18th.
1 cups ½ slices of zucchini or other summer squash
1 cup flour
¾ t salt
1/8 t pepper
2 egg yolks, beaten
6 oz. beer
2 T margarine, melted
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
Dry squash slices on paper towels. Combine flour, salt, pepper, egg yolks, and beer. Stir thoroughly. Add margarine and let mixture rest one hour at room temperature. Fold in egg whites. Dip squash slices into batter and deep fry at 360°F. until browned. Serves 4.
Here’s to you, Aunt Esther, I hope you enjoyed it! No matter how old a woman gets, she still loves a big vegetable.
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