Courgette – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Courgette Cake – Version 2

I wanted to bake a courgette cake as I have made before but found I had spelt flour to use up soon and dried cranberries.
Also I did not have any hazelnuts.
So I made a variation of this well loved cake.
It would be called a keks in Polish – a light fruit loaf.

Ingredients – Cake

150g spelt flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
150g of light brown sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
150g of sultanas
150g of dried cranberries
100g of finely cut chopped walnuts
1 medium size courgette coarse grated
3 eggs
125ml of sunflower oil

Ingredients – Lemon Icing

Fine grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
150g of icing sugar

Method – Cake

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 180°C
I used a continental style long loaf tin, greased it and used a single sheet of grease proof paper to line the long sides and the base.
Mix together the flour, salt, sugars and cinnamon, making sure that any lumps in the brown sugar are all pressed out.
Mix together the sultanas, dried courgettes, nuts and the courgette.
Lightly whisk the eggs and oil together.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly together with a wooden spoon.
Add the courgette mixture and mix well in.
Place the cake mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 50 – 55 minutes – check after 40 minutes and cover the top with greaseproof or foil if browning too much before it is baked through.
Leave to cool before icing.

Method – Icing

Place the icing sugar in a bowl and add the grated lemon zest.
Mix in the lemon juice until you have a thick icing.
You might have to adjust the thickness with more lemon juice (or water) or with icing sugar.
Put the icing on the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.

Kotlety with Courgettes

This is a version of my kotlety – Polish meat patties, burgers or large meat balls.
Coarse grated courgettes are added – similar in a way to kotlety with sauerkraut.

Ingredients

400g minced beef or pork or a mixture
Breadcrumbs made from 2 fresh slices of white bread or 2 bread rolls
1 large onion – chopped fine – fried
2 – 3 courgettes – coarse grated
2 eggs – beaten
*
Dried breadcrumbs
Salt & pepper
*
Sunflower oil to fry

Method

Fry the chopped onion until golden.
Leave to cool completely.
Salt the courgettes and leave them in a colander for around 30 minutes.
Place the courgettes in a clean linen tea towel and squeeze all the liquid out.
Mix the mincemeat, breadcrumbs, onion, eggs and courgettes together well.
Season with salt and pepper.
*
Make flattened round patties and cover with dried breadcrumbs.
*
Fry on both sides in hot sunflower oil.
*
Delicious hot but also great served sliced and cold with salads and bread.

Courgette Soups

I was interested in why British English and American English have different names for a mini marrow.
In Italian zucca is the name given to a squash and zucchini is the diminutive.
In French courge is the name given to a squash and courgette is the diminutive.
So the two words mean the same thing and one can speculate why one is used in Britain and the other in America.
In Poland the word used is cukini – so comes from Italian – as do many vegetable names in Polish.
Here are two simple but delicious soups, they start off the same and it is in the finishing that they are different.
I think version 1 is more the style of soup served in Poland and version 2 more in England.

Ingredients – Version 1

2-3 courgettes
1 onion
1 litre vegetable stock
2-3 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of soured cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped chives or flat-leaved parsley to serve

Method – Version 1

Chop the onion into small pieces.
Melt the butter and gently fry the onion in it till golden.
Chop the courgette into small pieces and add to the onion.
Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Simmer gently until the courgettes are soft.
Stir in the soured cream.
Season to taste.
Add chopped herbs when serving.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is cour.jpg

Meakin Midwinter – Spanish Garden – Soup Dish from the 1960s.

Ingredients – Version 2 – Cream of Courgette

2-3 courgettes
1 onion
1 litre vegetable stock
2-3 tablespoons of butter
125ml of soured cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped chives or flat-leaved parsley to serve

Method – Version 2

Chop the onion into small pieces.
Melt the butter and gently fry the onion in it till golden.
Chop the courgette into small pieces and add to the onion.
Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Simmer gently until the courgettes are soft.
Remove the pan from the heat.
Purée the soup – a stick blender is good for this.
Bring back to the boil.
Stir in the soured cream.
Season to taste.
Add chopped herbs when serving.

I have just returned from a trip to The Netherlands where I stay with my Dutch friend who I have known for nearly all my life! We were both born in the same year – lived just a few doors apart in Lancashire and went to the same school together. Now we live in differerent countries but we visit each other often.

I am always on the look out for recipes as well as old glass & china. We went to a second-hand street market in Roermond and there was a book sale in one of the churches and strangely enough the books were sold by weight! I bought a nearly new copy of a cookery book by Yvette van Boven (I now know she appears on television).

This cake is based on one of her recipes and reminds me of the light fruit cakes called keks in Polish – though the use of the courgette is novel – you would never guess it is in the cake!

Ingredients – Cake

150g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
150g of light brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
150g of raisins
150g of currants
100g of roasted and roughly chopped hazelnuts
1 medium size courgette coarse grated
2 eggs
125ml of sunflower oil

Ingredients – Lemon Icing

Fine grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
150g of icing sugar

Method – Cake

Pre-heat the oven to GM4 180°C
I used a continental style long loaf tin, greased it and used a single sheet of grease proof paper to line the long sides and the base.

Mix together the flour, salt, sugars and cinnamon, making sure that any lumps in the brown sugar are all pressed out.
Mix together the raisin, currants, nuts and the courgette.
Lightly whisk the eggs and oil together.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix thoroughly together with a wooden spoon.
Add the courgette mixture and mix well in.
Place the cake mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 50 – 55 minutes – check after 40 minutes and cover the top with greaseproof or foil if browning too much before it is baked through.
Leave to cool before icing.

Method – Icing

Place the icing sugar in a bowl and add the grated lemon zest.
Mix in the lemon juice until you have a thick icing.
You might have to adjust the thickness with more lemon juice (or water) or with icing sugar.
Put the icing on the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.

Served on Woodside by Royal Grafton from 1940 to 1959.

Carrot Variation

I thought that this might be good using grated carrot instead of courgette – I used a medium sized carrot.
I used chopped walnuts, which I had, as when I had gone to get the hazelnuts, I got the last packet from my local shop and did not have time to go to anywhere else!

Nuts for sale in the Food Market in Rotterdam

Served on Stardust by Colclough from the 1960s.

Both versions were delicious and enjoyed by many!

Courgette Fritters

The first post on this blog was on 4 July 2015 – just over 2 years ago.

Now this will be my 100th post!

Although courgette fritters are not from an old Polish recipe they do have some similarity to Polish potato pancakes and to carrot pancakes.

Courgette in Polish is cukini – so another vegetable that owes its name to Italian – zucchini.

Courgettes belong to cucurbitaceae family as do cucumbers which are very well loved in Poland – so I am sure this recipe would be very popular there too.

I have read that courgettes did not become popular in Poland until the 1970s although the larger marrow and pumpkins were often cooked and many recipes for these can be used for courgettes.

The amounts in the ingredients are all approximate.

Ingredients

2 to 3 courgettes
1 egg
2 tablespoons of soured cream, double cream, crème fraise or yoghurt cheese
2 tablespoons of plain flour
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Salt
Sunflower oil for frying.

Method

Grate the courgettes using a coarse grater.
Sprinkle the courgettes with salt.
Place the salted courgettes onto a clean tea towel and place this in a colander for around 30 minutes.
Wrap the tea towel up and squeeze out the liquid from the courgettes.

Note

The green stains on the tea towel will come out in a hot wash but do not use fabric softener for tea towels used for this and similar purposes.

Place the dried grated courgettes in a bowl and add the grated lemon rind.

Add the beaten egg and the soured cream (double cream, crème fraise or yoghurt cheese) and mix together.
Add the flour and mix thoroughly.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and use large tablespoonfuls of the mixture to make the fritters.
Fry them on both sides until they are golden brown.

Keep them on a heat proof plate in a low heat oven whilst you make the rest.

You can place a sheet of kitchen roll on top of the first layer to stop them sticking.
Serve them with grilled meats and salad.

Option

A chopped red chilli or two and also a chopped garlic clove can be added to the mixture.

Courgettes – 3 Ways

Courgettes in Polish are cukini – so here is another vegetable that owes its name in Polish to Italian – zucchini.

Courgettes belong to the cucurbitaceae family as do cucumbers which are very well loved in Poland

I have read that courgettes did not become popular in Poland until the 1970s although the larger marrow and pumpkins were often cooked and many recipes for these can be adapted for courgettes.