JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Thursday, May 29, 2008

Courgettes with sultanas and pine nuts


















I have two veg boxes being delivered this week, as I'm trialling a rival to Riverford. We had a very small salad box from Riverford on Tuesday, all now eaten; tomorrow Abel and Cole are delivering a large veg box to see us through a busy weekend. Despite this vegetable richesse, I couldn't resist buying courgettes today .... I had a vague idea that I would make courgette fritters, but, instead, this cooked salade tiède beckoned from the pages of Claudia Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern Food.


















Zucchini with sultanas and pine nuts

500g courgettes
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp sultanas (or raisins)
zest and juice of a lemon
mint

Slice the courgettes, cook them fast with the nuts and sultanas, also a clove of garlic if you like. When they're soft, transfer them into a dish, sprinkle with chopped mint, then add the zest and juice of a lemon, a little Maldon salt and some pepper. Leave for at least half an hour for the flavours to develop.


Links to other posts about courgettes


Marrow Zanzibar
A lemony courgette salad
Courgette salad - this is an earlier version of the same dish
What to do when the courgettes have turned into marrows
Essence of courgette ... saving the best till last, just ignore all the preamble; you'll find a good aubergine recipe there too, it's an early-ish post, when I didn't realise that it was better to give one recipe per post if you were to have any hope of finding things again

Links to courgettes / zucchini on other blogs

Stuffed courgettes at Closet Cooking
Courgette and Pumpkin Seed Bread (not cake) at A Wee Bit of Cooking, where you'll find lots and lots of other ideas for things to do with courgettes.
Courgette flowers at the English version of Trembon

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just whipped up this recipe since I had all the ingredients on hand. I think the acidity of the lemon does not complement the other ingredients especially the raisins.

Joanna said...

Sorry this didn't work for you, as it's definitely one of my favourites ... perhaps you could try a little wine vinegar instead, if you don't like lemon ...

Joanna

Chef Jeena said...

This looks lovely I adore pine nuts. :-)

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

One of my favourites, too!

Will be interested to hear how your veg box trial goes. We've been using Riverford for 2 years now, and have been very pleased with their produce.

Anonymous said...

This looks like a nice way to prepare courgettes with a middle eastern twist.

It reminds me too, I've been thinking about growing pine nuts. I guess this is the kind of project you start about 5 years ahead of time, so I may as well get started now! I see seeds for this from time to time in seed exchange lists.

Thanks for all your input into the food growing get-together. I think it's going to be fun for us all to meet each other.

Joanna said...

Patrick, I will be SO interested to hear about growing pine nuts ... as you say, a long-term project, but really worthwhile. Do they need heat? I rather think they must ...

AFFoS: Abel and Cole = good produce, much more plastic in the packaging, boxes nothing like so easy to fold down, more choices in non-veg stuff (and the full Ecover range). So swings and roundabouts. I have no complaints AT ALL about Riverford, except my Tuesday delivery day, which I wish was Thursday or Friday

Joanna

moggymerlin said...

Love the recipe - now in the favourites book.
Interested in your veg box trial - do you think A & C are as good value as Riverford? Jane

Joanna said...

Jane, I got a special offer from A&C, so it's difficult to tell immediately, but I'm going to make time to do the sums. I think I may stick to the two box system, to get the best of both firms. But I need to do the price comparison first, and if you'd like a breakdown, email me, as I think I may not post about something quite so specific.

Joanna

Helen said...

This sounds lovely. My parents always have a glut of courgettes that they send me back to my flat with. It sounds lovely and has been booked marked in my "MUST COOK" folder!

I am increasingly tempted to get a veg box as it will force me to cook different things.