Courgettes and Mint Butter

Sometimes simple can be delightful.

Take a zucchini or two and cut into 1/2" slices (measures for you Mericans or Liberians out there) and cook both sides in veg oil until golden brown both sides.

Mix softened butter with chopped fresh mint leaves, salt and pepper, and place a dollop on each slice of zuke. Pass around with extra S&P to taste. Excellent for nibbling with wines (and you guys may recall that I am not a big Zuke fan - they are equivalent to neutral filler unless you add some flavour).

Personally Bill, I would use 1 to 1.5 cm slices but otherwise it sounds like agood thing. As you say they have no real flavour so the butter can have all sorts of additives.

I used inches because I have seen American sites where people have seen cm and assumed it must mean inches and proceeded accordingly instead of converting.

And yes, you can come up with all sorts of additives. I am personally fond of adding a umami shot by putting some finely chopped anchovies in the butter.

[Jenise]

When garden fresh, zucchini can have a wonderful sweetness. And they'll sweeten up a little as they dessicate if oven roasted--no frying pan needed, I just quarter them lengthwise and roll in olive oil. But I agree on the mint additive, it's a fine addition, as are herbs d'Provence. I'm preparing lamb shanks tonight and in fact wish I had zucchini to go with them!

Yup - zucchini has texture not flavour for the most part and can be the basis for something else that contributes the flavour.

Doing some menu planning right now and kicking around an hors d'oeuvre of little hollowed out cucumber boats with white miso, smoked salmon and enoki mushrooms. Think that would work well with Champagne. Cucumber and zucchini share a lot of attributes - mostly crispness rather than flavour - if anything the cukes have a bit more flavour than the zukes.

I've also used zukes as stand-in noodles - run them through the mandoline and then dress or sauce them. Again, the substrate for flavour rather than a contributor to it.