For Whom Does The Zucchini Grate? It Grates For Thee!

Forgive me, I was watching an old Gary

Cooper movie last night so that was stuck in my head. I'll be posting about that in a few weeks at my other blog. But what to do with a bunch of zucchini? I got some at work to do as you can see here.

 A co-worker brought in a bunch of them from his garden and my guess is that they have so much they don't know what to do with them, or they really don't like zucchini.  Either way I am glad to have them.  I strongly believe that food shouldn't go to waste.  I also strongly believe in using food that has been given to me for free.  So here is a grand opportunity to use local food, local to where I work that is, and make something that I can enjoy all winter.  But what to make?

I could make zucchini bread, savory of course since I don't like sweets, but I have tons of pumpkin to do that with.  I could make zucchini parmigiana, but that didn't turn out as well as my eggplant parmigiana.  So it will have to be zucchini pancakes.

  Yes, just like a potato pancake or latke, I will grate the zucchini and make savory pancakes with.  And then I will freeze them

so I can eat them later in the winter when zucchini is not in season.  I know I can still get them at the supermarket, but I don't like buying fruits and vegetables that have traveled thousands of miles to my plate.

  The question is how do I make zucchini pancakes? I will attempt to show how I took those monster squashes,

which now that I think of it I should have weighed them before I cooked them. My guess is that they were about two to three pounds each so I'll say it was about seven to ten pounds of zucchini, probably closer to seven.

  First take the zucchini and cut it in half and then in quarters after I have cut the top where the stem was and the bottom. Since these are so large cutting them up is necessary. Smaller ones can just be grated whole depending on your food processor. But these are large ones and you will need to scoop out the seeds inside as well. You can pull out the seeds and use them to grow more zucchini or put them in the oven and make roasted zucchini seeds.

  I'm going to put them right into the compost pile, might get lucky and I'll get zucchini next year. Don't laugh, a post soon to be will be about the pumpkins that are currently growing out of my compost, but more on that at a later time.

 I also add potatoes and onion to the grated zucchini to give it some more flavor. I cut up two potatoes and ended up quartering the onion before I grated it.

 I've had a number of food processors over the years and generally the grating portion usually breaks.

Since the wife has a Kitchen Aid mixer that she used to use when she did baking years ago, I have picked up some attachments that can be used with the device. This one is a food grater that comes with four different inserts to grate with. I have chosen the one that will make the most damage to the zucchini.

 The only drawback to this grater is that it's at the top of the mixer, those of you who have used a Kitchen Aid know what I am talking about. You have to have a bowl under to catch what is falling. This is why a food processor is better, but when it's broken and you don't want to spend the money to get one that doesn't break, you use what you have.

 So take a spear of zucchini and put it into the grater and watch it fly out. Well not really. It gets jammed up and you have to put a spoon inside to guide the yummy zucchini out. (How often do you hear the yummy and zucchini in the same sentence?) I find it easier and cooler to put the spoon in the center and move it to the side.

 I mix in the onion after every few spears and the potato too. I want it to be mixed rather well and it helps force out chunks of zucchini that just won't get through the grater. After everything is grated you end up with a bowl of this. It will have a good deal of liquid from the zucchini and the onion.

 Normally I would use my Pyrex bowl to mix up the pancakes, but I grated a lot of zucchini, so I moved it to a twelve quart stainless steel pot. I add two eggs, probably could have added more for this much zucchini. Also add seasonings. Salt is needed and so it pepper, pepper grated fresh from a pepper grinder mind you. Also put in

granulated garlic which I add to everything, Italian seasonings and turmeric. Why turmeric you ask? You didn't, well too bad I'm going to tell you anyway. It's good for your skin and has a number of health benefits. I got into the habit of adding it to everything when the wife was having chemo since she was told that was a seasoning that she needed to have in her diet. And of course you need to add the flour.

 This is the one area where I should measure but you have to go by eye. Add enough flour to get the batter stiff but not so stiff that it's like a quick bread but no too watery so that the pancakes fall apart. I first started with five cups of flour but had to add more as I went on. Overall I would say it was about seven to eight cups of flour that I ended

up adding when all was said and done.  Then I add my secret ingredient, yes baking powder.
 I recommend that you finish your tasting to get the correct flavors before adding the baking powder. I have heard the urban legends of tasting uncooked baking powder, well no I haven't, but have heard rumors that your stomach could

explode. I'm sure you'd have to eat a considerable amount of it, but I won't take that chance. But I have noticed it does make the pancakes lighter and fluffier.
 Heat up a frying pan, cast iron of course, in fact if you don't have a cast iron pan you need to get one. Don't use the Teflon garbage, it will eventually flake off and you don't want to be

eating that. Your body needs iron so you are safer with a cast iron pan. I add vegetable oil, heat it up and then put a spoons worth of mix into the pan. Flatten it out with the spoon so that it resembles a somewhat roundish shape.
 Before you flip the pancakes I usually rotate them in the pan, at least move them 180 degrees

to get an even browned color on all sides of the pancake. If you don't you may notice after you flip that one side of the pancake is nice and browned and the other is all pale. The trick is to get the pan really hot and use enough oil. I find it better to add small amounts of oil each batch. The pancakes will absorb the oil, so you don't want to add too much.

  When the pancake is ready to be flipped, flip it and do the same rotation on the other side to ensure even browning.  When you first start it may take a few minutes, but as you go on it will take a much shorter time once you have a very hot pan.
  I put the pancakes on a grill to dry off the oil and to let it drip off.  Yes that is my pressure caner in the picture, I get as much use out of it as I can.  It takes a few minutes to cool off, about the time for the next batch to be put on the grill.  As the pancakes are finished I put them in a pan as seen here when I was done.
  It took me about two hours to grate, mix and cook the pancakes, but it was worth it.  I bagged them up to be frozen, each bag has a dozenpancakes.  I got seven bags packed which was left after the ones that were "quality tested" by myself and my professional taster.  They will go into the freezer in the garage and will be eaten during the winter.  Put them in the oven at 350 for fifteen minutes and they will look and taste like you just pulled them from the frying pan.

  This can be done with other vegetables as well, I made a batch of broccoli pancakes years ago when I got a great deal at a farmer's market for about ten pounds of broccoli.  I enjoy them with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce and white vinegar.  My wife likes them with sour cream.  Enjoy them with a dish that has gravy, such as pot roast, they are great at soaking up gravy.

Here is a video I made of all the pictures with a cool song.  Enjoy!

A New Focus

It's been about two years since I've posted on this blog and it's time to get back to it. I have been somewhat busy with my other blog, but my other passion is canning and growing my own food. At first my wife and I wanted to present a free market/libertarian approach to solving environmental problems. That still is important because you can't legislate people's attitudes, you can change them through education and social change. And since I was involved with Washington County Peak Oil at the time, I felt it was important to get people to start growing their own food and eating as local as possible. This is now much more common and accepted than it was five years ago, so it is time for a change.

The name has been changed, and could change again, but the new focus will be on growing your own food, how to cook it and how to can it. I will be including recipes and talk about what has worked and where I have failed. Hopefully those of you who read this will find good information that you can use. And I am always looking to learn more myself so please share anything that will help.