The curse of the giant zucchini, or, The night I discovered I'd never be an animal photographer

So Dad's just being a showoff. He dropped these off last weekend.

I tried to show the scale of these monsters by placing a pen next to them, but somehow, it just didn't do them justice. So I looked outside... Ah. There we go :

Oh! Hey mom!

What the ?!?!?

Behemoths, I tell you! My father wins in the quantity department, that's for sure. But he doesn't have as pretty beets and carrots as I do! *grumble grumble*

So what was I to do with such a bounty of horribly large cucurbits? I got to work, that's what! Here's a mash-up of a few things I did.

1) I roasted them. 

First up, a roasted zucchini and quinoa salad. 

• I cooked one cup of quinoa in water with a dash of salt. Once cooked, I set it aside to cool.
• While the quinoa cooked, I cut the courgettes lengthwise into 5mm slices, tossed them with a little canola oil, salt and pepper and cooked them straight on the barbecue grill until they were softened but still toothsome (i.e. not mushy!) Once done, I cut them into bite-size pieces.
• I chopped up a palmful (smaller than a handful) of basil and a handful of parsley from the garden.
• In a salad bowl, I whisked together some sherry vinegar (white wine vinegar would have been nice too) and some olive oil (ratio of 1 part vinegar to 3 part oil is usually good.)
• Finally, I tossed everything in the bowl with the dressing, adjusted the seasoning with more salt and pepper and POOF! Done. 

Sadly, Marc, my sister and I ate the salad much too quickly for me to remember picture-taking. Here's what I managed to get, post-meal. You'll have to trust me on this. It was beautiful and it was tasty. Reeeeeeal tasty.

Second up, another roasted zucchini salad, this time with barbecued tofu. And I remembered the pictures that time!

• I sliced the zucchini lengthwise into 5mm slices, and did the same thing with the tofu (firm), only slicing crosswise instead. I made sure I squeezed the tofu between sheets of paper towel to remove any excess water. I then tossed the tofu and the zuckes together with a bit of canola oil and some Montreal steak spice (thaaat's right - steak spice!) 

• Next came grill time, where I decided at the last minute to throw on a few slices of leftover red onion that had been lying at the back of the fridge. Best decision ever.

• Once the tofu had turned golden with some good, darker grill marks, and the zukes had softened without being mushy, I pulled them off, along with the onions, and threw them back in their pre-cue bowl to cool off a bit.
• After I chopped the zucchinis and tofu into bite-size pieces, I added the following to the bowl:
• a chopped golden tomato
• some chopped romaine lettuce
• a splash of balsamic vinegar and some olive oil
• salt and pepper

And voilà! A warm roasted zucchini and tofu salad with red onion and golden tomato. Faboo.

And finally, tonight, 

2) I baked with the zucchinis

I just went to my go-to gal for bundts, The Food Librarian, and got the recipe for a Zucchini Olive Oil Bundt. I dropped the lemon glaze because I ran out of sugar, but compensated by serving the cake with some home-made whipped cream (whip 35% cream with a drop of vanilla and a bit of sugar). Mmmmm... Satisfactorily delicious replacement.... Again, apologies for the lack of "before" pictures. It was just that damned good.

But wait! Are those toasted almond bits I see? Why yes, Timmy, those are!

Just check out this moist and tender crumb. COME ON! IT'S GORGEOUS!

The evening ended beautifully with Marc taking care of the dishes while I tried to replicate the "doggie to zucchini scale" picture of Ti-Gars with what was left of Gigantor, the Ridiculously Large Courgette. Sadly, that's when I discovered that any hopes I may have had of one day being an animal photographer were probably a waste of time... Oy. I leave you with samplings of the disastrous photo shoot. 

À la prochaine!