Jazz it with Zucchini

Zucchini may not be a fancy thing, looks bland and boring and not the top of mind ingredient when you're thinking of 'pizza'. But sometimes these humble vegetables surprise me the most.

A simple stir fry zucchini in olive oil with some salt and pepper, till it's nice and crunchy, is a tasty snack on its own. Fry some onions as well in the left over oil in the pan, till they caramelize a little, and layer these over a pizza base. (layer the base with some pasta sauce if you wish) Grate some fresh feta or mozzarella and a bit of Parmesan, and pop it into an oven for about 15- 20 minutes.

The stir fry zucchini can also be a yummy crisp garnish for your pasta. I tried it with an older recipe of pasta al limone- and it was lip smacking delish!

The best fennel potato pie (with zucchini and carmelized onions)

Today, I tried fennel for the first time! I have seen them prepare it in a hundred delicious ways on Masterchef, I don't know why I haven't bothered cooking it before. So for dinner, I made up my own version of a fennel pie, and tried to incorporate in all the veggies I had at home. It was an experiment, but it turned out brilliant!

You need: for pastry

• 2 ½ cups plain organic flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 170g cheddar cheese
• ½ cup ice water

for filling: 2-3 bulbs of fennel, 2 potatoes, 2 onions, 1/4 zucchini, garlic (4 cloves) sherry wine (1tbsp), balsamic vinegar (1tbsp), cheese (any kind), rosemary and thyme- a few sprigs, butter, 1/2 cup milk, a spoon of fresh cream.

There are 4 basic processes, that you need to juggle around a bit.
1. Pastry
and for the filling....
2. blanched fennel and zucchini
2. Caramelized onions
3. potato mash

We need to get started on the pastry first. It is a very simple process, it's the same method I used for the apple pie I posted earlier (http://pinkpaperlanterns.blogspot.in/2012/12/dreamy-apple-pie.html)
With the pastry in the fridge and out of the way, lets get on to the veggies.

In a vessel blanch coarsely chopped fennel and zucchini in boiling water for about 5 minutes, and set aside.

In a shallow pan, saute chopped onions and garlic in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add the sherry white wine after that, and balsamic vinegar. Add some salt and pepper and herbs and saute in low heat for another 5 minutes. Don't let the onions burn at any point. Set aside.

Meanwhile chop the potatoes fine and boil them. Once they are soft, mash them coarsely and toss in a cube of butter and a spoon of fresh cream. Add the mash to the onions, along with milk, and combine till the mixture gets all smooth and gooey.

Assembling the pie:
Drape the pastry into the pie dish.  Pour the filling (the onion potato mash and fennel- zucchini) into the pastry lined pie dish. Gently pat down to even off surface and dot with diced butter, crumbled feta and shredded gruyere. Cover the filling with rolled out dough and pinch the edges to seal the pie.
Make a few slits on the surface and brush it with a bit of olive oil before tossing it into the oven for about 30 mins at 200 deg c.

 

You can improvise by using any other vegetable- carrots, peas, broccoli. And it's quite filling, couldn't have more than two slices!

Parmesan zucchini

Simple recipe for a mid- day snack. Just 3 steps,

1. Slice the zucchini into thin roundels.
2. add 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (garlic infused) in a skillet and shallow fry till golden brown on both sides.
3. Add salt and pepper and top it with grated Parmesan.

Crunchy, cheesy, yummy and healthy!