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I've been asking around the alottment this year for ways of preserving courgettes and the general opinion is to make a ratatouile and freeze that. Nothing wrong with ratatouile, but I wanted sometning else.
I tried some tests earlier in the season, slicing, blanching and even freezing whole raw courgettes but on defrosting all of them where just mush and completely useless. I've now found two things to help use up excess courgettes.
Tomato & Courgette Chutney
500g Tomatoes (chopped)
500g Cougettes (chopped)
1 Onion (chopped)
100ml White wine vinegar.
150g Demerara Sugar
2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 cloves Garlic (chopped)
Place all ingredients into a pan, heat until sugar is disolved then cook slowly for 30 mins or till sauce resembles syrup. Place into clean jars, this recipe will fill 2 standard 450g jam jars with atablespoon or two left over.
This is a very basic chutney (there are many chutney recipes out there with much more complex recipes), but this is nice and simple and tasty too. I also recommend using the above recipe with just tomatoes..using 1 kg of toms instead of the tom/courgette mix.
Courgette Soup
1Kg Courgettes
250g Potatoes
2 cloves Garlic
1 Onion
Olive Oil
Handful of herbs (Your choice!)
Water
Cook the onion and garlic gently in the olive oil to just soften it, add the chopped potatoes and continue cooking gently for around 10-15 mins. Add the chopped courgettes and herbs and cook for another 5 mins then just cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 mins. Allow to cool slightly, then liquidise. Portion up the soup as required and freeze for use later.
Grated Courgette - courtesy of Alys Fowler, Gardeners World, Fri 27th August
Wash, top and tail 1KG Courgettes (1 KG fits nicely into a colander) and grate into a colander and add 2 teaspoons salt to it and mix up well. Leave for half an hour and the salt will draw out a lot of liquid from the courgettes. Squeeze more liquid out using your hands and bag up the grated courgettes and freeze for later use in pasta sauces or stuffings etc.
I got over half a pint of liquid out of 1kg of courgttes so I'm fairly confident the grated courgettes will be fit to use when I defrost them...but I will update this topic at a later date when I do so.
Any other Courgette glut, preserving ideas out there?
Many thanks.
Mr Photo
PS I'm aware there are many ways to use Courgettes, thats not what I'm after..I am after ways to store for much later use. I thought I had best make that distinction as this very same topic on another gardening area just gave up recipes to use now..with fresh Courgettes!! Which is no good to me in mid January.
I tried some tests earlier in the season, slicing, blanching and even freezing whole raw courgettes but on defrosting all of them where just mush and completely useless. I've now found two things to help use up excess courgettes.
Tomato & Courgette Chutney
500g Tomatoes (chopped)
500g Cougettes (chopped)
1 Onion (chopped)
100ml White wine vinegar.
150g Demerara Sugar
2tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 cloves Garlic (chopped)
Place all ingredients into a pan, heat until sugar is disolved then cook slowly for 30 mins or till sauce resembles syrup. Place into clean jars, this recipe will fill 2 standard 450g jam jars with atablespoon or two left over.
This is a very basic chutney (there are many chutney recipes out there with much more complex recipes), but this is nice and simple and tasty too. I also recommend using the above recipe with just tomatoes..using 1 kg of toms instead of the tom/courgette mix.
Courgette Soup
1Kg Courgettes
250g Potatoes
2 cloves Garlic
1 Onion
Olive Oil
Handful of herbs (Your choice!)
Water
Cook the onion and garlic gently in the olive oil to just soften it, add the chopped potatoes and continue cooking gently for around 10-15 mins. Add the chopped courgettes and herbs and cook for another 5 mins then just cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 mins. Allow to cool slightly, then liquidise. Portion up the soup as required and freeze for use later.
Grated Courgette - courtesy of Alys Fowler, Gardeners World, Fri 27th August
Wash, top and tail 1KG Courgettes (1 KG fits nicely into a colander) and grate into a colander and add 2 teaspoons salt to it and mix up well. Leave for half an hour and the salt will draw out a lot of liquid from the courgettes. Squeeze more liquid out using your hands and bag up the grated courgettes and freeze for later use in pasta sauces or stuffings etc.
I got over half a pint of liquid out of 1kg of courgttes so I'm fairly confident the grated courgettes will be fit to use when I defrost them...but I will update this topic at a later date when I do so.
Any other Courgette glut, preserving ideas out there?
Many thanks.
Mr Photo
PS I'm aware there are many ways to use Courgettes, thats not what I'm after..I am after ways to store for much later use. I thought I had best make that distinction as this very same topic on another gardening area just gave up recipes to use now..with fresh Courgettes!! Which is no good to me in mid January.
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