Sunday, July 23, 2006

Another use for zucchini



Savory Zucchini Bread

Mom’s Big Book of Baking Copyright 2001

Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup peeled and grated zucchini (use large holes of a box grater) I didn't peel it
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
¼ cup olive oil
1 ½ cups whole or lowfat milk
1 ½ cups grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese I used the canned blend
1/3 cup pitted and coarsely chopped Kalamata olives
¼ cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves I used some dried

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of a 9x5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Squeeze the grated zucchini over the sink to remove any excess moisture. Set it aside.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, oil and milk. With a wooden spoon, stir until all the ingredients are moistened. Stir in the zucchini, cheese, olives and parsley.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the loaf until it is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 60 to 65 minutes. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack, and then turn it right side up on the rack to cool completely.
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I was planning on making a sweet zucchini bread or cake when this recipe caught my eye while I was perusing the cookbooks in the library. I had the Kalamata olives so I just needed to pick up some cheese and fresh parsley (which I ultimately forgot to buy). I bought the canned grated cheese since I wasn't going to spend a fortune trying to use up about a dollar's worth of zucchini. I'm famous for that - spending a fortune on other ingredients just because I couldn't bear to see a few cents worth of something go bad.

At first I thought this was going to go into the failure file. The lead-in called this a wet batter and unless 'wet' is a baker's term meaning 'so stiff one can hardly work in all the dry ingredients', I think that was misleading. This was a very dry, stiff batter. It worked though. I was pleased with the texture. As for taste, this bread wasn't much on it's own, but toasted with some butter it was pretty good. The author suggested it toasted along side canned tomato soup and I think that would be great. It was a bit too salty to handle in large doses.

I brought this cookbook home from the library solely for this recipe. It's a nice collection of basic recipes, which they promise to be foolproof, of course. It's a bit boring without any photographs, though.

It was only (lol) in the 80s on Saturday so I had the oven on quite a bit. I hate the weather people. They said it was going to rain all day and it didn't. Sounds like a good thing but I was set for a rainy day. I felt guilty spending most of the day inside cooking, but that's what I get for believing the weather people.

Question of the Day: Did you do any cooking this weekend? What did you make?

10 comments:

Heather said...

I made bread also since it was supposed to be cooler.
I made a green onion yogurt bread, it was yummy!

Unknown said...

What didn't I make?! I made chocolate chip cookies (the best in the world, which I will post at some point!), cinnamon pecan cookies (once again, post will come later), white chocolate pound cake, wheat bread, french toast, rice casserole, parmesan chicken, roasted zucchini and squash, and today will make pear raspberry tarts. When I go home to my family, I cook for them. When I'm alone, not much cooking is needed, so I like home time!

ThursdayNext said...

I made chicken on my grill and cous cous and salad. :)

Jennifer said...

Not unless you think throwing a frozen lasagna in the oven is "cooking." Husband did grill chicken yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Stuffed bell peppers and skillet potatoes one night. Pork chop and potato casserole the next.

Jan

Anonymous said...

Oh! Best of all - a buttermilk pie. How could I have forgotten that???

DancesInGarden said...

Not so much as a scrambled egg or piece of toast. We didn't want to shop because I was going away and DD was going away for the week, and we had nothing to cook in the house LOL. And today I had lunch out, and cold ravioli from the can for dinner in the hotel room while I finished some work. Boring boring boring.

Annie said...

Claire stole my opening line. ;)
So I'll just say I made a lot. I also baked Chocolate Chip Cookies(with prunes)Yup and they were awesome, I will post them. Also on the baking list were Low-Fat Blueberry Muffins, Cream Cheese Brownies, White Pizza with Spinach and my usual - Roasted Veggies.
That Zucchini bread is so unique. I like the sound of it.

The Cookbook Junkie said...

Holy Cow! Maybe I didn't do a lot of cooking after all, compared to most of you. I made this bread, the lemon-blueberry bundt cake and a triple batch of meatballs. I only usually bake on the weekends so it seemed like a lot to me.

Dances - don't you have an expense account!?

Anonymous said...

I want to come over to everyone's houses for dinner and dessert!!! Today I am just making Corned Beef and Cabbage again from the ATK Family Cookbook using their homemade corned beef instructions, with some horseradish sauce. I ate a dieters lunch and my husband went out. So kinda boring so far, but now the house is starting to smell good as the beef cooks!