Chocolate chip cake with zucchini

Lately I have seen so many zucchini cake recipes on the net and I had heard of it before but until now I haven't had the opportunity to give it a try. Now that's changed and I proudly present to you the first zucchini cake of my life. To be honest I haven't got the foggiest idea why the zucchini is needed in the dough, or how does it make a difference but it doesn't really matter in the long run. It gives you an extremely flexible and soft cake with lots of cocoa and chocolate. I couldn't tell what difference the zucchini makes but honestly I don't really want to...:)

Ingredients:

• 20 dkgs of grated zucchini (approx. one and a half pieces)
• 10 dkgs of butter
• 370 g of plain flour
• 3 tbl spoons of cocoa powder
• 10 dkgs of dark chocolate
• 15 dkgs of icing sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of rum flavour

Wash the zucchinis, cut the ends off and grate them. It's important to grate them as fine as possible, we don't want big pieces of zucchini in the cake. It still needs to be in pieces though, don't mush them. When it's done, squeeze the juice out of it and put the zucchini aside. Mix the flour with the baking soda, the cocoa and the finely chopped chocolate. Add the zucchini too. In another bowl stir the eggs with the sugar and the butter and the rum flavour. Put the two parts of the dough together and if it's too thick (as it wa for me) then you can add a tablespoon of plain yoghurt in the end. It needs at least half an hour or 40 minutes in the oven at 180 deg Celsius. 

Courgettes with walnut and cream stuffing and couscous with golden onions

I am condemned not to eat meat and any kind of animal derived products for two weeks so I'm constantly cooking vegetable dishes. The day before yesterday I made chili with squash and beans with a sotre-bought chili con carne spice mix and I have to admit, it might sound weird but it was absolutely yummy. Next time I cook it I will put the recipe in here, just to shock you people :) 

This dish I made today is a good one too, the walnut is a very dear friend of the courgettes and the couscous is always delicious, no matter what you do with it. I did however violate the prohibition because this dish contains at least three tablespoons of sour cream but  a must is a must, if it's the only thing you have in your fridge.

Ingredients  

• 4 courgettes
• 2 big handfuls of walnut
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of starch
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Wash the courgettes and cut them in halves alongside. Hollow them out and chop the inside parts fine. Start cooking it in a bit of oil, while you add a little salt. The walnuts also need to be chopped fine. For the garlic use the garlic press and press them onto the courgettes, cook them together for a few minutes. Then you can add the walnut, and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat. Stir the starch into the sour cream and add it to the walnut mixture and give it a good stir. Place the courgettes halves onto an oven pan and sprinkle some salt on them. Fill the hollow parts with the stuffing and cook them in the oven at 190 deg Celsius until the top gets golden and the courgettes are soft. It's safer if you pour a little water into the pan. 

Couscous for 2

• 1.5 dl of couscous
• 3 dl of boiling water
• salt
• 2 onions

Chop the onions fine and cook them in a bit of oil until it becomes golden. Pour the water onto the couscous and cover it, let it rest for 20 minutes. When it's done stir the onions in the couscous. I also put some fresh thyme leaves in it.

Courgette stuffed with millet and raw carrot salad on the side

If you have very fresh and tender carrots at home, they are perfect for a raw salad because that's when they have the best taste. They go really well with other vegetable dishes or basically anything... I used yoghurt for this one, to make it light.

Ingredients for the stuffed courgettes:

• 2 bigger courgettes, preferably straight ones
• 1.5 dls of millet 
• 2 spring onions 
• salt, fresh ground pepper
• a bit of ground nutmeg
• a couple of drops of lemon juice
• grated cheese

First of all, the spring onion has to be chopped fine for the millet and browned in a bit of olive oil. Then you can add the millet and toast it a bit, then add the water (which is always double the amount of millet you are making). Add a teaspoon of salt, and pepper according to taste Let the water boil away, which takes approximately 10 minutes and when done, turn off the heat and cover the dish with a plate. You can start preparing the courgettes: wash them and cut off the ends. Cut them alongside in two parts, and keeping a distance of 1 cms from both sides, gouge them. Don't throw away the inside parts, because we will use them in the stuffing. They need to be chopped fine and thrown in to a pan with a bit of oil just until they soften. Then you can mix them with the millet, add the lemon juice and the nutmeg. Give it a good stir and stuff the courgettes with the millet. Sprinkle the top with the cheese.  Pour a small glass of water under the courgettes before you put them into the oven so they don't burn. Half an hour at 180 degrees should do the trick. 

Ingredients for the carrot salad:

• 2 tender carrots
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of yoghurt
• salt, pepper

Cut the carrots Julienne style. Smash the garlic and mix it with the yoghurt along with some salt and pepper. Put the dressing on the carrots and give it a good stir. Taste it, and let it rest until the courgettes are being made.

Zucchini stew with sweetcorn

It's quick, light and easy. I ate without any garnish, but rice is perfect with it. You can leave the sausage out, then you get an even lighter and fully vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:

• a couple of zucchinis
• canned sweet corn
• chorizo sausage, chopped
• sour cream
• spring onion
• salt, pepper, seasoning (according to taste)

Fry the onions in a bit of oil and add the pieces of sausage, let it fry for a bit. Cut the zucchinis in half, then in half again and then cut them into pieces of 1 cm. Add them to the onions. Add salt and cover it. When its soft, add the corn, the seasoning and the sour cream and cook them for some time more.

Zuchini salad for rainy days

Because what else you can do when its gray and rainy outside than start cooking...:)

Ingredients for a relatively big batch

• 2 big zucchinis
• 2 smaller ones
• several cloves of garlic
• fresh basil leaves
• tomatoes
• olive oil, salt, ground black pepper
• 1 dl of sour cream
• juice of a quarter of a lemon
• roasted sesame and sunflower seeds

Wash the zucchinis. Pare the two bigger ones in order to obtain 3-4 mm thick circles. In a bit of olive oil start frying them, add a bit of salt and cover it. We dont want to overcook it, just until they become soft enough.
Chop the other two zucchinis into smaller pieces, and start frying them too in another pan. The point is to cook them absolutely soft, because it will be the basic element of the dressing. Add smashed garlic to the smaller zucchini pieces, add salt and freshly ground pepper and wait until its done.
When the zucchini circles are done, put them into the bowl where we will finally mix the salad and let it cool for a bit. Chop the tomatoes and the basil leaves and add them to the cool zucchini. Also add the lemon juice.
Add sour cream to the zucchini made for the dressing and mix it with the electric mixer. Taste it, if its salty enough then mix it with the rest of the salad.
In a dry pan roast the seeds and sprinkle them onto the salad.

Zucchini with walnut and feta cheese stuffing

Ingredients

• zucchini
• ground walnut
• feta cheese
• onions
• sour cream
• mexico grill seasoning
• condensed tomato can
• salt, pepper
• basil
• thyme
• rosemary

Chop the onions into circles and start frying them in a bit of oil while preparing the zucchinis. Cut the previously washed vegetables into halves alongside, and hollow them out. Not too much, just make some space for the filling. Add the inside parts to the onions which will be perfectly soft by then, and cover the saucer so that it cooks quicker. When its almost ready, add the seasoning and the condensed tomato sauce, leave it for a bit more, and then take it off the heat. Take a hotproof dish and pour this whole thing into it.
Mix the sour cream and the feta cheese and add the walnut, the thyme, the rosemary and the basil. You will need the least of the rosemary because it has the strongest taste. Taste it, and if its not salty enough, add some extra feta.
Put the cream into the zucchini halves and put them onto the zucchini inside and tomato mix. Cover it with aluminium foil and put it into the oven, 15 minutes at 180 should be enough to be ready but you can check its softness by sticking a fork into it.