Zucchini-Potato Pancakes

The farmer made salt potatoes earlier this week.  A whole 5# bag.  For 3 people.  They were good but we had a ton of leftovers.  We got more zucchini in the CSA box this week.  Surprise!  There were also carrots, onion, and a little yellow summer squash in there. 

I had the bright idea to make zucchini-potato pancakes.  I used to have a vegetarian cookbook that had a great zucchini pancake recipe.  I Google it and there are a million recipes out there.  All have the same basic ingredients: shredded potato and zukes, egg, flour/bread crumbs/cornmeal, spices, and maybe Parmesan/Romano cheese.  I can work with that.

Bird in Hand Zucchini-Potato Pancakes

2 small zukes
1 tiny yellow summer squash

1.5 #ish/ 20 or so cooked salt potatoes

1 small carrot

1 small green onion

3 eggs

1/4 c flour

2 T corn meal

2 T seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 c parm cheese

1. Grate zukes and toss with a generous pinch of salt.  Let 'em sit in a colander for 10 min and squeeze out extra fluid.

2. Grate the  potatoes and carrot.  Chop the onion fine.  Dump in everything in a big bowl and mix really well.  The potato will essentially break down into mashed potato consistency - that's okay.

3. Fry in 1/4" of oil in a cast iron frying pan.  It takes 4ish min per side.  Flip when golden brown.  Resist the temptation to mess with them.

4. Drain on a wire rack over paper towels. 

5. Season with salt and pepper and serve with sour cream or applesauce.  The farmer likes hot sauce on his.

Makes 11 good sized pancakes.

One of the recipes had the idea to make a "well" in each pancake and then bake an egg in each "nest."  I think that could be a really good idea for a breakfast someday.

These were really good.  I love it when leftovers become the staple of another great meal.  I think I could substitute actual leftover mashed potatoes this winter and make this again with some of the frozen grated zucchini.  

Guess what I'm eating for breakfast this morning?

Chili Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Seriously. 


There were zukes and yellow summer squash in the box this week, so we planned to make a chocolate zucchini cake.   It has been so hot that we had to wait to cook anything.  I thought we were doing pretty well when we made the menu and planned the shopping list to fill in the gaps.  Somehow, I forgot to check if we had any chocolate. (!)  Blame it on the heat.   We only have about a half a cup of cocoa powder.


I cruised the pantry and found a bar and a half of chili chocolate (~6oz).  We keep thinking that we should like it, but we don't seem to eat it.  So I googled "chili chocolate zucchini."  A few sites came up, but they all have this recipe: recipecenter.com.  I can modify that.

My Version:

Ingredients   2 1/2 c flour, sifted 1/2 c unsweetened cocoa 1 tsp Baking soda 1 tsp Salt 1/2 c butter 1/2 c  vegetable oil 1 3/4 cup  sugar 2 Eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 c sour cream 1/4 c milk   2 -3 cup Zucchini, grated ~6 oz   chili chocolate - grated or chopped

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 2. Grease 2 loaf pans or a 9x12" pan 3. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. 4. In a separate bowl, cream the butter, vegetable oil and sugar, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. 5. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. 6. Next, add the vanilla. 7. Mix in the dry ingredients that have been set aside, alternating with the milk and sour cream. 8. Stir in the zucchini and grated chocolate 9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. 10. Bake for about 55 minutes or until a toothpick in center comes out clean. 11. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack. 12. Sprinkle with some powdered sugar to make it look pretty. We ended up using loaf pans for bread instead of cake.  Have I told you how much I like the salad shooter for grating zucchini?  Love it!  This recipe works as a cake with frosting, or as toasted bread with butter.   You have to love food that you can eat for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner or desert! It is really good.  You cannot tell that the zucchini is in there.  There is just a little heat from the chili chocolate.  This experiment is a keeper.

Why am I baking when it is 83 degrees?

Because I forgot you can freeze zucchini.  Oops.

We got a small zuke and a mini yellow summer squash in the box this week.  They were the last lonely veggies in the bin.  I make a tomato sauce with summer squash that is to die for.  But it is too darn hot and humid for a pasta recipe.  We also talked about a zuke and tomato saute, but we only have canned tomatoes.  Nah.  So I decided to bake with them.  Having the oven on for an hour when it is 80+ degrees sounds like a really good idea, doesn't it?  Yeah, not so much.  I realized that I could have grated and froze it once it was already in the oven. 

I found a promising zucchini bread  recipe on allrecipes.com.  It has 5 stars with 2,000+ reviews.  Cannot go wrong there, and yet I still tweaked it a bit.  The link above takes you to the original recipe.  Below is my version.

It's So Hot, Why Am I Baking? Zucchini Bread

Ingredients 

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 Splenda quick pack
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugars together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool. 

Other stuff: We also did another "hot" activity today.  We "blew up" the kid's volcano.  It's supposed to be baking soda and vinegar.  Did you know that the second ingredient in Frank's RedHot Sauce is vinegar?  It makes amazingly realistic lava.