Home again, home again

[nmg]

Back from the monster tour of England and Scotland (Southampton to Windermere and back, via Dunblane), and it turns out that we had monster produce waiting for us (alisdairo - did I forget to tell you to help yourself?):

Comments

[nmg]

Any suggestions for what to do with it? Marrow chutney seems the best bet, but we've still got a fair amount of that left from last year.

[marypcb]

grating, pressing dry and using for fritters, in carrot-style cake and in bread are the usual answers for surplus courgette. simmer with olive oil and garlic and tomato and freeze in vats!

[nmg]

I suspect that this one is likely to be bitter and/or watery.

The most common advice I've seen has been to consign it to the compost bin (though marrow rum runs a close second).

[bohemiancoast]

Truly the term courgette is not appropriate for that beastie; it's a marrow. Or a courg, I suppose.

We just had a courgette mush where you cook the courgettes slowly with butter and garlic for a couple of hours. I would have thought that would also work perfectly well with marrow.

More prosaically: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/307243

I would note that if you type "What to do with a giant..." into Google, auto complete offers 'zucchini' (the USian for courgette) as the number one option. So your problem is not unique.

[moral_vacuum]

I'd be worried about typing "what to do with a giant courgette" into Google without safe search being on.

[nmg]

The big problem is freezer space - we're trying to run our freezer stash down a) so that we can prepare and freeze xmas dinner ahead of time (given that we're likely to be busy with a newborn) and b) so that little milchcow ias can start filling it with her boob juice.

We already have enough garlicky courgette mush in the freezer for a couple of meals, and this marrow would probably make another couple of dozen meals worth (if it's edible - my suspicion is that it'll be rather bitter).

[alisdairo]

oh damn, you did tell me, and I completely forgot. Sorry to leave you with such a beast!

[nmg]

I am tempted to abandon it on your doorstep...

[alisdairo]

*grins* I seem to have escaped having to eat my own weight in marrow, so I'm guessing you resisted :-)

[ext_31109]

7.26kg huh? I am sceptical. Kitchen scales tend to offer gram precision (a bit less on older ones) and be fairly accurate, but limited to 5kg or so which rules out this enormous vegetable.

Bathroom scales on the other hand, even when they display 0.1kg increments, seem to be fairly poor on accuracy (and reproducibility / consistency), possibly because the strain gauges used must tolerate 140kg Slimming World members flattening them. I wouldn't trust the first decimal place of your result, let alone the second.

Yes, I am the kind of person who methodically loaded different test objects onto his kitchen and bathroom scales after buying them, recorded the results and then re-tested at intervals afterwards, why do you ask?

[nmg]

Hey, I just copied what the scales said!

I believe that these scales (digital, strain gauge-based) are more accurate than your usual spring balance scales.

[kaveypie]

My friend's been experimenting with marrow rum.

[nmg]

Has it worked? Is the result drinkable?

[kaveypie]

I saw him in Cardiff yesterday and asked.
He said, it was a bit icky but it did work...
Possibly worth googling for different recipes!
And may be worth a punt anyway!