Growing tips
Zucchini is another vegetable originally brought back from the Americas (along with chillies, tomatoes, potatoes and chocolate) by the Spanish Conquistadors. These are fast-growing, warmth-loving plants, and spring is the ideal time to plant seeds or seedlings. In subtropical zones, you can sow seed from July through to March. In temperate zones (eg, Sydney) sow from September to January. In cold climates (eg, Tassie and mountains) sow from October to December.
Sowing seed: zucchini seed are quite big (a bit bigger than pumpkin seed, for example) and need to be planted about 2cm deep and laid flat. Seeds take six to 10 days to germinate, but after that growth is quick. You can raise seed in pots then transplant them, but some gardeners sow three or four seeds in a small mound of soil, and after they sprout and get growing, they then get rid of the weakest seedlings and allow the strongest one to grow on. If planting several zucchini, space them 70cm apart.
Varieties: ‘Blackjack’ and ‘Black Beauty’ produce dark green zucchini and both crop well. Lebanese zucchini are light green, and ‘Golden’ zucchini are yellow. You can also get round zucchini (‘Rondo’) and long, thin ones (‘Tromboncino). Eden Seeds – www.edenseeds.com.au – has a very good selection of zucchini seed, so does Kings Seeds – www.kingsseeds.com.au – but you can find Yates and Mr Fothergills zucchini seeds most easily at garden centres and at Bunnings stores.
Basic care: plant zucchinis in a very sunny spot, in soil enriched with plenty of aged manure (eg, Dynamic Lifter) and compost. Mulch around plants to a depth of about 3-4cm, to preserve soil moisture and suppress weeds. Zucchini need a steady water supply, so keep plants well-watered. To keep plants growing rapidly, give them monthly liquid feeds as well, or apply some more Dynamic Lifter around the base of plants each month.
Harvesting: zucchini plants will start cropping within six to eight weeks after planting. These plants produce big yellow male and female flowers. It’s easy to tell the difference between the two. The male flowers are on bare stalks, and the female flowers have a baby zucchini attached. You can harvest these flowers and the baby zucchini if you like, and cook and eat them, or you can let the baby zucchinis grow on to a bigger size. The older and bigger zucchini get, the tougher and less flavoursome they will be, so it’s best to harvest crops when small (about 15cm long). To harvest, cut the zucchini off using a small, sharp knife.
Problems & organic solutions: snails and slugs like to munch on zucchini seedlings – so go on patrol for them, especially on mornings after overnight rain. During hot, humid weather zucchini plants can be attacked by the fungal disease, powdery mildew, which covers the leaves with what looks like white powder. Just cut off badly affected leaves, but also apply this organic spray to the whole plant. Mix up in a spray bottle one part milk (any kind of milk, skim, lo-fat, full-cream, doesn’t matter) to nine parts water. Spray this all over the plant’s leaves every few days. Tip: skim milk has the least smell, so if you have it, use it instead of full-cream milk, which can pong a bit. If it rains, re-spray plants. If powdery mildew gets really bad (as it can sometimes do during a super-humid summer on the East Coast) then you might just have to pull out the plant sometimes.
Zucchini recipes
You don’t need to peel zucchini before cooking them. To cook them ‘plain’ the best methods are steaming or pan-frying. Boiling isn’t recommended, as the zucchini become too watery. But there are other ways worth trying.
Barbecued (or grilled) zucchini
several zucchini, sliced lengthways about 5mm thick
salt
olive oil spray
1. Slice the zucchini lengthways, arrange on a plate. Sprinkle over a bit of salt and leave the zucchinis to sweat for about 30 minutes. Wash them and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Heat a barbecue grill to medium heat, spray the zucchini slices with olive oil spray then pop on the grill. Let them cook for about 3-5 minutes on one side (check them after 3 minutes to see how dark they are becoming) then flip them over on the other side and cook 3-5 minutes more. If you do it right, they’ll have these great-looking barbecue stripes on them!
3. To turn this into a barbecued vegie salad: also slice one whole eggplant into 5mm thick lengthways slices, salt and wash them as in step 1 above, and barbecue these as in step 2 above. While you’re at it, also barbecue several Roma egg tomatoes sliced into halves lengthways, and even some capsicum slabs if you like. Arrange all the grilled vegies together as a salad and serve either hot, warm or at room temperature.
Stuffed Zucchini Flowers
You can use either male flowers (attached to a stalk) or female flowers (with a baby zucchini attached) but the females and their little baby zucchinis are the more delicious option. The lovely, light, crisp batter recipe is from Maureen Simpson’s excellent cookbook – ‘Cooking at Weekends’.
Filling (for 20 zucchini flowers – serves 4-5)
100g ricotta cheese (at room temp)
120g goat’s cheese (at room temp)
1 tablespoon snipped chives
1 tablespoon thyme leaves (or chopped parsley leaves)
Batter
1 cup self-raising flour
1 level tablespoon cornflour
pinch salt
1 cup chilled water (must be chilled!)
1 tablespoon light vegetable oil
juice of 1/4 lemon
1. First make the filling by combining the ingredients well in a bowl. Then open up the zucchini flowers and remove the pistils inside the flowers (these can taste bitter at times). Use a teaspoon to fill each flower with the filling, then close the flower around the filling.
2. Once all the zucchinis are filled, then make the batter. Sift the flours together in a bowl with a pinch of salt, add 3/4 cup water and the oil and mix well with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the lemon juice and other 1/4 cup water. The better should be a light consistency. Add a few drop of water if necessary.
3. Heat a frypan to medium heat then splash in enough olive oil for light shallow-frying (5mm deep). Cook the zucchinis in batches. Dip a few prepared zucchinis into the batter, then put straight into the hot oil. They’ll cook pretty quickly, so turn them once after about 1 minute, and remove when golden brown and drain on paper towels while you cook the rest. Serve immediately. Tip: do one ‘test’ zucchini, to get a feel for how quickly they cook in the oil, then do the rest.
Bonus recipes: for more stuffing recipes for zucchini flowers from Don’s 2UE show, click here