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Zucchini for all tastes By Chef Kady Guyton
The summer zucchini invasion has not let up and someone left a bag of squash on the front seat of my car in the middle of the night. Clearly, there needs to be more uses for these besides muffins and stir fries. A fellow chef from the midwest passed this week's recipe on to me last summer, but I didn't get a chance to test it until recently. I must say that it's a winner: easy, nutritious, delicious and uses copious amounts of zucchini in one go. If you ever had a craving for Maryland crab cakes, but didn't want to mess with fish - or had vegetarians at the table - then this recipe is for you. Taking advantage of the neutral flavor of the zucchini, shredded squash is mixed with classic crab cakes ingredients - minus the crab - formed into patties and fried. Serve hot with lemon and sour cream or yogurt and astound your friends. The trick to a good zucchini - or crab - cake is in the seasoning. Use Old Bay Seasoning, it's a good blend that can also be added to boiling water to season other foods. If it's not in the spice aisle, check near the fish counter. The recipe calls for frying the patties in a mixture of butter and oil. Either one will be fine on it's own, although oil generally has a higher smoke point than butter. The smoke point is the temperature at which the oil begins to brown. Walnut and truffle oils both have very low smoke points, which is why they tend to be used mostly at cold temperatures for flavoring. Vegetable and olive oil (not virgin) both have high smoke points with butter being slightly lower. If a high and low point oil are mixed, the result is a smoke point somewhere in the middle. In this case the butter is being used for flavor. If calories are a concern, then leave out the butter. Because there's no raw fish, all cooking does is finish the egg and give a golden brown exterior. Don't leave out the egg. It's needed to bind everything together. Two interesting additions to the mixture are finely chopped scallions or a cup of fresh corn kernels. Once the zucchini is shredded (a food processor is a useful thing here), squeeze out the liquid before adding the other ingredients. After mixing the batter will be wet and slightly sticky. Form into cakes about two to three inches in diameter and half an inch thick. The cooked cakes can be frozen in a single layer for later. Enjoy with a crowd of your favorite people. Zucchini "Crab Cakes" 2 1/2 cups grated zucchini or yellow summer squash (or a combo)
2. Turn and fry the other side. Be sure to turn only once. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot. |
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