The Joys of the French Potager

Some friends popped over a couple of days ago with some of their garden produce. They had been away on holiday and anyone who has grown their own will know that it doesn't take long for a courgette (zucchini) to turn into a super-sized monster.  

We had a large ornamental potager at our last house where we ran cooking holidays and a chambres d'hôtes business so we quickly learnt, among other things, how to deal with these prolific wannabe marrows. 

The potager at the old house- my pride and joy but a killer for my back

One of my favourite methods for using up courgettes is Antonio Carluccio's recipe for courgette fritters. I know it's Italian and not French but you can't beat the Italians for wonderfully simple and fresh flavoursome food.   

I laugh in the face of over-sized courgettes!

Here is the recipe (it may have been changed a little to suit our taste... I can't remember) and some photos of the process (I have missed out steps such as tripping over the beagle who is annoyingly ever present when we cook!):-

750g courgettes (grated)

1 large garlic clove (crushed)

3 eggs (beaten)

2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

1/2 tablespoon of salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tablespoon of nutmeg

5 tablespoons of plain flour

2 tablespoons of fresh mint

Olive oil for frying

Having typed out this recipe I do hope you have a tablespoon otherwise you're scuppered!  Anyway, if you have it's just a matter of mixing all the ingredients together and shallow frying heaped spoonfuls of the mixture in the hot oil until they are crisp and golden on both sides.

Mr Carluccio cooks them until they are somewhat darker than mine but when I don't want to eat them all immediately I can reheat them in pan later and brown them off a bit more (the uncooked mixture does tend to become a bit watery once you add the salt).

All the ingredients needed for this yummy recipe chopped and ready to go

When I was fed up with grating courgettes I gave the chickens a little treat!

It couldn't be simpler - just mix all the ingredients together and

after a quick rummage in the fridge you can make up a salad
 on a lovely vintage plate

and enjoy a light summery meal and perhaps like me drizzle on
some homemade lemon mayonnaise

I hope you give this recipe a try because these fritters are absolutely delicious and if like us you keep chickens it's also a useful way of using their eggs.