Curse of the big fat marrow

O no!!!

This year I have several enthusiastic and prolific courgette plants (haven't we all, you are saying to yourself) and it is something of a joke amongst vegetable gardeners how generous courgette plants can be with their fruit and how hapless you can become trying to come up with new ways to use them. The worst of all though is the dreaded marrow. I had prided myself this year on picking courgettes so often, diligently giving them away and using them up that there was no danger of this happening, yet again, to me.But the other day "shopping" for veg in the garden I stopped at the most aggressive and enormous courgette plant I have (Cocozelle is the variety by the way and  it's easily 3ft by 3ft- a heaving mass of tangled stems and flowers) only to find a massive marrow wedged between its lowest limbs and the edge of the raised bed. Well feck it anyway.

If  your pretty slim courgette somehow escapes your eye, hidden by a leaf or a large yellow flower and gets from a young nubile tasty veg to the fat overblown over the hill vegetable beloved of jam makers 40 years ago what are you going to do? try out recipes from d'internet, of course,(assuming you have no interest in a pot of retro marrow and ginger jam?). I found the recipe on this page on www.allrecipies.co.uk but there are plenty of offerings online. 

For example here is what Nigel Slater Suggested "Have you ever tried it baked with tomatoes and olives? Simply peel it, dig out the cores and fibres and cut it into thick chunks. Toss it in a roasting tin with lots of garlic, olive oil, red and yellow tomatoes, oregano, black olives and thyme leaves. Cover the roasting tin with foil and let it cook slowly in a moderate heat till thoroughly tender. Alternatively, cut the marrow into slices, tossed in flour, egg and crumbs, deep fried and served with lemon."

Marrow with feta and mint

 Ingredients

Serves: 2

• 1 large marrow
• 100g of feta (or alternatively a hard cheese)
• fresh or dried mint
• 50g of puy lentils
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves
• red pepper sauce or red chilli flakes
• black pepper
• olive oil

---

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 15 mins | Extra time: 10 mins

1.

Cut the marrow in half and clean the seeds. (If the marrow is too hard, boil it for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting in half.)

2.

Boil the puy lentils quickly whilst grilling the halved marrow for 10 minutes.

3.

Mix the crushed garlic, feta, puy lentils, black pepper and red chilli flakes with enough olive oil, and stir well.

4.

Take the marrow out of the grill, check if it is soft enough, if not keep in the grill a bit more, try not to burn the top part.

5.

Then take the marrow out again, take the flesh out and mash it with the mix you prepared.

6.

Put it back inside the marrow skins, add some mint then grill for about 10 minutes. Enjoy!

 

Cook's note: Shortcut: Use tinned puy lentils instead of dried, and skip boiling them first!