the humble zucchini

For as long as I can remember zucchini was non exisistent on this island. You could get them imported at Jason's supermarket in the basement at 101 on occassion for a sweet $5+ for one zucchini!!! And to think mum and dad grew these things on a large scale for market. When I was a kid I remember making stuffed zucchini for the family. Also stuffed pumpkin. And my family actually ate it. Now Pop just has a couple of plants, but they are in abundance. So the idea of paying such an amount for one little zuc was too much for me to bear.

Oh Joy!! My local supermarket (I have two that are the same, one is bigger and has more things but is 15 mins walk, the other is smaller and has less things and is 3 minutes walk) started to sell Zucchini!!! They were big and scuffed and horrible to put it nicely, but zucchini none the less. All I could do was bake with them. I made chocolate and zucchini cake with them. YUM. But that recipe isn't vegan. (Another food blog I love to look at, and another recipe I've tweaked sugar wise. I cannot abide more than one cup of sugar in a cake). Then more Joy!! My closer local started selling them very cheaply and they are smaller, fresher, firmer and taste just like the ones I'm used to!!! And that's saying something, the veg at that supermarket leaves much to be desired...... They seem to be growing them here in Taiwan. I filled my fridge crisper with zucchini and found a great recipe for a vegan zucchini brownie. It is to die for. The zucchini releases all its lovely juices and the brownie tastes like fudge.

But, I haven't got any cocoa and haven't had a chance to make the trip to the bake store to get it.... Ah, the joys of baking in Taiwan. So I don't want to post that recipe until I have a picture of the finished product. Why? I don't know. I just think it's excellent and the picture on the recipe site doesn't do it justice. I was rather unflatteringly accused of being OCD today by a friend while I washed the dishes in the sink of another friend. Perhaps I am OCD and that is why I can't put the recipe up until I have my post in order. Personally I just saw a sink of dishes that needed to be washed. So, let's wait for the recipe and the picture so that I can put it all in a neat package and present it to you......

But my excitement over the zucchini has not deminished and I felt I had to share my good news!! I've been cooking them in everything. Creamy zucchini and mushroom pasta, zucchini in this and zucchini in that. I do believe the whole zucchini bonanza might come crashing as it's not a native vegetable and people won't know what to do with it perhaps. Alas it might last on the shelves but a season before it disappears forever only to be discovered again years later in the over priced basement supermarket of 101.