Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

I haven't been writing much as the Olympics are on and I'm spending way too much time watching them. But as it is Thursday I figured I'd better get off my butt and get writing. This episode of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard has been brought to you by the mandolin. Ok so I've really been watching too much TV. But my mandolin has been really helpful this week. Some weeks it never gets brought out and feels lonely in the cupboard and some weeks it gets a real workout. If you have never seen a mandolin before it is the black thing in the above photo. It is great for making very even slices and as you can see above it makes great even julienne slices. And it is faster than Micheal Phelps in his prime. I used it to julienne my cucumbers for relish.

Usually people use this with a guard that grabs the food, but it always leaves part of the food unsliced as it needs something to grab. When I found the gloves above I dispensed with the silly guard and just used that. It is almost a chain mail glove. Basically it has metal fibers woven in so you won't cut yourself. I originally bought it to keep myself safe from the grater. I have a scar on my thumb from the evil grater and needed to find a way to protect myself and found the glove. I own two of them because they are just too useful to me. And I like the tips of my fingers to be attached to the rest of my fingers.

Those cukes were made into relish. I used the recipe from the Ball Blue Book, which is the same as Pat's Zucchini relish. I find it funny that they have two recipes. One for cukes and one for zucchini and they are exactly the same except a slight change in the quantity of spices and one recipe is double the quantity. I did make three little tweaks. I didn't use peppers as I can't eat them. I replaced them with more cucumber. I added dill seed instead of celery seed. And I added some turmeric for the pretty color.

Later in the week I had more cukes than I knew what to do with and made more refrigerator pickles. I made some in my pickle server. I'll bring them to a BBQ in late August. They ought to be well flavored by then.

Preserving basil was big this week. Two days ago I dried some. My spice jar is now full. And then today I picked the whole basil patch down as it was starting to flower. I usually cut it about halfway down. This gets all the flowering bits and is quick. I had to wash the basil since the rain had splashed dirt up. I usually prefer not to wash herbs as it lowers their quality, but you have to do what you have to do. Right now it is drying on a couple of kitchen towels. This big batch will be put in a food processor with some olive oil. Then frozen on a cookie sheet and broken up. I find freezing the best way to preserve the flavor of basil.

My dried garlic stash was low so I took three of the garlic bulbs that were not good for storage and peeled them up.

Then I used my trusty mandolin again on its thinnest setting to slice them up. The mandolin is perfect for this as each slice is exactly the same width as any other. It makes drying more consistent. Right now they are outside in the dehydrator. I often dry herbs inside, but on really hot days or with something like garlic that I don't want to smell in the house for days, I'll move it outside. Once it is dry I'll pulverize it.

And remember that huge zucchini I harvested and showed you on Monday? Well I grated it up. I froze four cups of it and made blueberry zucchini bread.

And I did another iteration of my zucchini casserole. I'm getting closer. This one was a touch dry and not enough for the pan. Good, but not great. My next iteration will be:

Daphne's Zucchini Casserole - Take 3

• 3 cups grated zucchini
• 1/3 cup grated onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t oregano
• 1/4 t thyme
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Mix it all up in an appropriate way (you all cook right?). Cook at 350F in an 8"x8" pan. I might have to get rid of some of the cornmeal and add flour, but I was trying to make it flourless. Or I might have to add a touch of milk to make it right. I figured that corn, eggs, and cheese would make a good combo for adding grated zucchini. So far so good. It is amusing to try to create a recipe for something that only gives me fruit on rare occasion. I have to wait until my zucchini performs and it just isn't getting a medal this year. But eventually I'll have the recipe all set. And if you try my untested iteration, remember it is still a work in progress. But everyone was begging me for the recipe last time, so here it is in all its untested glory.

Head on over to Robin's place at The Gardener of Eden and link up to let others see what you've been using or preserving from your garden and pantry.