GNG Cofounder Nancie Kosnoff’s ripped strip is pumping out gorgeous, tricolor pattypans faster than she can foist them on her neighbors. What are her squash plans this week?
“Zucchini and other summer squash are great stuffed and baked, sautéed with a little olive oil and soy sauce, or even shredded and added to meatloaf for a higher nutritional value. But on a cold, dark, rainy late August Monday afternoon, my vote is for . . . . chocolate zucchini cake.”
Yum, Nancie! I’ll be right over.
The term summer squash refers to any squash with an edible skin. This includes pattypan, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, as well as globe squash, scallopini and others. You can use them interchangeably in most recipes and they do well with strong flavors.
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
From Bon Appétit, November 1995
2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)
1 6-ounce package (about 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter and flour 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter and oil in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each. Mix in grated zucchini. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts over.
Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan.
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Nancie 09.13.08 at 3:49 pm
Seriously, please do come right over. At the moment I think have dispensed with the tri-color patty pans, crooknecks and zucchinis from the garden (by foisting them on people, making Kimberly’s cheesy casserole and TWO chocolate zucchini cakes!) I take a break only to find the plants on my strip bearing new summer squash, ready to harvest, that I swear were only flowers yesterday. This week I put a bowl of them out in front of my house that said “FREE BOUNTY:How about some squash tonight?” I watched as folks stopped, laughed maybe, and walked on. I appended the message to say “THIS MEANS YOU!” Still, only a few were taken. We complain about the price of food and yet can’t give it away. Maybe if I’d said “25 cents”? In any case, come, take, enjoy. The address is 902 W. Lee and the squash strip is on the 9th Ave (east) side. If you don’t have a cutting tool, just twist the fruit and it will come right off. Help yourself to a bouquet, some lemon verbena, basil, chocolate mint, oregano, pineapple sage….mmmmm c’mmmmmmon!~