~ Zucchini Fries ~

I grew up eating fried zucchini, but we were at the grocery store a few weeks ago, and they had samples of zucchini fries.  My daughter loved them and begged for me to buy some.  I reminded her that our garden zucchini would be ready to harvest soon, and we would try our own hand at making them.  The results were very good...two thumbs up from my daughter.

 It started with this little guy.  Well, really this squash is about the size of my hand and oddly shaped.  We had a good bit of drier weather and it formed more like a large lemon.  It's a cross with most likely a Cozelle Zucchini and a pumpkin.  I wasn't sure how it would taste, so I decided to cut it open tonight and see what was inside.

I'm pretty sure it's crossed with a pumpkin.  It was heavy for it's size and the seeds were pretty large and dense for a zucchini.  It tasted wonderful, a nice sweet and firm flesh.

I decided to scoop out the seeds with a spoon and cut it into wedges at first, then I got the idea to give zucchini fries a try.  I cut them about the size of a larger steak fry you would get at a restaurant, but you can really cut them any size or shape you like.

We mixed up an egg wash of two eggs and about 1/4 cup of milk  My daughter was around, so she was happy to help with this.

We dipped them first in a breading mix of about 1 cup of seasoned bread crumbs, 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup cornmeal.  I'm guessing at these proportions since we measured in 'handfuls', thinking one handful was about 1/2 cup.  So, starting with the freshly cut zucchini, we dipped in the bread crumbs, the egg wash and then again the bread crumbs to get a nice coating that would stick to the zucchini.  A friend of mine told me a few years ago that she adds corn meal to her fried green tomatoes to give a little extra 'crisp'.  It did the same for these fries!  No extra salt is needed, the breadcrumbs have plenty of flavor, and the marinara sauce for dipping has great flavor too!

We heated a cast iron skillet with vegetable oil, I think we used canola to cover the bottom of the pan, and let the oil get hot, then place the zucchini fries in the pan and let them cook about a minute on each side.  These cook up pretty quickly, and that nice golden brown color is what you are looking for.

I should have snapped a photo of the finished fries before I let them take them to the table!  Once they were there, it was pure eating!  We served them with a side of warmed marinara sauce.   We make our own sauce, so this part of the meal was largely from our garden!

When I was a kid, my mom would fry up the left over breading like hush puppies for us kids to eat.  It was a rare 'treat' but we loved it.  Our leftover batter tonight was mostly breading, so I cooked it up as a treat for our dogs.  They loved them!

So there you have it...one more delicious and fun use for all of your zucchini abundance.  Enjoy!!