Gad Zukes!

So, zucchini. We had a big garden when I was little, with lots of zucchini, and I remember many nights when there was breaded and fried zucchini on the table. Breaded and fried is something I'm very familiar with, so I wasn't too worried about trying zucchini.

Except...then I started asking questions. Ger has no zucchini-cooking experience, so this was new to both of us. How did mom do it? What's the right way? I looked up summer squash in the Cook's Illustrated Best Vegetable Recipes cookbook, which usually has some really good information. There was lots to read about getting the water out of the squash before you cooked it, which I wouldn't have known, so I was absorbed by that and forgot all about any previous plans.

The book said to slice the squash into quarter inch rounds and cover it with salt to draw out the water. I was doing my usual hovering and thought a) the slices should be thinner and b) there should be more salt. In any event, after a half hour, there was some water in the bowl, but not very much.

Then we threw some in a pan with garlic and olive oil to see what happened. It browned pretty nicely, looked okay. Time to try it.

Umm...it was on a level with plain oatmeal for me. Not much to taste and kind of mushy. The first couple of pieces went down okay, but then I stalled. I wasn't enjoying this at all.

Gerry dumped some of the Myerov salsa on the rest and enjoyed it that way, but we all know I'm not a tomato person. So, what next? How can we make this better? Shred it? Add carrots? Find out how mom did the breading? Help!