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Authors: Elizabeth David, Jill Norman
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on the island of Gozo, the courgettes were the smallest I have ever seen, no longer than a little finger. They were almost invariably cooked whole, unpeeled, and finished in a cheese-flavoured cream sauce. An excellent dish and one which for years I attempted to achieve at home, using courgettes far too big to be cooked whole. Nowadays I think that there are far better ways of eating the courgette. The Italians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the southern French, all have first-class recipes. I could, but shall probably not, write a whole book about courgettes. At the moment I shall confine myself to three recipes which all in their different ways make appealing and fresh first-course dishes. (I cannot bring myself to use the terms appetiser or starter. The first is meaningless in the context, the second makes me think of a man on a racecourse with a stop-watch in his hand.)
The courgette dishes are all, I think, best served as suggested in the recipes rather than as part of a mixed hors d’oeuvre. They do not combine happily with pâtés or with crudités such as fennel, radishes, and the sweet pepper salad given further on in this article.
More positive suggestions are: a sliced hard-boiled egg or two to make up part of a mixed courgette salad; and it is worth knowing that fresh prawns – on a separate dish – make a first-class combination with courgettes.
For the rest, the vital points are the split-second timing of the boiling of vegetables to be served as salads; the importance of seasoning, when and what; the reminders that seventy-five per cent of the delicacy of most such salads is lost once they have spent so much as one hour under refrigeration and that they do not in any case keep very long, and should therefore be cooked in small quantities and quickly eaten; finally, that elegant presentation is one of the first considerations. Inviting appearance does create appetite. If a dish, any dish, is enticing enough to arouse appetite, then I would think it reasonable that it should be called an appetiser, no matter at what stage of the meal it is offered.
COURGETTES IN SALAD
Choose the smallest courgettes you can find. Allow 500 g (1 lb) for 4 people. Other ingredients are salt, water, olive oil, lemon juice or mild wine vinegar, parsley.
To prepare the courgettes for cooking, cut a small slice off each end. Wash the courgettes and, with a potato parer, pare off any rough or blemished strips of skin, so that the outside of the vegetable looks striped, pale and dark green.
Cut each courgette into about 4-cm (1½-in) lengths. Put them into an enamel-lined or flameproof porcelain saucepan. Cover them with cold water. Add 1 dessertspoon of salt. Bring the water to the boil, cover the pan, simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Test the courgettes with a skewer. (A kebab skewer, its point protected with a cork, is a working implement I find indispensable.) They should be tender but not mushy. Immediately they are cooked drain them in a colander.
Have ready a well-seasoned dressing made with fine olive oil and wine vinegar. In this, mix the courgettes while they are still warm. Arrange them in a shallow white salad bowl and scatter a little very finely chopped parsley over them before serving.
Freshly cooked beetroot, French beans, whole small peeled tomatoes and possibly flowerets of cauliflowers dressed in the same manner as the courgettes can be arranged to alternate, in small neat clumps (not mixed higgledy-piggledy), with the courgettes.
In the days of the British Protectorate in Egypt, a vegetable salad prepared in this fashion was a familiar dish on the tables of English and Anglo-Egyptian families and in the British clubs of Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. Well prepared and with a good dressing, the cold vegetables make a delicate and refreshing salad to be eaten either as a first course or after a roast of meat or chicken. Great care should be taken not to overcook the courgettes or they will be waterlogged
The courgette dishes are all, I think, best served as suggested in the recipes rather than as part of a mixed hors d’oeuvre. They do not combine happily with pâtés or with crudités such as fennel, radishes, and the sweet pepper salad given further on in this article.
More positive suggestions are: a sliced hard-boiled egg or two to make up part of a mixed courgette salad; and it is worth knowing that fresh prawns – on a separate dish – make a first-class combination with courgettes.
For the rest, the vital points are the split-second timing of the boiling of vegetables to be served as salads; the importance of seasoning, when and what; the reminders that seventy-five per cent of the delicacy of most such salads is lost once they have spent so much as one hour under refrigeration and that they do not in any case keep very long, and should therefore be cooked in small quantities and quickly eaten; finally, that elegant presentation is one of the first considerations. Inviting appearance does create appetite. If a dish, any dish, is enticing enough to arouse appetite, then I would think it reasonable that it should be called an appetiser, no matter at what stage of the meal it is offered.
COURGETTES IN SALAD
Choose the smallest courgettes you can find. Allow 500 g (1 lb) for 4 people. Other ingredients are salt, water, olive oil, lemon juice or mild wine vinegar, parsley.
To prepare the courgettes for cooking, cut a small slice off each end. Wash the courgettes and, with a potato parer, pare off any rough or blemished strips of skin, so that the outside of the vegetable looks striped, pale and dark green.
Cut each courgette into about 4-cm (1½-in) lengths. Put them into an enamel-lined or flameproof porcelain saucepan. Cover them with cold water. Add 1 dessertspoon of salt. Bring the water to the boil, cover the pan, simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Test the courgettes with a skewer. (A kebab skewer, its point protected with a cork, is a working implement I find indispensable.) They should be tender but not mushy. Immediately they are cooked drain them in a colander.
Have ready a well-seasoned dressing made with fine olive oil and wine vinegar. In this, mix the courgettes while they are still warm. Arrange them in a shallow white salad bowl and scatter a little very finely chopped parsley over them before serving.
Freshly cooked beetroot, French beans, whole small peeled tomatoes and possibly flowerets of cauliflowers dressed in the same manner as the courgettes can be arranged to alternate, in small neat clumps (not mixed higgledy-piggledy), with the courgettes.
In the days of the British Protectorate in Egypt, a vegetable salad prepared in this fashion was a familiar dish on the tables of English and Anglo-Egyptian families and in the British clubs of Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. Well prepared and with a good dressing, the cold vegetables make a delicate and refreshing salad to be eaten either as a first course or after a roast of meat or chicken. Great care should be taken not to overcook the courgettes or they will be waterlogged
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