Spare Rooster and Zucchini Bake

Now this self-sufficiency thing isn't all glitz and glamor you know. I've also got this thing about balanced social media and how you should post the good parts and the not so good parts of your life so people following your adventure get a total picture of what they might face themselves. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing but it's a bit mundane - for me anyway.   So with all the rain over the last 2 months things are growing very quickly or they are dead from foot rot. The zucchinis are one of the things that just seem to love the rain and grow out of site overnight. this is a typical zucchini, way longer than a carving knife and as thick as your leg. Very tasty and very moist, not overgrown and woody. I've talked before about breeding your own chickens, 50% of eggs hatched will be roosters and as they grow they hunt in a pack and gang rape the chooks so you do have to cull them.  Now free range chickens are not a big plum bird like the supermarket birds you buy, free range birds tend to be a bit leaner and a bit stringy and lend themselves more to casseroles and slow cooked meals. 


 Here is my latest recipe invention the;  Spare Rooster and Zucchini bake. You might want to use left over chicken from a previous meal.



1. Cut the zucchini into slices to suit the people you are serving. Mine were large about 2cm or an inch tall. Hollow out the middle to create a small container. Oil the rings, salt and pepper then blind bake for 30 minutes in a hot oven or until just starting to soften.

2. The Filling. I had already cooked the chicken and had it stored in the freezer. You can easily make your own its just chicken pieces and tomatoes with lots of herbs like oregano, basil, rosemary and time. I also had the last of my egg plants in there as well. This is a great recipe if you had a whole chook one meal and still have some meat left on the circus that is perfect for this meal. Just mix it all together and cook it until soft. My free range chickens are smallish so I also added some cooked rice to bulk it out. Just make sure you have a fairly moist mixture in the end. A can of crushed tomatoes will give you they fluid you need in your mixture.

3. Simply spoon the filling into the half cooked zucchini, I added a squeeze of lemon to lift it and salt and pepper than bake again for a further half hour or until the zucchini is real soft. Now at this stage I contemplate putting chess on top and baking it until golden that might be attractive to children. I did have some fresh eddas so went with the build egg on top instead although I was distracted and would have rather the egg still runny. (hint - take an egg cold from the fridge, put in already boiling water. On your iPhone set the timer for exactly 7 minutes then take the egg out and put it in ice water) That should give you a nice runny boiled egg.

4.  To serve jazz it up a little, add fresh herbs and purple onion. A nice rich tomato sauce over top would go well also.

Cheers and enjoy.




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