Have you ever watched the TV show "Nailed It?" The idea is, amateur cooks compete to tr and replicate a dish that a professional chef has prepared before. I wasn't attempting to "nail it" but a friend had posted a recipe for Garlic Parm Sauteed Zucchini and when I came across a couple of zucchini in the fridge I thought, "Why not?" Although this isn't close to being French and it isn't even a recipe from a famous chef on YouTube, I thought I'd share with you. If you want to see the original photo (that I'm sure was set up by a food artist, perhaps a little photo shopping was done as well) you need to go to the Delish.com website at https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a28091519/sauteed-zucchini-recipe/
It may not be in a French cookbook but I decide since this is my blog, and I make the rules, and I don't know if anyone besides me reads it anyway, it would be okay to tell you about something that I cooked. Besides, if you're looking for things to do during this "stay at home" period now you have something else to read besides back issues of the Reader's Digest.
As the description on the website said, sometimes "we don't have time to make an elaborate side dish, and something simple is all we crave." That's the way this day was and it seemed like a good chance to try it out and make use of what was already in the fridge.
I'm afraid my finished dish didn't look quite as colorful as the website. I could have gone for a bit more caramelized look (what some in my family would refer to as "burnt") but I just cooked them until they were soft to the texture we like. You can see I started with four zucchini which were sliced into even slices about 3/16" thick (that's 0.1875" or 4.7625 millimeters if you prefer -- yeah, I have an engineering degree. At least I didn't give you tolerances -- relax, its just food and not rocket science!).
To start off the cooking I heated some olive oil in a pan and then added minced garlic "until fragrant." Huh? What do they mean by "heat until fragrant?" Were the people who wrote that recipe the only people on the planet who've never been around garlic before? Hellllooooo, it's fragrant all by itself. I don't think the garlic needed a lot of persuading to start smelling like garlic! Being the dutiful chef in training I followed their instructions and heated the garlic for about 30 seconds.
Then in went the zucchini and oregano and everything cooked together for about 10 minutes until it was softened to the texture we like. Of course, this was a wonderful opportunity to toss the zucchini in the pan with that awesome flipping technique I'm learning. My sous chef, Elizabeth, actually wanted to stir everything with a spatula but I'd have none of that. Flipping it was. She said I'd made a mess. I, of course, explained how talented and proficient I've become and no longer make messes. I did a wonderful job flipping things several times...and then I took a paper towel and wiped up the bits of garlic that somehow jumped out onto the counter and floor. Hmmmmmm, must be like popcorn when they get hot.
To finish it off I added a little salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and then a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese that was tossed around to evenly coat everything.
This truly was a simple dish that took less than 20 minutes from start to serving. Elegant? Nah, but then again we're pretty simple folks so this had just the right amount of elegance. Not bad for a quick vegetable side dish that we enjoyed along with some salmon that I grilled at the same time. Everything was quick to prepare and finished at the same time. Wow! Go back about 98 posts ago and you'll see that dinner was always an hour or two later than planned when I first started this cooking adventure.
Speaking of cooking adventure, did you know that this is the 99th post I've put up on this blog? That means the next one is number 100!!! I can't believe I've actually cooked that many dishes over the past several months. Realizing the landmark the next post will be I"m planning on cooking something a lot more epic than this zucchini dish. I have the ingredients and I have the time -- we'll see what I actually end up making. For that, please follow me on Facebook or go subscribe on the website itself for notfications of new posts. In the meantime...
Bon Appetit!
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