Mum's the word

Aren't mums great? Well mine is anyway and I'm very excited because she is coming over for a holiday in a couple of weeks. No doubt there will be plenty to write about when my partner in food crime arrives over.

But enough about my Mum. This post is to say thank you to J's Mum who very kindly wrote out a recipe for zucchini bread and posted it over to me. I've had it for a few weeks now and recently we were talking about it on the phone. I have been off work for the last few days with a cold so I decided to amuse myself in the kitchen. I read the recipe again and it all seemed very straight forward - even for a sick girl with runny eyes and nose.

I had no picture to work with here and so I imagined that the bread would turn out green. But no. It was a lovely orange colour with lots of walnuts and dried fruits. I think the zucchini is more for texture. The cinnamon and cloves were the most prominent flavours. But maybe that was just because I have a cold. I will have to try it again when my tastebuds come back to life. This bread (cake) is really delicious and went really well with the many cups of tea I had. In fact, I had so many cups of tea that I nearly polished off the whole loaf. Lucky for me, J eventually came home from work to help me out.

So this bread gets a big thumbs up from me - easy to make and tastes fantastic. I'll definitely be making this one again.

Zucchini Bread (or courgette if you're in Europe)

1/2 oz (15g) unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 (12oz) granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated unpeeled raw zucchini
2 cups all purpose (plain) flour
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves (which I ground up)
1 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Butter a 9"x5" loaf tin
3. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until light and thick
4. Fold in grated zucchini
5. Sift dry ingredients together. Then stir into zucchini mixture until just blended
6. Fold in walnuts and raisins
7. Pour into loaf tin
8. Bake on middle rack for 1 hour 15 mins - or until skewer comes out clean
9. Cool slightly, remove from tin and cool on a rack.