Growing in the wind

Our garden is overflowing with things that we did not plant. Today I made some rice-paper rolls with rocket and sweet orange peppers that I could just pick outside, and surprisingly it was rather tasty ( admittedly I added other bought veggies to the filling for the rolls).

So if you are in need of some rocket, let me know. I think there are sweet potatoes, ordinary potatoes and some butternuts growing in between the rocket and mint, but since my grandmother got all the green-thumb genes I am not entirely sure...

  

Marabastad pampoen*

I was in Fruit 'n Veg the other day ( you will notice that I quite like this store) and they had a special on : R10 for two enormous zucchinis. By enormous I mean the size of my arm - huge. Since I am unable to let anything go that seems like a bargain, I bought them without knowing what to cook with them. 

The first one I halved, stuffed it with a chorizo-mixed veg-couscous and topped with some cheese. I used a third of the other one to make rather boring fritters. I guess because the vegetable is so huge it loses some of that zucchini flavour. My mom came back just in time to also get her share of what she called a maranka. Aparently my grandmother used to make the giant zucchini with sugar and cinnamon. I am unsure if it is the same vegetable. 

So for the last 2/3 of the green monster, I cut it in rings, scooped out the seeds in the middle and stuffed them with a toasted bread/carrot/danish feta/coriander/patty pan mix with lots of spices. In hindsight it might have been better to peel the entire zucchini because the skin was not very tasty. It was an ok dish. Maybe it just needs more experimenting. Fruit 'n Veg is just around the corner, I'll have to go get more R10 specials :)

The maranka.

Cut in rings.

Stuffing

Topped with cheese.

I fixed our oven so now it has light again.

The final product.

  * meaning Marabastad pumpkin, because I could not remember the word "maranka" and Marabastad is a slightly dodgy shopping area.