Dipping Sauce

In a recent post, I shared a simple recipe for oven-baked zucchini fries. In the picture, you might be able to see a small bowl.

This sauce is a favorite dipping sauce of mine. I think it's great with zucchini fries, as well as with roasted root vegetables. The only ingredients are mayonnaise and mustard. I love Trader Joe's Dijon mustard. It's spicy, flavorful, and not very expensive. My favorite ratio, for a zippy sauce, is two parts mayonnaise to one part mustard. If you are looking for something a little more creamy without being overpowering, I would try three parts mayo to one part mustard. Enjoy!

Zucchini Fries: Baked and Fried

 

When you are cheap and it's summer, you eat a LOT of zucchini. If you grow zucchini yourself, you just might have a gluttony of home-grown zucchini. Or in my case, I buy the largest zucchini I can at the Corvallis Farmer's Market for $0.50 each.

I have a few different recipes that use zucchini:

• pasta salad
• zucchini pancakes
• many, many variations of scrambled eggs
• zucchini "chili"
• and black bean and pineapple chili, among others.

I have a new recipe, Zucchini Fries. The other day I shared my first attempt at zucchini fries. I thought the crunchy outside was just too much for the simple zucchini. I made a small adjustment, omitting the flour coating and adding a splash of water to the egg to make it less goopy.

 Z. and I then cooked the zucchini fries, baked and fried. The breading didn't entirely stay on the fried version but that batch had a nice, almost smoky flavor the baked fries lacked. I do have to say, baking the zucchini was super simple and required minimal attention. Feel free to add your favorite seasonings to the breading. I kept it simple with Italian season, salt, and pepper. Enjoy this easy and tasty side dish!

Baked Zucchini Fries

by Ace Nation

6050323

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• About 2 cups zucchini sticks
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup dry fine bread crumbs, or more as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• Cayenne pepper, to taste
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

In a bowl, combine egg and water. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Set aside.

Pour bread crumbs into a second bowl and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Set aside.

Dip zucchini sticks into egg wash and coat. Shake excess egg off before placing in the bread crumbs. Coat the sticks with the bread crumbs, carefully shaking off excess. Place in a single layer on prepared baking sheet. Spray the top of the zucchini with a thin layer of nonstick cooking spray.

Cook until brown and tender, about 10-12 minutes. Serve warm with dipping sauce of your choice.

Enjoy!

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Recipe Testing Failures

Creating new recipes is full of surprises. Sometimes my meals are better than I could have imagined. Such as, Coconut Curry, Pappa al Pomodoro, and Pasta with Béchamel Sauce and Spring Vegetables. Other times, it takes me a couple of tries to get things right. That's why I do not have a new recipe today.

Let's see, I've tried warm pineapple compote several times.

I enjoy pineapple compote over French toast but it's not quite good enough to share on here.

Yesterday, I tried breading zucchini with an old-school recipe and bake them. I first dredged the zucchini in flour, then dipped into an egg wash, then covered the zucchini sticks with fine dried bread crumbs that I had seasoned. It was overkill. And...I overcooked them. I have an idea of how I need to change the recipe to make it work. Zucchini is in abundance and cheap at the farmer's market. I'll be trying this again.