I’ve had a whole week off work and spent the time truly taking a break from everything and making sure every morning to take a walk around somewhere that would feed my soul and light that spark again.
A couple of days ago we visited our local community gardens called TWIGS (see video here) which was a wonderful little sanctuary of peacefulness and happiness. Before I left I picked up some herbs to grow in the garden as well as some tomatoes, cucumbers and a beautiful marrow!
What is a marrow I hear you ask!
“A marrow is the mature, large, overgrown fruit of a courgette (zucchini) plant, belonging to the same botanical species (Cucurbita pepo). Marrows are specifically bred for their larger size, harder skin, and longer storage life compared to courgettes, which are harvested when immature. They are often stuffed, baked, or used in savoury dishes and are a popular vegetable in Great Britain.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marrow_(vegetable)
Marrows are such great economy vegetables!
I love marrows, so when I see them I buy them! In fact I need to grow some next year as they are so great not only for savoury dishes but for sweet preserves and chutneys too! However, I have NEVER heard of marrows being used as a pudding so when I saw the recipe for “Marrow Charlotte” on page 57 of one of my favourite WW2 recipe books “Health for All – Wartime Recipes” by Margaret Y. Brady, M.Sc, I had to give it a bash! I’d already made two portions of “marrow risotto” with half of the marrow yesterday so creating a dessert with the rest of it seemed like a good idea!
Marrow Charlotte
- 1.5 lb. young vegetable marrow
- 6 oz breadcrumbs
- 2 oz of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of black treacle (or golden syrup)
- 1 oz margarine
- 1 dessertspoon of lemon juice (can be omitted)
Method
Grease a pie dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and a little sugar. Slice marrow thinly like an apple, leaving on the skin, and sprinkle with lemon juice (or substitute). Put a layer in the pie dish, then more breadcrumbs and sugar, dot with a few pieces of margarine, and run a little of the treacle over (I’m using golden syrup). Then put another layer of sliced marrow, and more breadcrumbs and sugar and treacle, repeating until the dish is full, ending with a layer of crumbs with dots of margarine on top. Add two tablespoons of water and bake slowly in a moderate oven for one hour, or until the marrow is soft and the crumbs crisp on top.
Serve with milk or soya custard sauce.
Total cost for 2 portions = 50p
C xxx
I will have to try it with zucchini. I have plenty of that here in the USA.
It sounds great!
That sounds like a great idea! C xx
There are lots of sweet recipes around for marrow (zucchini/courgetti – same thing) and ginger jams (or marmalades) as well as in baking recipes so no surprises that it’s okay for both sweet and savoury dishes. Steamed puddings are what I remember the jam or marmalade being used for, yummy.
Steamed pudding actually sounds rather wonderful!!! Xxx
Do you need a recipe for the jam/marmalade ? Let me know and I’ll post one for you.
Hi Carolyn,
My mother used to make wonderful suet steamed puddings. Unfortunately she died in 1987. Wendy attempted it once. She ended up with a watery syrupy mix.
She has never attempted it again.
One of the meals my mother made that is lost.
For those who have a problem with steamed puddings you must look up the Be-Ro cookbook – absolutely foolproof !
https://flashbak.com/be-ro-home-recipes-scones-cakes-pastry-puddings-a-1923-cookbook-primer-41260/
Yes please for the recipe!
Marrow and Ginger Jam/Marmalade
Ingredients
450g/1lb marrow (weighed after peeling) – cut into small cubes
450g/1lb sugar
1tsp ground ginger (or to taste)
Juice 1 large lemon
Method
1. Sprinkle the sugar over the marrow, cover and let it stand overnight in a cool place.
2. The next day put the sugar and marrow in a preserving or large pan and warm gently until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Add the ginger and lemon juice then boil steadily until the cubes look transparent and the syrup has reached setting point.
4. Pour into hot, sterilised jam jars and cover.
Carolyn, so fabulous to have you creating again 💜 This looks yummy, and I will definitely try it.
Thank you Maggie, it feels so good to find time xxxx
Hello! You’re back!
Am hoping to find the time to post more regularly xxx C thank you
Welcome back. I have missed your posts.
If you have a garden you will always have too much zucchini (courgette). For years I’ve made zucchini crisp which tastes like apple crisp. The recipe is similar to yours except instead of a bread crumb topping, it’s topped with oats, cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar, then baked until the topping is crispy. Most people use zucchini in savory vegetable dishes, but zucchini is botanically a fruit not a vegetable, so it works great in desserts.
Another reason it’s good for both sweet and savoury recipes is that it is neutral in flavour, it has no clear flavour of it’s own.
What does this taste like? It looks interesting, but the ingredients sound… well there’s zucchini in it!
Well it’s not as nice as apple crumble but honestly, when times were hard, it would bs perfectly acceptable as a dessert with custard over I think. You couldn’t taste the marrow (giant zucchini), mostly just the syrup, sugar and toasted breadcrumbs xxx
But with the syrup and some ginger or your favourite spices it’s delicious.