Stuffed Zucchini Boats Part 1: Gefüllte Zucchiniboote

I'm sure many of you have wondered, as I have, why some things that seem incredibly easy turn out to be a pain in the neck. The other day when I went to buy zucchini, the produce shop only had large zucchini. So I bought the large zucchini and then I cut them in half, which made the pieces about 5 1/2 to 6 inches in length, which is perfect for this. Two things though: first, even after you cut them to smaller size in length, the thickness of the halves are bigger than zucchini that are truly 5 or 6 inches length; so that means a little longer cooking time. Second, these are supposed to be "zucchini boats," so with one end cut off, my boats are sinking! Where's Leonardo DiCaprio when you need him? Of course, if I had wanted large zucchini, the shop would have had small zucchini. I think I need a strategy ...

Blanching the zucchini pieces helps to give the zucchini a little start on the cooking process, because once the dish is put into the oven, getting the zucchini tender, but not burning the egg/milk/cheese sauce around the edges can be a bit of a balancing act, made more difficult by the thickness of these zucchini halves I used. In German stuffed zucchini boats are called "Gefüllte Zucchiniboote," literally "filled zucchini boats."

Ingredients (4 to 8 servings):

4 zucchini, about 6 inches in length, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out (if long zucchini, you can first cut them into equal halves in length)
3/4 cup dry cottage cheese or Farmer's cheese
2/3 cup canned milk or regular milk (divided use in equal parts)
4 ounces sliced smoked salmon
2 eggs
3 tablespoons chopped dill
1 tablespoon butter
3 or 4 tablespoons grated Pecorino Romano cheese (or Parmesan) 
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 375 F. Blanch the zucchini halves in boiling water for about 90 seconds and then drain them well. Mix together the dry cottage cheese, 1/3 cup milk, dill, pepper and salt; set aside for a minute or two. Whisk or beat together the eggs and the other 1/3 cup milk, then mix in the grated cheese. Butter a baking pan lightly. Fill each "zucchini boat" with the cottage cheese mixture, top each "boat" with a slice of smoked salmon. Pour the egg/milk/cheese mixture over the tops of each zucchini boat. Bake the "boats" for about 45 minutes, or until they are tender (a fork easily pierces them). Some of the egg mixture may brown a little, and that's okay.

NOTE: I did Part Two a couple of days later, and here is the link: https://pontificating- randy.blogspot.com/2020/02/stuffed-zucchini-boats-part-2bacon.html 

 

With a salad ...

WORD HISTORY:
Lox-Before English borrowed the word salmon, the original English word for this fish was "leax," which then later became "lax" (it has absolutely nothing to do with the word of the same spelling meaning "loose, negligent"), but any continued usage of this word for the fish would be strictly limited to perhaps some dialects in the United Kingdom, if it is still used at all. The Old English word goes back to Old Germanic "lahks," which meant "salmon." This went back to Indo European "lohkso," which also meant  "salmon." This gave German, "Lachs" and the derived Yiddish form, "laks." ^ American English borrowed the term from Yiddish as "lox," but exactly when this took place is uncertain, although the term's usage spread in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Besides the German and Yiddish forms, the other Germanic languages have: Low German "Lass," Danish and Norwegian have "laks," Icelandic and Swedish have "lax." Frisian and Dutch, like their close English cousin, borrowed forms of  "salmon" from French, although also like their English cousin, they too had forms of "lox" as their original word.

^ Yiddish developed about 1000 A.D. from some High German dialects among German Jews living in the Rhineland area of Germany. It also used some Hebrew, and over time it spread throughout Europe's Jewish communities, incorporating some vocabulary from several Slavic languages/dialects in eastern Europe. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet, but it is classified as one of the Germanic languages, because of its strong German base. This makes it a close relative of English and of the other Germanic languages, with that particularly strong connection to German. Just for comparison: English "make," German "machen," Low German "maken," Yiddish (transliterated) "makhn."