Courgette Rissoles and Monsters

Whilst on our holidays we saw some little monsters in a gift shop similar to the one above, but with an £8 price tag I wasn't going to let "Grandad" buy one for our little granddaughter when I could make her one myself. So that's what I did, and I have to say he was very well received.

The front side is shown in the picture above and below you can see the reverse side.

The fabric was recycled from a patchwork skirt that I bought in a charity shop...

...and now for the courgettes!

I keep getting loads of courgettes in my vegetable bag and with another bag due to be delivered this afternoon I thought it was about time I tried using some up. Having read a few recipes for courgette rissoles recently I thought I'd have a go at making some for my lunch, but as is typical for me I couldn't be bothered to hunt out the recipes I'd seen so decided to make it up as I went along.

I fried a chopped onion with a clove of chopped garlic then put them in a bowl with a grated courgette, about 2oz of grated mature cheddar, a small slice of wholemeal bread grated, an egg and salt and pepper.and mixed it all up. I heated a frying pan with a teaspoon of olive oil in and placed two separate tablespoons of the mixture in and flattened them slightly. Whilst they were cooking I decided a dip of some sort might be nice to go with them. I had a couple of teaspoonfuls of guacamole left over from last night so I mixed them with a tablespoon of mayonnaise, then went to flip my rissoles - Disaster!!! they just broke up into pieces. Not liking to waste things, I popped them onto a plate and still ate them - they tasted okay but a little bland.

Sooo... back to the drawing board, or in this case the mixing bowl - to the mixture still in the bowl I added 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp tomato puree and 1/2 oz flour and mixed them well in. This time I tried frying just a teaspoon first - success!!!

Recipe: Courgette Rissoles with Chilli and Cheese

1 Small onion - chopped

1 Clove garlic - chopped

1 Largish courgette - grated

2 oz Grated mature cheddar cheese

1 Small slice wholemeal bread - grated into crumbs

1 Med egg

1/2 tsp Chilli powder

1 tsp Tomato puree

1/2 oz Flour

Salt & Pepper

Lightly fry the garlic and onion and add to a bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix well. Shallow fry tablespoons of the mixture on each side till browned and cooked through - serve.

Olive oil for frying.