Zucchini Bread

I had never met a Zucchini until I reached the shores of America. As far as appearances go, it is a very attractive vegetable. Dark green skin, occasionally flecked with white or yellow making a pretty pattern and a wonderful contrast to the creamy white flesh. When I first saw a zucchini, I mistook it for a cucumber and purchased a few, only to find realize after being billed that I had a new vegetable on my hands. The first dish I tried preparing with zucchini was a south-indian style kootu. Kootu is a hearty lentil stew and I make any watery squash-type vegetable into a kootu. It is excellent for masking vegetables that don't have a strong flavour. Ever since, I have restricted myself to using zucchini in heavily seasoned soups and stews(like ratatouille) or in chinese-style fried rice. I do not enjoy the bland taste of zucchini all that much. I was very surprised when I encountered recipes for zucchini bread! In making quick breads, I have always had a "star" ingredient - blueberries/lemons/bananas/cranberries that give a flavour punch to the bread.

Still, when I found a large zucchini languishing in the crisper, and I was sick and tired of eating kootu(yes, it happens!), I decided to make zucchini bread! This bread is most certainly not something I would advertise as a must-try. It is a great way to use up a zucchini and that is as far as I would go in describing it. I can also imagine that it would play a great passive partner to any other star ingredient to make a quick bread, all the while silently boosting up the nutritive content in the bread. What can be more satisfying than knowing that your sugary baked treat along with your evening cup of tea is also packing in some nutrients?

Dry Ingredients
1 C All Purpose Flour
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg

Wet ingredients
1 Large Zucchini, grated
1 Egg
3/4C - 1 C Milk
1/2 C Sugar
3 Tbsp Butter

Cream together butter, sugar and egg in a medium sized bowl. Add milk and whisk to combine, and then add the grated zucchini. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well. Making a well in the center, add the wet ingredients and quickly combine. Grease a 9in by 5in loaf pan with butter. Pour the batter in and bake at 375 F for 25-30 min or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn out the loaf onto a cooking rack and wait at least 30 min before slicing. Enjoy with tea or coffee. It is not a very sweet bread, so I liked having it for breakfast as well.