Zucchini Gratin

I have a zucchini plant the size of a Lay-Z-Boy recliner. Unsurprisingly, I have zucchini the size of my forearm, and a desperate need to find easy, creative ways of preparing zucchini.

Sunday I made a gratin out of a one-to-two pound zucchini, a medium vidalia onion, a red bell pepper, a clove of garlic, some nutmeg, and cumin.

 Ingredients:

1     tremendously large zucchini
1     medium onion
1     sweet bell pepper
1     clove garlic
.25-.5c half and half
.25-.5c sour cream
       a few tbsp water
2tbsp flour
1     brick white cheese (swiss, jack, whatever), shredded
.25  brick cheddar, shredded
       nutmeg, cumin, or other spices to taste
1.5c panko
3tbsp butter, melted
fistfull of herbs, finely chopped

First, I sliced the onion into half-circle strips, and sauteed this for a few minutes in a little canola oil. I did this all on about a 6 on my electric stove, which is high medium-ish (so, not enough to really brown anything). Before the onion was fully translucent, I added the zucchini. I sliced it into 1/4 inch half-moons/circles. The moons come from scooping out the seeds and pulp from the lower sections; the upper section without mature seeds I just sliced into half-circles. I let this go while I sliced the red pepper into 1/4 inch strips; these went on top of the zucchini, and I covered the pan to help the veggies on top steam while the ones on the bottom sauteed. I stirred things around a few times to circulate pieces from top to bottom and back.

As the zucchini started to cook all the way through, I added one clove of chopped garlic. After a few more minutes, I put the veg mixture into a 9x13 pan, wiped out the saute pan, and put about a heaping tablespoon of butter in the pan to melt. 

To this I added about a scant quarter cup of half and half, and then maybe another quarter cup of sour cream. Ideally I would have used either all half and half or all whipping cream, but I had too little half and half, and extra sour cream, so, that's what I used. I stirred these together, and then added a bit of water to loosen things up a bit---maybe another scant 1/4 cup total of water? I stirred in 2 tbsp of flour, and then grated in half a block of monterrey jack cheese. I stirred in the cheese till it melted, then added about 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cumin. I poured this over the vegetables in the baking dish, and then grated some more monterey jack and cheddar over the top.

At this point I stirred about 1.5c of panko and a few tablespoons of chopped fresh  herbs into about 3tbsp melted butter. I sprinkled this mixture over the top of the gratin, and then put it in the oven for 20 minutes at about 400 degrees.