A shout out to readers this month for their favorite zucchini recipes resulted in lots and lots of zucchini recipes landing on my desk. Reading recipe after recipe for zucchini this and zucchini that, I’ve come to realize just how prolific zucchini can be around here. Almost any gardener has lots of ways to rid the kitchen of the green — and sometimes yellow — squash.

One of the recipes that looked especially good was Zucchini and Granola cookies submitted by Joyce Dronen and also by Avis Scharlau. So, I made those last night for Mike Bonnicksen to shoot a photo of for the upcoming food page about zucchini. They do taste pretty good, especially when using butterscotch chips.

I over-estimated the amount of zucchini needed for the recipe, which called for 3 cups shredded zucchini, so I decided to make dinner from the stuff. Among the recipes submitted were two for zucchini pancakes. I didn’t have these recipes with me, so I decided to make my own recipe up. It was loosely based on a recipe for okonomiyaki my Japanese friend, Aki, made for us when she was visiting a few years ago.

Here’s my little recipe. Add spices as you like. Both the zucchini and the onion are watery after shredding. Based on how watery your zucchini and onion are, you might need more or less flour or milk in the batter.

Zucchini Pancakes

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 shredded sweet onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried parsley

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

Oil for frying

Combine zucchini, onion and garlic. Mix together dry ingredients. Add egg and milk to dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Add batter, should be pretty thick, to zucchini and onion mixture. Mix with a spoon until well-combined.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to coat bottom. Ladle zucchini pancake batter into oil, spreading until about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. Drain on paper towels.
Serve with ketchup, sour cream or mayonnaise.