At the moment it seems as though my courgettes are doubling in size when I inspect them every day. So I have lots of courgettes to use up. I'm unable to bring myself to pick them at less than 6" long. In practice, mine are at least 10", sometimes longer. They do stay nice and tender and are not bitter, even at a larger size.

Tonight I cooked chicken thighs on a bed of courgettes. It used up a 10" courgette. Even better it was a delicious way of cooking them.

Chicken thighs with courgettes

quantities for 3-4

6 chicken thighs

1 large courgette, thinly sliced

2 medium onions, chopped

2 big cloves garlic, crushed

2 big tomatoes, sliced

olive oil

juice 1 lemon

oregano, salt, pepper, ground coriander berries, ground cumin, paprika

Mix all vegetables in a wide shallow ovenproof container. Add 2 tsp oregano, lemon juice and enough olive oil to moisten. Roughly level off the veg. On top place the chicken thighs which have been coated with a mixture of 2tsp paprika, 1 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp cumin, salt and pepper. Put into oven at 180C for about 45 minutes.

This was really delicious. The vegetables still retained some texture. There was enough liquid thrown off to make it nicely moist, and the combination of the flavourings was really tasty. A definite recipe for next years glut of courgettes.

The plum crumble was made with plums given to me by a neighbour. I used wholemeal flour and brown sugar for the topping.,