Squash Patties and Tomato Gravy

It's summer in Texas, so tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, okra, and squash are all in abundance. And since it's summer, both my sons are away in different states at the moment, so my ability to cook and eat vegetables to my heart's content is also abundant. I've been scouring community cookbooks, my collection of recipes, and my grandmother's clippings for summer vegetable dishes and pulled out this one from "Molly's Corner ," a column written by Hallettsville native, Molly Pesek. According to her obituary, Molly (1925-1986) was also a correspondent for the Victoria Advocate for some time. She was also the vice president of Pesek Memorial Company, which produced the headstone for my mother's grave in Hallettsville.

I don't know if my grandmother knew Molly, but she had clipped many, many of her recipes from the Lavaca County Tribune, some with a Texas-Czech bent, some not. Molly also self-published a cookbook, "Molly's Cookbook with Love", though in 1981, self-publishing meant typing the book yourself on a typewriter and having copies made. I made a copy from my good friend Lori's copy (also a Hallettsville native), who got it from Molly's daughter Connie. The book a fantastic trove of interesting traditional Texas Czech recipes from Molly's friends and family, along with things like Coke Salad, Hot Tamales, and Hummingbird Cake.

I got one enormous zucchini in my Imperfect Produce delivery box last week and a green pepper from Johnson's Backyard Garden at the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market, so I was ready to fry. The "patties" dropped from a spoon into the hot oil to fry, were shaped more like globules or some kind of sea creature; no rhyme or reason to their shape. At 375 degrees, they took about 4-5 minutes per side. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, they were just what I wanted eating dinner in front of the TV, binge-watching a series on Amazon Prime. My process photos are below.

I ate the patties with a cool, sour cream dressing-coated cucumber and red onion salad on the side. But I dipped the hot, crispy patties into warm tomato gravy. I have collected a few versions of recipes for this sauce from Texas Czech community cookbooks and they all involve sugar, making the sauce reminiscent of Campbell's Tomato Soup. The version I tried yesterday also included spices I normally associate with Christmas... cinnamon, cloves, allspice. The sauce was too sweet and too heavy on spices for me to try again with savory food, but the combination of the crispy patties (with the sweetness of the bell pepper) and the sauce was surprisingly good. This morning, the leftover batter was just as delicious poured into a frying pan coated with a little olive oil and cooked like an omelette.

All ingredients in a bowl, except for the zucchini.

Zucchini grated and ready to add.

Pattie "batter" all mixed together and ready to fry.

Squash patties served with homemade tomato gravy and a cucumber salad.

Next morning, the leftover batter was just as delicious poured into a frying pan coated with a little olive oil
and cooked like an omelette.

Tomatoes from my friend Lori's garden waiting to be made into Tomato Gravy.