Ingredients: (Serves two or three adults)
2 fresh young zucchini squash, about 8" long, ends cut off, sliced into pieces 3/8 of an inch thick, not peeled
2 cups of Kraft® Parmesan cheese put into a one gallon plastic Ziploc® bag
A can of Pam® cooking spray
Directions:
Make all other meal items before making the fried zucchini as it should be served quickly to retain it's texture.
Hint: As you slice the zucchini use the pieces quickly to keep the cut sides moist so the Parmesan cheese will coat/stick to each side well. In the meantime, if cut slices are kept tightly together (as if the squash wasn't cut) they will not lose any appreciable amount of moisture.
Pre-warm the oven to 160ºF. Put a dinner or serving plate into the oven to pre-warm it.
Add a few slices of the cut zucchini to the bag of cheese. Close and shake the bag to coat the sides of the zucchini with the Parmesan cheese.
Remove the coated slices and put them on a paper towel or a plate.
If you run low on the Parmesan cheese in the bag before you are done coating all the zucchini slices simply add more cheese to the bag.
When all the slices have been coated put the excess cheese back into it's plastic container and back into the refrigerator.
Spray a large non-stick skillet generously with Pam®.
Place slices of the cheese coated zucchini into the skillet, allowing ample room to flip them over with a spatula easily during frying.
Spray the tops of the pieces of zucchini in the skillet liberally with Pam®.
Fry the zucchini on medium to medium-high heat, turning the pieces over to fry the second side when they are light to medium golden in color on the bottom. This may take three to five minutes per side, but keeping the heat limited results in a better product. The goal is to barely cook the zucchini through while achieving the crisp light to medium golden color of the cheese on each side. Experience is the best teacher so don't be afraid to modify what you do in your kitchen to get the best results.
As each batch completes put the slices onto the pre-warmed plate in the oven, but do not stack them.
I like to clean the skillet with a quick hot water rinse and a wipe with a paper towel between batches to maximize good flavor and avoid unwanted over-fried oily cheese particles.
Repeat the above frying steps until all the coated pieces of zucchini have been fried.
Serve the fried zucchini immediately, for it will lose its crisp and yummy texture within ten minutes.
Due to the use of the Parmesan cheese, which has a fairly high salt content, it is not necessary to season the fried zucchini with additional salt. But serve the fried zucchini with salt on the side anyway to please salt lovers.