So you no longer have to lock your car — or set the dogs loose in the yard — to keep your neighbors from filling your back seat or portal with zucchini. Fall is here and odds are good cold rains and freezing night-time temperatures have wiped out all but the hardiest (or most protected) of this year's squash crop.

At the height of the season we asked readers to share their favorite ways of using up the jolly green giants, and you sent us dozens of recipes.

We set to work slicing and chopping and grating and stuffing. We made lots of pancakes and other savory rounds, sweet breads and cakes, casseroles, tarts, sautés and frites. We enjoyed so many of the recipes — and used up so much of our own zucchini, thank you! — that it was hard to select just three to share with everyone. But here we are, at last, with the winners of The New Mexican's zucchini recipe contest.

If you don't have any zukes left in your refrigerator or freezer, you can save these recipes for next season. Or, if you still haven't had your fill of the crunchy green critters, you can find them lounging on the shelves of your local supermarket all year-round.

Maybe you had better lock those doors after all. Somewhere in the world, zucchini is always in season.

Here are the winners of this year's zucchini recipe contest.



WHO: Kenneth Joseph, Santa Fe

WHAT: Thai Crab Napoleons

WHY: It was the most original — and exotic — recipe we received. And it was delicious.


The impetus for creating this unusual recipe, Ken Joseph said, came from two different sources: "We had a garden overflowing with zucchini one year, and had lots of opportunity to try strange things — and I took several cooking classes from chef Peter Zimmer when he owned Zen restaurant in Eldorado. That's when I learned about all those flavors that were great fun to experiment with."

Ken lives in Eldorado with his wife and four daughters. He is the main cook in the family, he says, but at least one of his daughters also has a strong interest in the kitchen arts. When he's not developing recipes, Ken builds office buildings and serves as the treasurer on the board of Monte del Sol Charter School. Monte del Sol is affiliated with the Chez Panisse Foundation's Edible Schoolyard project, which combines gardening, healthy lunches and kitchen activities with classroom lessons. The school's commitment to good food "really permeates the whole attitude of the school," Ken says.

Good food is also an important part of Ken's life. "Cooking is my passion and great fun and great relief," he says.

Recipe tester's note: Oddly, I'm not a big fan of crab — unless it's an Alaskan leg the size of a baseball bat drowned in clarified butter. But I was lucky enough to have a pastry chef, a crab-obsessed housemate and a visiting friend from Seattle on hand to help me gauge the recipe's final results. The grilling of the zucchini and the assembling of the napoleons is time-consuming, but the payoff in flavor and texture is well worth the effort. I plated the dish as a small appetizer to photograph it, but honestly, we dug into the majority of the Napoleons directly from a serving platter. (Rob DeWalt)

THAI CRAB NAPOLEONS

3 medium zucchini or yellow squash or both (as regularly shaped as possible)
1 cup lump crab meat
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger or galangal
1 teaspoon minced lemongrass
Peanut oil as needed
1 can coconut milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, minced
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 kaffir lime leaves
Bundle of fresh chives
More fresh minced cilantro for serving

Prepare the curry sauce: Heat curry paste, garlic, ginger and lemongrass in some peanut oil. Add coconut milk, sugar and lime juice and bring to a boil for 5 minutes and allow to cool.

Preheat a grill or grill pan. Cut the ends off and slice the squash lengthwise, about 1/4-inch thick, with a mandoline or sharp knife.

Season on both sides with salt and pepper. Baste with the curry sauce and grill slices 1 minute, or just until grill marks appear. Rotate one-quarter turn and flip slices and repeat, including basting on the other side. Set grilled zucchini slices aside.

Pick through crab meat to remove any shell, and place in a nonreactive bowl. Add just enough curry sauce to moisten and flavor crab meat. Mix in the minced cilantro. Briefly steam the chives so they are just pliable.

Assemble the napoleons: Spread crab mixture on a slice of squash, place another slice on top, spread with more crab mixture, then top with a third slice of zucchini. Tie together with multiple chives so you create bite-size napoleons that are about 1-1/2 inches thick.

Slice and serve garnished with more fresh cilantro.



WHO: Scott and Nina Rasmussen, Santa Fe

WHAT: Zucchini Blini

WHY: It's the simplest, savory way we found to use up lots of zucchini.



"This is an old recipe from our relatives in New England," Scott Rasmussen wrote in an e-mail. "It originated with my Yankee family many, many years ago and was passed to us by my uncle. As you can guess, it is a handy recipe to have when your neighbors with vegetable gardens start bringing around boxes of zucchinis which they, and nearly everyone else, cannot use."

Scott and Nina Rasmussen moved to Santa Fe a little more than a year ago. The couple chose Santa Fe, Scott said, because Nina, a singer, was for seven years the voice teacher for the Santa Fe Opera's apprentice program and they knew and loved the area.

What they didn't know was how different high-desert gardening would be from what they were used to in California.

"Squash was the only thing that really worked this summer," Scott said.

Recipe tester's note: Blini — small, thin buckwheat crêpes or pancakes — are a traditional Russian dish.

We tried this version at breakfast, with sour cream and again with smoked salmon; at dinner, we served it as a side to grilled or roasted meats. It was delicious each time. We were impressed with how flavorful the little pancakes were, and how little time and effort it took to prepare them. (Pat West-Barker)

ZUCCHINI BLINI

1-1/4 cup grated zucchini
1 small onion and /or shallot, grated
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.

For each blin, place approximately 2 tablespoons of mixture on a hot skillet that has been coated with butter. Don't overcrowd. Flip when first side is golden brown and cook second side until done.

You can keep blini in a warm oven until all have been cooked. Serve warm.

Blini may be topped with sour cream and caviar, or, if your taste does not run to this, they are also excellent with blueberry or raspberry jam.



WHO: Pam Alexander, Santa Fe

WHAT: Chocolate Zucchini Cake

WHY: The cake was moist and delicious and appeared to work well at our high altitude — a sweet ending to a meal and our contest.



Pam Alexander's winning recipe came from her mom.

"I bet I've had this recipe for 20 years," she laughs, "but I never really made it until last year." Now she thinks it's a good way to use excess zucchini.

Originally from Michigan, Pam now lives in Eldorado, where she has a water catchment system that allows her to have fruit trees and flower gardens. Her vegetable garden isn't on that system, she says, but it's fruitful, too. "This year," Pam says, "we grew a variety of different squash, all in the zucchini family but not the traditional shape."

Pam loves to cook, and wishes she had more time for it. She also wishes she had more time for another passion — fly fishing. "It's just a really beautiful activity," she says.

Recipe tester's note: I baked the cake twice, once following the original recipe, and once baking intuitively and adding a few of my own flourishes to the recipe. Both cakes were very good.

Here's how I Chef DeWalt-ed the second cake: I added 3/4 cup softened dried cherries to the dry ingredients before adding them to the wet ingredients. I replaced the cocoa powder with 1/2 cup of melted Sharffen Berger milk chocolate in honor of company founder Robert Steinberg, who died at the age of 61 on Sept. 23. And, for the glaze, I added 1/2 cup of chokecherry jam (purchased at the Santa Fe Farmers Market) to just 2 tablespoons of the butter — about half what was called for — before melting it (You can use the smooth jam of your choice here.) I also replaced half the vanilla extract with a little dark Myer's rum. (Rob DeWalt)

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI CAKE

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup soft butter
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini (any large seeds removed and discarded before shredding)
1/2 cup whole or 2 percent milk
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
For the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch tube or bundt pan and dust it with flour. Set aside.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until they are smoothly blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a spoon, stir in the vanilla and zucchini. Alternative stir the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture. Mix in the nuts (if using).

Bake at 350 degree for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When cake is cool, make the glaze by combining all ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour glaze over top of cooled cake.