A fist full of harvest: the first Ichiban eggplant and zucchini, and two squash blossoms (male flowers) that showed up that morning.
This is several days' worth of blossoms. You can keep them in the fridge for several days if you can't harvest as much as you need in a single harvest. These are all male blossoms, although you can also harvest female blossoms with the immature fruit attached--also a delicacy. Harvest them in the morning when they're wide open--closed blossoms are as fun to open as it is to untangle a sopping wet piece of tissue paper. To prepare, remove the stamens and the entire stem, make sure they're bug-free (some of mine had an ant or two in them), and wipe or rinse out the pollen, and dry with a paper towel..
I stuffed them with a ricotta cheese mix. For ten blossoms, I used just over half a cup of ricotta, one egg, some minced roasted garlic, a dash of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Just mix the whole lot up, and either use a pastry bag or a small spoon to fill the blossoms. Twist the petals closed over the top of the filling. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil, heat til it's just smoking, and slowly and carefully lay them into the oil. Don't dump a bunch in at once--you'll drop the oil temperature, and you'll just have soppy, oily flowers--they need to start sizzling when you put them in. Fry them on each side until they're golden brown, then remove from the oil and drain the oil off on a paper towel.
I could eat roasted zucchini every day. I just chop them up, toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh chopped basil, fresh thyme, and a bit of fresh sage, then roast them at 375 for 20 minutes. I don't bother to stir them. I take them out when they start to look crispy brown.
I think I'll plant more zucchini plants next year.
Replies
Thank you much for sharing,
Nadine
I like them stuffed with herbed goat cheese and tempura'd too.
Sadly, all the varieties I grow produce teeny tiny blossoms. Too small for stuffing. :c (
Zuke blossoms are good in other dishes, too--I've mixed them into risotto and topped focaccia with them. They'd probably be tasty in just a salad, too, maybe a warm/wilted salad.
Treasa--from what I understand, the bummer about zucchini that aren't pollinated is that you usually don't know they haven't been pollinated until the flower's long gone, so usually, pollinated baby zucchini are used. They go through the same treatment as the flowers--just left attached to the blossoms and fried along with them. Since they're so young and small, they're incredibly tender and cook very quickly.
Jeff, thanks! It's a nice alternative to the more common preparation, which is battered and fried. Most recipes I've seen use a flour batter mixed with soda water--it makes a lighter batter that crisps up more quickly in a quick fry, like what you'd use with these blossoms. Have fun, and let us know how your version turns out!