Zucchini Me

Or the less self-indulgent name: Zucchini Blossoms

I have been wanting to try these for years now. They are an emotional vegetable for me. 

My father always called me Bloss growing up, and still does every now and then. I kind of love it. My mother calls me Possum every now and then too, but that was because it was what the Doctor said when I was first delivered.... Congratulations, you've just given birth to a Possum (I was thin and scrawny with somewhat gigantic eyes!). I digress... this is about Zucchini Blossoms. 

Other than being the day I married the man of my dreams, I loved our wedding so much because it still remains the best meal I have ever had in my life. And I will always feel that way, no matter where we dine. I wish the photographer had taken photos of the food we ate that night, but here's a photo I took at our menu sampling a few months earlier at Yering Station.

It was an avocado tunnel filled with beetroot, served with zucchini flowers and pesto. It was heaven on a plate. I have always loved that entree, and never wanted to try replicating it, for fear of ruining my memory. 

But then I realised, that's just crazy talk! So I thought I would start out by learning how to cook zucchini blossoms. 

Zucchini blossoms are not always easy to come by, but often found at farmers markets and boutique little fruiterer's. If you happen to live in Italy though, they are quite simply EVERYWHERE! Lucky ducks!

Firstly you need to carefully clean the petals to remove any dirt. Be very very gentle though.

You can make whatever stuffing you like. I chose to combine cream cheese, parmesan cheese, chopped basil leaves and salt & pepper. I also added a little nutmeg too, which gave such a lovely sweetness.

With a small spoon (I used a baby feeding spoon, but a teaspoon would suffice!!) carefully fill the base of the blossom with your filling.

Next you need to coat them in a light batter. It took me two tries for this, but I went with my old favourite tempura batter recipe in the end, which worked perfectly with gluten free flour too.

Combine 3 heaped tablespoons of flour with a pinch of salt. Have a whisk on hand and slowly start adding cold soda water, whisking as you go. The batter is to be quite light and more runny than a pancake batter. When you pick the zucchini flower up, the excess batter should drip away, leaving a well coated blossom. 

You then want to shallow fry the blossoms in a fairly small amount of hot oil. I used a nut oil, but I kind of think any would work well. If the oil is nice and hot you only need to cook them for less than a minute per side, as the batter is very light.

Drain them on paper towel and serve hot.

Mine don't quite look like our beautiful entree's at Yering Station, but they were pretty delicious anyway, and good enough to make again, perhaps alongside an avo next time!!!

Happy Friday y'all. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We are off to the Garment District tomorrow, as well a catch up with friends at The Met. What are you up to??