I’m quite the food adventurer as you can see.  Not only will I try to eat anything once, I will also give a go at cooking it too.  We have a garden in the back yard this year and noticed that we were getting some flowers on our zucchini plants.  I though, “omigosh I can stuff them!”  I’ve always wanted to try this.

I found two recipes on Pinterest that I liked and decided to try my hand at both.  I did this recipe last week and it was pretty good but my husband thought the filling was too sweet.  So I decided to try a version of the filling in this recipe but with the beer breading from the first recipe.

Since we only have a few precious zucchini plants my next stop was the Baltimore Farmer’s Market & Bazaar on Sunday morning.  There is one stand there that sells both zucchini and squash blossoms.  I hit the jackpot and got several cartons.

My next issue was that we had no beer at home that would work with the batter.  We don’t drink a lot of beer so whatever is in our fridge was left by past guests.  I didn’t want to go out of my way and buy a whole case for one can.  I walked past the stall for Charm City Meadworks and figured if beer and soda water both work, then mead should work too.  I noticed that they had a mead infused with rosemary so I decided to give it a chance.

Recipe: Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Filling:
10 zucchini blossoms
3/4 cup of ricotta cheese
1/4 cup of freshly grated Romano cheese
1 clove of garlic, minced (I used jarred)
8 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp of sea salt
(The original recipe calls for an egg but I found it unnecessary so I’m leaving it out)

Batter:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup Charm City Mead (or whatever mead you prefer)
2 cups vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Remove stamens from inside the flowers and cut off the stems.  The flowers in my picture are female so they have the beginning of baby zucchinis growing.
2. Fill a large saucepan or pot with high sides (less splattering) with vegetable oil. You don’t need to worry about the oil being deep enough to submerge the blossoms because they will float.  Set it over medium heat.
3. Mix together the ricotta, freshly grated cheese, basil, and sea salt until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag or a freezer bag the end cut off.
4. Carefully pipe the cheese mixture into the flower. Twist and squeeze the tops of the petals to seal.
5. Combine flour and mead in a bowl and whisk until flour has dissolved and mixture is frothy.
6. Dip the flowers into batter and allow excess batter to drip off when you take them out.
7. By now your oil should be hot enough. With a pair of tongs carefully drop battered flowers into hot oil. Frying around 4 flowers at a time works best.  Fry flowers for up to a minute and a half, flipping halfway through. They should be a light golden brown.
8. Let rest on a paper-towel lined plate to absorb the oil.
9. Serve immediately.

 

Enjoy!

– Lindsey