August 8, 2014 / Leslie

Cooking From the Garden: Fried Squash Blossoms

Since August 8th is National Zucchini Day, otherwise known as Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day, I’m featuring a recipe that uses zucchini blossoms. Any large squash blossoms will work, but the zucchini flowers are the tastiest and least fragile.

Freshly Picked Squash Blossoms

When my garden is at peak production, it’s not unusual to find a dozen flowers on the zucchini and squash plants every morning. They are best picked early in the day, before the flowers close, and cook them that same day. I find they will last overnight in the crisper if stored in a vented plastic bag. The blossoms above are from green and yellow zucchini and squash vines.

When picking the flowers, watch out for bees, they will often get drunk on the nectar and fall asleep in the flowers. And only pick the male flowers, unless you don’t want more squash. Seriously, there are male and female flowers. The male flower sits on a long, slender stem. Most flowers are male. The female flower will be attached to a tiny squash plant and have a large pistil in the center of the flower.

Farmer’s markets often carry the blossoms, but get there early because they usually go fast, and they are pricey.

Recipe: Fried Squash Blossoms

Ingredients

• 2 dozen squash flowers
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• A handful of chopped parsley
• Course salt and ground pepper
• 2 eggs
• Vegetable oil or light olive oil
• Approx one cup of water

Preparation

Rinse the flowers and remove the pollen stem from the inside. Gently pat dry.

Mix together the flour, parsley, a few pinches of salt and a dash of pepper in a small bowl. In a separate bowl. Lightly beat the two eggs. Add the cup of water and the eggs to the flour mix and whisk until all lumps are gone.

Add about one inches of oil to a skillet and heat.

Dip the flowers one at a time in the batter and cook in batches on medium-high heat for about a minute on each side, or until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

Fried Squash Blossoms

There are many variations of this recipe, and I have posted others that I like, but today I’m making one of the simpler versions using a basic egg, flour and water batter. The last time I made them, I substituted beer for the water and left out the eggs. The flowers can also be stuffed with ricotta cheese and then fried.

They can be served hot or at room temperature, as an appetizer or as part of a meal.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
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