A lighter recipe for stuffed squash blossoms

Only half of these blossoms were stuffed. If I eat fried, stuffed blossoms, I can’t really eat anything else, so I serve half and half, usually, and I work at making the stuffings ever lighter than the usual mozzarella and anchovy treatment. It’s not that they aren’t splendid like that, it’s just that for me they become a standalone main course.

I thought I would add a note on the presentation of this dish. I serve them on a paper towel or a fresh dish towel so that they will stay crisp and not soak up oil. I try always to garnish with something that indicates what is within; in this case it’s pisctachios. It might have been some of the herbs within or some fresh raw flowers, or on occasion when cooking for larger numbers, the platter might be shared between the fried flowers and some form of squash fritter featuring the vegetable. Npw there’s an idea: an all zucchine meal.

This photo is from last Sunday when I cooked for Palma and Brad Hansen and their guests at Bevagna. Palma’s blog is listed to the right in my list of blogs I read. Palma is herself quite a cook, as well as the photographer in this case, and Brad is quite a kitchen assistant!

This recipe was developed to fit into a Sicilian point of view. The ingredients would be quite common in Sicily because the Moors, or Arabs, controlled Sicily for a very long time and that history is still very reflected in the food and architecture. The menu I made for Palma was from many regions, but Sicily fit right in, I believed.

The best of all worlds allows you to pick fresh squash blossoms right off the plant. This must be done in morning when they are open. Shake each one upside down in case there is a bee in there! It would be easiest to clean and stuff them instantly, before they start to close up, but that would mean lunch was ready by 9:30, so I expect you will rinse off the outside to eliminate any sand or soil, shake and lay on paper towels. You can then roll them up and gently put them into a plastic bag in the fridge, but they will close in a spiral fashion no matter what you do.

Fiori di zucca fritti al cous cous

This makes enough stuffing for many blossoms, at least 15

1 cup or glass instant cous cous
the same measure of water, salted and brought to a boil

When the water boils, add the cous cous, then slap the lid on, turn off the heat and go away for 5 minutes. Fluff up with a fork.

2 handsful of chopped fresh herbs, including chives
(1 soupspoon of minced onions if you had no chives)
1 egg slightly beaten
1 tablespoon raisins or currants, chopped into smallish pieces
4 tablespoons pistachios, chopped
a pinch of cayenne/peperoncino
salt to taste

Add the herbs (onion) egg, raisins and 1 tablespoon of the chopped pistachio, the cayenne/peperoncino and mix thoroughly. Add salt to taste. If you have reason to fear your eggs, then you can fry a bit of the mixture for tasting as you would meatloaf or sausage for testing.

Gently open the blossoms and using a small spoon, insert the stuffing, but do not fill more than 1/3 of the available space. Re-twist the blossom end to close it. Lay it gently on a plate and do the next one until they are all filled.

Batter/pastella

130 g or 1 cup all purpose flour
a decent 3 finger pinch of salt
enough carbonated/sparkling water to make a batter the consistency of cream.

Mix it with a whisk, adding water slowly until you reach the consistency wanted.

Cooking them

Have a pair of good tongs ready for turning them and removing them. Heat about 1 cm or 3/8″ of really good oil in a wide frying pan. It will affect the flavor of the flowers a lot, so don’t chintz on oil quality.

When the oil is good and hot, with your fingers pick up a blossom by the stem and drop into the batter. Using the stem, turn it over a few times so that you know it is well battered. Pick it up and gently lay it in the hot oil. Do this until the pan is full but the blossoms are not touching and therefore getting stuck into one mega blossom.

Fry on one side until crunchy and blond, then using the tongs, turn each one over and fry until the second side is the same. It doesn’t take long for such a delicate thing to cook through. Using the tongs, remove the blossoms to generous wads of papertowel. Repeat, allowing the oil to come back to temperature between batches, and adding more oil as needed, until all the blossoms are cooked.

Arrange them on a serving plate and sprinkle the rest of the chopped pistachios over the whole. Eat hot!

PS/ I am often asked why not cook the cous cous in chicken broth or bouillon and my answer is: why mess up a perfectly good vegetarian recipe when in the end you’ll never taste the chicken anyway?