Stuffed courgette flowers
On the face of it, this dish is fairly simple, but it can be a bit of a fiddle to make and I’m sharing some pointers here that I find make it easier.
Firstly, courgette flowers don’t last. If you grow your own, brilliant, if you buy them as I do, then you need to buy them on the day you want to eat them. They don’t keep, they very quickly shrivel and the petals get stuck together, making it hard to open and stuff them .
You can stuff them with most white cheeses, ricotta and mozzarella are common in Italy, feta in Greece; adding herbs, maybe binding with a bit of honey. I like to use a mix of mozzarella for the gooey factor and feta for the flavour, a mix of mint, basil and chives (sweet, spicy, allium). Goat's cheese with thyme and honey is also delicious. You can add an anchovy like they do Italy. You can experiment!
Allow 12-15g of cheese per flower. Below I give a recipe for 12 flowers, but you can use this measurement to scale up or down.
You can get male and female courgette flowers. The male ones are on stalks and contain a stamen, the female ones are the ones that will develop into courgettes, you might indeed buy them with a baby courgette attached; they contain a stigma. You can use either. Some recipes stipulate the removal of these stigmas and stamens because they are bitter. Honestly, I've never tasted that bitterness! So I leave them, as it means the prep is a bit quicker.
The stuffing of the flowers can appear time consuming, but I have timed it to 1 and 1/2 to 2 minutes per flower. So this preparation of 12 flowers will take you no more that 30 minutes. Not so bad, really is it? You need to approach it calmly. It's much easier than trying to do it in a rush. Pull up a chair, get comfortable and work methodically. You will find that it is completed in no time!
I am not a fan of deep frying. I don't like having to dispose of the oil. You can use it up thereafter for shallow frying, or you can re-use it 3 or 4 times for deep frying. (After use and cooling completely, I sieve it into a spare bottle). You might use it all up with that. But if not, then it needs to go in the household waste, or much better taken to your local recycling centre if they recycle domestic cooking oil. I believe it's converted into biodiesel.
This is the only dish I deep fry, but it is worth the effort in my opinion.
Ingredients
12 Courgette flowers
90g feta
90g mozzarella (either in a ball, or pregrated)
Herbs - a stalk of mint, a stalk of basil, 10g chives,
Runny honey - 2 tspns for the mixture and more to drizzle on the finished dish.
100g plain flour
Ice cold sparkling water 150 ml
Vegetable oil for deep frying (see below for amount)
Method
Prepare filling. Finely chop or grate the cheeses. Finely chop the leaves of the mint and basil, and the chives. Mix cheeses and herbs together. Add 2 tspns of honey and mix all together.
To stuff the flower: if you have a male flower, pinch off the little stalks that ring the bottom of the flower. (These do not appear on female flowers). Take the flower and holding it upside down give it a little shake to loosen the petals. Gentle ease in your index finger and then maybe your middle finger and thumb, and open up the flower; if you can, peel open the petals; at this point, do check for ants in the bottom of the flower! The ones I buy sometimes have the odd critter. To get them out, ease in a pointy knife, sometimes they run on that and I can flick them off; sometimes I need to guide them out; the ants don't always survive. Once that's done, hold it in your non-dominant hand and take a spoonful of filling with your other hand; slide that into the flower and tamp it down with the thumb of the hand you are holding it in. Take the petals and give them a twist to close. If you tear the flower a bit, no matter, try and draw some of the petal over the tear, it will be bound in batter and deep fried, so it should hold together. If using female flowers, I like to give the baby courgettes a twist to loosen them off, leaving just the stuffed flower; I use the baby courgette in another meal. You don't have to do this. You can deep fry the whole lot. Some recipes suggest removing the stigmas and stamens - I don't bother - it does not affect the final dish.
Make the batter: mix the flour and water together until just blended. Do not overmix to get rid of all lumps, as that will work out any air. It is OK if a bit lumpy. Do make sure the water is ice-cold as that will give you a crisper batter.
Pour the vegetable oil in a deep saucepan - you need it to have a depth of at least 5 cm - so the amount depends on the diameter of your pan. That's half-way up the pan I use (20cm diameter). Heat until it reaches 180 celsius or until a drop of batter sizzles and turns golden quickly.
Line a plate with kitchen roll.
Using tongs take a flower, dip in the batter, shake off excess then place in the hot oil. You can do a few at a time but don't overcrowd you pan. Fry for a minute or two then using the tongs turn over the flowers. Fry for another minute or two until golden all over. Using the tongs lift out the flowers and place on the kitchen roll to drain the excess oil. Continue until all the flowers are cooked and drained of excess oil.
Using tongs transfer the flowers to a serving platter. Scatter over some more chopped herbs and drizzle with honey, if you wish.
Enjoy the oooh and aaaah from your guests!
