I love Courgette Flowers (Zucchini Flowers). There’s something about them that just makes me think of long summer days in Italy… maybe because the first time we ate them was in Varazze Italy and a few days later on a long lazy afternoon in Rome. Some years ago we were camping in Switzerland but the nearest market was in a small town in Italy, so we drove there for fresh vegetables a few times, and picked up a big bag of courgettes attached to the flower. We took it back to the camp site and prepared our own stuffed courgettes. They are so delicious, I’m sharing the recipe with you as now is the time for them!
We have two courgette plants, two pumpkins and a marrow. Between them they make loads of flowers, but not enough for us to have a family meal off one crop, so I recently discovered that we can actually freeze the flowers. Just pick them, wash them and lay them on a tray without touching anything else. Pop them in the freezer for an hour or so, then transfer into a sealed container.
When you’re ready to eat them, take them out the freezer about 10 minutes before you need them. They’re so thin the defrost in minutes.
You can stuff courgette flowers with pretty much anything you like. We love mozzarella and anchovy, even if you don’t like anchovy, it’s great… it really just adds a bit of saltiness, which is delicious.
The secret with frying your courgette flowers is in having the tempura batter really cold. Once it’s mixed, split the batter between two bowl. Put one in the freezer, and use other to dip one round of courgette flowers. Swap bowls, and use the next bowl for the next round, then swap back. It may seem a faff, but having the batter ice cold makes it crispy and light, which is really what you want for this summer delicacy.
- 15 – 20 Flowers
- Batter
- 1 egg
- 250g very very cold water
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 100g all-purpose flour
- Filling
- 100g mozzarella
- 5 anchovies
- Hold each flower under a cold running tap. This helps open it up while washing it.
- Set aside to dry.
- In your food processor, add the egg, water, baking soda and flour.
- Mix until it’s all blended (10 seconds, speed 5)
- Put it in the freezer
- Mix your filling and scoop into a piping bag
- Gently fill each flower from the piping bag, and ever so gently twist the top of the flower to contain the filling.
- Heat the oil
- Pour half of the batter into a different bowl and return it to the freezer.
- Take two – four flowers (depending on the size of your pot of oil) and dip in the cold batter, before putting in the oil.
- Fry the flowers until they are golden.
- Return the batter to the freezer and swap.
- Dip the flowers, remove the cooked flowers and put them aside to drain.
- Repeat until all the flowers are done. Remember the colder the batter the better and each batch of flowers should cook in 3 – 4 minutes.