With more zucchini blossoms growing every day, of course I had to try another method of cooking them.
The most common zucchini blossom recipe involves frying, and sometimes also stuffing, the flowers.
With my cousin Sumika’s help, we stuffed the flowers with a ricotta herb mixture, then twisted the tops shut.
After a light tempura batter, into the hot oil they went for frying.
After each was fried, it sat on some paper towels to drain the excess oil. I suppose you could take the stems off, but it seemed they might make for easier transportation with them on.
And then they looked like this.
Many batters are overly thick and can take away from the delicate nature of the thing they envelop. Thus, real tempura batter was perfect for these super soft and fragile blossoms. They had a great crispness and a nice creaminess and saltiness from the cheese mixture inside. You can see the melted cheese oozing out from between the petals.
We agreed that next time, we might try incorporating a stronger cheese into the ricotta filling mixture, like Pecorino Romano.
Nevertheless, still beautiful, still a great bite to eat.