Zowie! Zucchini!

The ubiquitous zucchini flower

Andrew Zimmern, jack-of–all-media and culinary trades, as well as host of the Travel channel’s Bizarre Foods, has subjected himself to countless fare involving the extraordinary—and typically gross--cuisine. In the weekly series, he visits a foreign country, focuses on unusual food elements of a region, provides background of the said grub, and then feasts on it, ending each episode with the phrase, “If it looks good, eat it.” Never wanting to count myself to be included within his dining circle, (thoughts of foods he’s ingested make me shudder) I became curious after recently learning of fried zucchini blossoms. Further intrigued, I Googled the phrase, and discovered a plethora of recipes ranging from easy to challenging on the preparation scale. An adventurous spirit rose up inside of me—after all, how hard could it be?

In a culinary context, zucchini is treated as a vegetable, which means it’s typically cooked and presented as a savory dish or accompaniment. Botanically, however, the zucchini is classified as an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower. While both male and female flowers are edible, and are often used as a garnish, those who feast on the blossoms maintain a slight taste difference between the genders.

Zucchini is low in calories and contains useful amounts of folate, potassium, vitamin A and manganese. There are a variety of recipes in which the flowers may be deep fried as fritters or tempura (after dipping in a light tempura batter), stuffed, sautéed, baked, or used in soups.

According to www.epicurious.com, when choosing blossoms, select male flowers—those which don't produce a vegetable but exist to pollinate the females. They’re easy to recognize by their long, straight stems and the unmistakably male-looking stamen in the center of each blossom. Females swell at the base of the blossom, where the squash forms, and four little shoots make up the pistil inside.

Harvest flowers once they have just opened and use them as soon as possible. Wash the flowers one at a time with a gentle faucet bath, removing dirt or insects from the inside. The method of drying is up to the chef: if you have an hour before cooking, allow them to air-dry suspended upside down. I tried this using my dish drainer and had excellent results. make sure that the blossoms are from zucchini, as other squash flowers often have strong, unpleasant flavors. If the blossoms are wilted, soak in ice water for 15 minutes to revive them. Remove from the water and lay them out on kitchen towels to absorb the water. Reach inside the center of each blossom, pinch off the stamen, and discard it. If you don’t have extra time to dry, patting the blossoms dry on towels should suffice--just make sure not to incur petal damage. Trim long stems to 1 inch.

Zucchini Blossoms (simple recipe)
8-12 blossoms, washed, dried, trimmed
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup beer or club soda
Oil
Add oil to a saucepan until 1 inch deep. Turn flame to medium -high until it reaches 375°F. Whisk flour into beer or soda to make a batter, which should be the consistency of thick cream. Dip blossoms in batter to thinly coat and carefully drop blossoms into saucepan, 2 or 3 at a time, turning over as needed until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.

Zucchini Blossom Frittata
2 tablespoons canola oil
Two to three cloves minced garlic
½ cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
12 zucchini blossoms, washed and dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
4 large eggs
Salt and pepper
Directions: Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, garlic, onion and red pepper. Saute about 1 minute. Add the zucchini blossoms and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until they are lightly browned. Add the basil and oregano. Stir to mix well. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with salt and pepper to taste, until well blended. Add to the skillet and stir to blend well. Lower the heat and cook until the eggs are just set. Put the skillet into the oven and bake until done, about 15 to 20 minutes. Slice into wedges and serve.

Fried Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms (challenging recipe)
Yield: 18-24 zucchini blossoms
½ pound small zucchini, grated
Salt
Filling ingredients
½ pound mozzarella cheese, finely diced
1 cup (about ½ pound) ricotta cheese
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup chopped fresh basil, flat-leaf parsley, or marjoram, or a mixture
Freshly ground black pepper
18 to 24 zucchini blossoms
Batter ingredients
1 egg
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1½ to 2 cups cold water
Canola or other bland vegetable oil or equal parts canola and olive oil for deep-frying
Sea salt
Directions: Place grated zucchini in a colander, sprinkle with salt, and let stand for 30 minutes. Wrap the zucchini in a kitchen towel and squeeze dry. To make the filling, in a bowl, combine the grated zucchini, cheeses, eggs, herbs, and several grinds of pepper and mix well. (The filling can be assembled up to 1 day in advance of stuffing the blossoms, covered, and refrigerated.) Spoon the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip, or into a heavy-duty plastic bag and cut off a bottom corner to create a ½-inch opening. (You can use a small spoon to fill the blossoms, but the process is very messy, making the pastry bag the easier choice.) Squeeze some of the filling into each blossom. Pinch the tops closed and set aside. (You can cover and refrigerate the stuffed blossoms for up to 1 day, but they are crispiest if stuffed and fried within a few hours.)

To prepare the batter, whisk together the egg, flour, salt, and 1½ cups of the ice water. Add more ice water as needed to create a consistency that coats the back of a spoon. The batter can be made in advance up to 2 hours if covered and refrigerated, but it will thicken as it rests. Add additional water if necessary to correct the consistency.) To fry the blossoms, pour the oil to a depth of 3 inches into a heavy saucepan and heat to 350°F on a deep-frying thermometer. Holding a blossom by its stem, gently dip it into the batter, lift out, shake off the excess batter, and carefully lower the blossom into the hot oil. Repeat with more blossoms, adding only a few at a time to avoid over-crowding. Fry, turning gently to color evenly, until crisp and pale gold on all sides, about 4 minutes. Repeat until all the blossoms are fried. Serve immediately.

Variation: To make a seafood filling for the blossoms, combine ½ pound fresh-cooked crabmeat or chopped cooked shrimp; ¼ cup finely chopped celery or fennel; ½ cup each skim-milk or whole-milk ricotta and finely shredded fresh mozzarella cheese; 1 egg, lightly beaten; 3 tablespoons each chopped fresh chives and flat-leaf parsley; finely grated zest of 1 large lemon; ½ teaspoon salt: several grinds of black pepper: and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Mix well, then pipe or spoon into the blossoms and fry as directed.