Recipe: STUFFED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS

Have you ever tried to prepare the zucchini flowers at home? Have you ever eaten a zucchini flower?

The zucchini flowers are exquisite. If you've never eaten them, I suggest you start with a recipe that calls for frying, like the one below.

The zucchini flowers are hemaphroditic, so some rods are female and others are male. Males are sterile, so we can pick them at the end of their development, that is to say when the flower closes. How to recognize a male from a female flower bloom? It's easy! The male flower simply ends with a long green stem, while the female ends with a miniature zucchini. Zucchini is the future!

Which are less expensive to market? Yes, the males! And really, for stuffed zucchini flowers, they are perfect. At most Asian stores, you can buy fresh zucchini flowers @ $1 USD/100 grams (about $12 USD). Market price in Canadian and Italian markets is about $15/100 grams in the greengrocers, etc.

Offer this dish accompanied with a refreshing dry white wine and you will impress your guests! As an appetizer, recommended serving portion is 2 to 3 stuffed flowers per person.

For this recipe, you will ideally need a fryer, but an iron skillet will also do for frying.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI WITH FETA AND SAGE

The flowers are prepared by three steps:


FIRST:

Stuffing
(For stuffing about 24 flowers of medium size)

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, seeded and diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
50 grams of feta cheese
8 sage leaves medium
1 shallot
1-2 medium garlic cloves
1 pinch nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne


Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté over low heat in a tablespoon of butter.
Cut the zucchini into very small pieces about 0.5 cm and sprinkle half a teaspoon of salt. Sauté over low heat in a tablespoon of olive oil tea.

Finely chop the sage and crumbled feta cheese.

Put everything in a bowl. Season with pepper, nutmeg and cayenne and mix well until smooth.


SECOND:
Trim the flowers and stuff.

Cut the long rod until the beginning of the bulb. Then remove the small green leaves bulb belt, or using a knife or gently with your fingers. Be careful not to break the bulb and the beginning of the flower as the stuffing should be contained and not come out during frying.

Gently place the tip of the flower to access inside.

Using a pipette, and a pocket of a sleeve or a small knife, the complete flower until halfway, then turn without tearing the petals so as to seal the nozzle and to keep the stuffing in the flower.


THIRD:
Into the apparatus to fry the flowers.

You will need to heat your oil to 375 degrees F.

* To advance, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of vodka in the freezer. (Everything must be very cold for a beautiful texture frying.)


Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup very cold vodka
1/2 cup very cold water

Stir gently while (texture should be lumpy). Roll the flowers in a bowl of flour and shake. Then soak a flower at a time into the unit. Before frying, let dry flowers few seconds, then gently place in hot oil. Cook about 4 minutes, turning gently after two minutes. Not fry 3 or 4 at a time, otherwise you may get the temperature of the oil drop.

Placing flowers on a paper towel. Sprinkle with salt (very slightly) and serve! A good bottle of Sancerre accompany all divine!

Bon appetit!