Recipe: Fried Zucchini Blossoms

Fried zucchini blossoms are truly one of my favorite summer snacks. Salty, sweet, nutty — all that and at least the semblance that they’re somewhat good for you. Hey! Zucchini is a vegetable, last I checked.

If you have a zucchini plant in your garden, you’re bound to have the most important ingredient: zucchini blossoms. Or call them squash blossoms. Or zucchini flowers. whatever. They’re what you get just before the zucchini starts to form. Sometimes the flowers hold on for quite a while, too.

If you’ve got a super tiny zucchini, you can go ahead and fry it along with the flower. You’ll basically be making zucchini tempura. Otherwise, clean your flowers (check for bugs!), remove the stamen, dip in batter and fry! it only takes about 10 minutes to have a plateful of snacks that your friends and family will every grateful for.

I’ll show you how, after the jump.

After you do your bug check, pull out the stamen of the flower. There’s nothing wrong with it; it’s just not that tasty.

Get all your zuke blossoms ready in this manner:

Then mix together your batter. You want it to be sort of watery but thick enough that it drips off your spoon or fork:

Heat the oil to about 350 or 375. Pass your zucchini blossoms through the batter and let the excess drip off. Then deep fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Salt and serve hot.

Yum.

Fried Zucchini Blossoms Aka Fried Squash Blossoms

I don’t use a recipe any more. But if I were just starting out, I’d go with this one.

2/3 cup chickpea flour
Chilled seltzer
Cayenne pepper
Kosher salt
1 quart peanut oil
20 zucchini blossoms

Place chickpea flour in a medium bowl. Whisk in cold seltzer or ice water a little at a time until a smooth batter forms. Season with cayenne and salt.

In a deep fryer or a large frying pan, heat oil to 375 degrees. Dip a blossom into batter, coating it, and shake off excess batter.

Fry until crisp and golden brown, about 30 seconds a side. Repeat with other blossoms, frying in batches so you don’t crowd the pot or lower the oil temperature.

As blossoms finish cooking, put them on a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Season with salt and serve.

Yield: 4 servings
New York Times, June 16, 1999