A Culinary Hodge Podge
I’ve always wanted to try cooking with zucchini flowers but I’ve also always chickened out at the last minute. Not today though. Today, we visited the Abootsford Convent market and we happened to stop by one of the stalls to ask if they were selling mulberries. Only ones that had gone mouldy unfortunately but they did have zucchini flowers, 10 heads of which came home with us.
What to do with them though? We didn’t have any ricotta or fetta but I remembered some home-made babaganoush and parmagiano reggiano sitting in the fridge. So, our zucchini flowers were filled with a mixture of these two ingredients before being battered and fried. A sprinkle of fleur de sel from Ginny together with some lemon wedges on the side and voila! Serve and eat immediately!
While the boys were enjoying the zucchini flowers, I prepared the salad. While browsing at a book sale a couple of days ago, I was instantly smitten by the beauty of Julie Le Clerc’s cookbook ‘Taking Tea in the Medina’. The vibrant photo of this particular cucumber and fennel salad scattered with torn mint leaves and pomegranate seeds made me buy the book. Thumbs up for this salad. The pomegranate seeds are a little pale but they were revived from the depths of our freezer so you will have to forgive them for looking a little anaemic.
I also grilled some chicken thighs which had been marinated in a Jamaican Jerk spice mix for about 30 min. The thighs were basted with a sauce of brandy, lime and more of the spice mix while grilling. Serve with a wedge of lime.
Battered Zucchini Flowers
3 egg yolks
2-3 tbs flour
1/2 cup cold mineral water
3 egg whites
1. Remove stamen from centre of flower, wash gently in cold water and pat dry
2. Fill flowers with mixture of babaganoush and shaved parmagiano reggiano
2. Beat the egg yolks with flour. Season with salt & pepper then add mineral water and mix until smooth
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into egg yolk mixture.
4. Dip flowers into batter and shallow fry for a few minutes on each side until golden brown.
5. Sprinkle with salt and serve, with a side of lemon wedges, straight away
November 26th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
That deep brown of the fried flowers looks most impressive, and I like that you used mineral water – will have to remember this as an alternative to beer next time I need a light batter (I can’t stand that yeasty taste!).
The salad looks beautiful – is there any dressing or just the raw ingredients mixed together?
November 27th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Thanks, Ellie! Yes, it was interesting to use mineral water instead but I have also seen recipes for kuehs that include carbonated water as well.
The salad was dressed quite simply with lemon juice (which prevents the fennel discolouring), salt, pepper and some olive oil. The cucmber is quite plain by itself but the addition of mint and fennel really add a lot of flavour.
November 27th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Welcome back, no doubt your trip was wonderful! We had deep fried zucchini flower and zucchini flower pizza in Rome – your fried flowers look much better!
November 28th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
It’s nice to be back, B, especially with the lovely weather we are experiencing not to mention the clear skies! Ha! Welcome back to you too. I’m lookin forward to hearing more about your trip.
Zucchini flower pizza sounds interesting. Were the flowers stuffed with a filling for these as well? And do the flowers go on before the pizza goes in the oven or after (like rocket)? I hope that you’re going to post a picture of these!
December 1st, 2006 at 8:55 am
Oh my that’s an amazing looking salad!
December 1st, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Oh I saw that cookbook and decided I had to resist … I have too many books of middle-eastern cooking that I’ve only opened once and I decided I shouldn’t buy one more but gosh, it looked nice. And that salad sounds great. I hadn’t thought of freezing pomegranate seeds. How does their texture stand up to it?
December 1st, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Robbylyn: Yes, I love the look of the salad too, but will try to use fresh pomegranate seeds next time so that the colour is more vibrant.
Plum: I am such a sucker for cookbooks, especially ones with a pretty cover! You’re welcome to borrow it for a flick through the next time you’re in the city
The texture of the seeds were fine but the colour very disappoitingly pale pink instead of bright red. Well, pomegranates are in now so no need to use frozen ones.
December 3rd, 2006 at 8:42 am
For the pizza, the flowers weren’t filled so really quite bland and they were melted into the cheese but I wouldn’t think they would have had them in the oven the whole time. I’ll get a photo up!
December 10th, 2006 at 7:11 am
What an amazing gastronomic trip! I loved looking at all of the photos – the food looked incredible!!! Thanks for sharing. Hope you had a great time!
December 13th, 2006 at 7:35 am
Fascinating. I like your style. Keep up the good work