Fiori Di Zucca...Fried Zucchini Flowers

Every summer I grow zucchini plants and every year we have plenty of zucchini for breads, cakes, frying, roasting, and casseroles.  My family's favorite thing that I make from a zucchini plant is fried zucchini flowers.  The first time my husband and I ate them was in Rome on our honeymoon in a restaurant recommended by my father.  It is located just down from The Spanish Steps, tucked in the back of a Piazza Mignanelli called Ristoranti Alla Rampa.  They were so delicious we went back a second time.  We decided that this was something we couldn't wait to eat again until the next time we we are in Rome, so I make them at home now, every summer.

There are a few things to consider when harvesting the blossoms of a zucchini.  Everyone has there own method, here is mine.  To begin, I harvest over a few days to get enough to make a good size batch.  When harvesting them, remember that there are male and female flowers, I harvest both, but you will loose a few zucchinis if you harvest the female flowers, but it's worth it.  If you've ever grown zucchini before, you know that you could probably spare a few. The male flower has a thin stem and fertilizes the female flower, which has a thicker stem and produces the actual zucchini fruit.  You can stick to just the male, but a special treat is when you have a small squash on the end of the flower.  I usually make one or two of these as a special treat.  

I harvest in the morning.  Late enough for some pollination to happen, but before the flowers close up for the day.  When harvesting, I leave about 1/2" - 3/4" of stem for easy batter dipping later.  I remove the stamen for stacking and storing, but some people leave them in.  I inspect the blossom and remove any insects, but do not clean them yet.  Then I stack them gently inside each other and ball up a small amount of paper towel and insert it into the top flower to hold it open.  I then roll the entire tower in a slightly damp paper towel and store in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator.  The whole time, I take plenty of care to be gentle to these delicate flowers.  They tear easily.

When I have harvested the desired amount, I clean them.  Some people just wipe because the flowers are so delicate, but I lay paper towel in a baking sheet.  I then hold the flower in my hand, cuffed around the blossom as a support and I let a light stream of water run into it the open blossom.  I take my opposite had and use one finger to gently swipe around the inside of the blossom.  I then dump the water and turn it upside down on the paper towel to dry.

Now that your flowers are ready, here is my recipe...

12 flowers
15 oz. of ricotta cheese
zest of 1/2 a lemon
nutmeg to taste
salt to taste
peanut oil (or if all I have is vegetable oil, I use that)
flour (start with 1/2 c.- 3/4 c.)
sparkling water
garlic salt to taste

I clean the flowers and allow them to dry a bit, as explained above.  I them mix my filling of cheese, lemon zest, nutmeg, and salt.  I taste it and make sure I am happy with the flavor, then I put it in a zip lock bag and cut off a small amount of one bottom corner for piping the filling into the flower.  At this time I heat the oil in a deep pot.  While the oil is warming, I mix the batter.  This is all about the consistency of the batter.  I like mine to be like pancake batter, thick enough to coat and stick, but not too thick that it does not coat evenly.  I sprinkle a little garlic salt over the flour and then whisk in the sparkling water.  I feel that the bubbles add a delicate lightness to the batter.  I line a baking sheet with parchment paper, hold a flower in my hand, cuffed gently around the outside like when I washed them, fill the flowers and lightly twist the tips of the pedals closed.  When the oil is hot, I hold the flower by the stem, dip in the batter, then place it in the hot oil.  I fry until golden brown, remove from oil, and place on cooling wracks set inside a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

I serve them solo, no sauce, nothing for dipping.  We enjoy the delicious flavor solo.  You could do many variations of this.  Serve them with a tomato sauce, in a pasta dish, or even in a salad.  Experiment with all aspects of this dish, the possibilities are endless.  I use any squash flower I have in my garden, not just zucchini.  I use pumpkin, yellow squash, and scallopini squash flowers.  You can also add herbs like basil or chive into your cheese as well as adding other cheeses like Parmesan.  An alternative for the batter is using beer in the flour to add another layer of flavor.  From researching online I have also seen that some people flatten them out wide, batter them without a filling and sprinkle them with sugar after being fried.  I think this may be my next experiment.

Until next time,
Blair

Mommy's Separation Anxiety

I recently enrolled my daughter in preschool and not necessarily because I thought it was the right step in her education.  I must confess that I did not want to enroll her, but she asked to go to school.  How could we say no?  So, I signed her up.  I think it's the fact that she is always with me and if she isn't with my husband or I, she is with one of our parents.  We aren't overprotective, well maybe I am a bit, but my in-law's live very close and always help out, so why call in an outside babysitter.
To test the waters, I took her to the supervised kids play area at the gym.  I was anxious to say the least.  Either the women that work in there thought I was crazy or they thought, oh no, not one of these moms.  I literally choked up.  With water in my eyes, I was asking their procedures.  They don't take them to the bathroom (they page me and I can take her), she needs socks to go in the play tubes and slides, & I need the wristband they assign me when dropping her off to pick her up.  Straight forward and simple stuff.  I took her to the bathroom one last time before I left and said to her, "Give me a kiss." and she did.  I left slowly and she ran off to play immediately, without a second thought.  I went through the gates and door and walking slowly, I watched her throughout the glass wall and she was already having a blast.  I took a few steps out of sight from her and went back.  "Oh, no!"  I thought, "Were did she go in three seconds?!"  As I walked back into sight of all the women that work in the care center, they all looked at me and pointed to her at the same time and smiled.  They must have thought I was a kook!  Where could she have gone in three second with five women watching her?  Ummm, she stepped over to the play kitchen that was just out of site.  What was I worrying about?  She would do great in there.  She is always asking to play with other kids.
Off to the locker room I went.  I dropped off my bag and headed into the gym.  I take two step on the elliptical and look over to see three other moms with the wrist band on.  Oh shit!  I forgot the wrist band.  Epic mom fail!!!  What was I thinking?!   Obviously I wasn't.  I felt awful and hurried back to the locker room, took it out of my bag, and put it on...tight!  I head back to the gym and step back onto the elliptical.  Now I manage to get five step on there and all of a sudden I hear over the intercom, "Blair Kramer, please report to the kid's care center."
My heart sank to my stomach,  I knew this was a bad idea.  I felt like I was a bad mom.  I jumped of the machine and scurried to the kids area with fear on my face and in my heart.  The woman at the door immediately said, "She's fine!  She said she had to poop."  I had to literally laugh out loud!  Her favorite word at the moment is poop and she is so matter a fact about going to the bathroom.  What a relief, she was fine.  I think I was glad that I had an excuse to see on how she was doing.  Bathroom run went fine and again I asked for a kiss, this time she blew me one and ran off.  Half of me was broken hearted, but the other half was relieved that she was having a great time.
Needless to say, I went to finish, actually, I went to start my workout.  When I was finished and showered, I went to get her, wristband and all.  She was helping the ladies clean up the play area.  I asked the women how she did.  They said she did great and they could use more kids like her!  Oh my!  All that worry for nothing.  I guess not for nothing, I love and care about my daughter so much and she is our life, but she is growing up and needs interaction with other children for her development.  The anticipation was definitely a struggle and was a bit painful to be honest, but to see my daughter playing and having fun was worth it.
What do they say?  "It's more painful for us than them."  How true is that?!  I survived and in a odd way I was proud of her.  To her she was having fun playing and making friends, but without even knowing it, she put me at ease.

Until next time,
Blair