Good Italian Recipe

I just made the best thing last night to go with dinner, it’s one of those things you never see here in the U.S., but it’s made all the time in Italy. What I am talking about is fried zucchini flowers. Yes that’s what I said, I fried up zucchini flowers and before you say “What the heck is he talking about” listen, even though it sounds weird it actually tastes very good, the flowers have an interesting flavor, it’s kind of what you would expect a flower to taste like, and the batter is light and crispy. If you like the sound of them I’ll give you the recipe. They're pretty hard to find, you'll have to find them at a farm stand, or you could ask a friend who grows zucchini for the flowers. Ideally you want the flowers slightly opened, not all the way closed but not wide open either. Like all other times I cook, I usually take the ingredients and loosely follow the given recipe. So the list of ingredients is…

This recipe made much more batter than needed for the five flowers I had, but I guess you could make it for 10 – 15. You need roughly 1 ½ cups of flour, ¼ cup cold water, ¾ cup milk, ½ teaspoon baking soda, dash of salt, dash of pepper, and one egg. Mix all this together (dry first, then liquid, then egg) , the batter shouldn’t be too thick, but not too thin, I like to dip my finger in to test it, if it drips add flour, if it is thick add water.

Next step is to prepare the flowers. You pick up the flower and carefully cut out the pistil (the thing with the pollen), and then gently take a q-tip (you’ll need a bunch) and scrape the pollen, dirt, and any bugs out. DO NOT WASH IN WATER! The flowers are extremely fragile, and washing in water will tear them.

Then fill a small frying pan with olive oil, till the bottom is covered and heat on high, when the oil is hot dip the flowers in the batter and then put in pan to cook. When they are golden brown on each side they are done. You should put them on a paper towel so to get rid of the excess oil, and then arrange on plate with some salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.