For a change, here’s a tale of redemption preceded by really breathtaking incompetence. I had one All-Clad pan, a quart of olive oil, and a dream. And the result was I chased a good 97% of the oxygen out of my house. Man, I wish I were kidding.
I’ve never written about deep-frying because I’ve never done it before Wednesday night, when I made fried zucchini blossoms. I’ve always wanted to try them, and I was so excited when one of my readers submitted her recipe for my cooking project. When a native Roman offers you a recipe for this, you take it. Here it is, lightly edited.
Fried Zucchini Flowers with Mozzarella and Anchovy
3 or 4 squash flowers per person, very fresh and without the pistils. Flowers are extremely delicate so open them carefully and stuff with a little cube of mozzarella cheese and a piece of anchovy. Then prepare a thick batter with flour, sparkly cold water (or beer). Dip the stuffed flower into the batter and fry in lots of oil, very hot. Remove them when light-brown colored and dry the excess oil with a paper towel. It comes out like a cloud, with inside….the surprise!
Daniela Cassoni
Rome, Italy
gourmetaly.com
First I went to my favorite organic farm to pick some flowers, male ones. Males are just flowers; they won’t have a little tiny zucchini on the stem, or a little tiny pumpkin*. They’re both in the same Curcubit family and so the flowers look very similar. Either will work. Took a peek to make sure there weren’t any bugs inside the flowers, taking a breather from the heat. There were. Shook them out.
Then I went home and got started on this very simple recipe. Daniela doesn’t give amounts, so I winged it, and it still worked fine. That part, anyway. I pulled apart fresh mozzarella into pieces about the size of a grape, but I could have made them bigger. For the batter, I combined 1/2 cup all-purpose flour with 1/2 cup cold filtered water** and stirred it with a fork. The batter wasn’t as thick as she suggested it should be, but this worked for me. I lined a plate with a napkin so the flowers could drain on it as I took them out of the oil.
Don’t I sound so on-the-ball so far? What a superhero!
Now for the smoke part…
1) I should have washed the flowers and removed the pistils before heating up the oil. I’ll rephrase: The oil got way overheated and started puffing smoke. So when I put the flowers in they cooked within three seconds and in the fourth turned black, emitting several uncomfortable-looking bits of charred flour or cheese or anchovy for all I know. Unless oil can solidify and burn? Lord knows it was hot enough, so this is entirely possible.
2) I set the oil on high. Newsflash, Maris: oil will get as hot as Daniela says it needs to be if you have it on medium or medium-low and wait a little. Then it won’t, you know, smoke up the place so much that you expect Bela Lugosi to pop by.
Result: It smoked up the place, Bela Lugosi summarily ran for his life, the fire alarm in my hallway went off, I grabbed a chair to stand on, yanked the contraption apart with one hand and held a battered, cheesed, anchovied flower in the other. Then I opened every single window and my back door.
But I kept going. So the oil sort of shone in a lurid way! So the house was thick as pea soup! I had flowers to fry. One by one I dropped them in, and after every other breath (read: cough) I took them out.
I didn’t expect them to taste good—look at the picture below, they’re not exactly the picture of health—but I was knocked out.Β It sounded a lot like this: ‘COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGHcrunchoooooohnotbad! Pretty freaking amazing, actually. Crunch. Oh my…God. WOW!’
I ate every single one within 30 seconds and while standing at my counter. It was impossible to stop.
When you make these—and I hope you will, because they are RIDICULOUSLY delicious—do as I say and not as I do: do your prep work in advance, have the oil on medium or medium-low heat and make sure it doesn’t smoke. It will get hot enough soon enough. Olive oil has a high smoke point, too. Use canola for a better shot. Then work quickly and serve immediately.
Daniela, thank you for the recipe. Next time I’ll do right by it.
And as has become the custom when I foul up, I’m entertaining suggestions on how to remove the burnt oil from the sides of the pan. No, really.
*I’m sure there’s a more scientific or at the very least educated way of describing this. It will not be found on this blog.
**Didn’t use sparkling because I don’t like it as a drink, and didn’t want to waste it. Same goes for beer. If any of you make the recipe Daniela’s way, please write in and let me know how it tastes. I’m curious.
If have made these for years, both in professional settings and at home. I grow way too much summer squash just for the blossoms. Other combinations you may want to try….
Spanish chorizo, goat cheese,and spring peas
scallops, caramelized onions, and polenta
Paneer, spring peas, and butternut squash
Avocado and Monterey Jack
At the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, we would bread them with tempura batter, fry them, and dust them with red chile.
Hi Dean–WOW–These sound incredible! But how do you combine spring peas with a summer/fall flower? (I’m all over that chorizo idea…)
This reminds me of a time when I was a teenager and wanted to impress my boyfriend with my skills in frying chicken.
His roommate’s girlfriend (my bestie at the time) and I were in their apartment while they were out somewhere–I don’t remember where. I had never cooked on an electric stove before. I thought to my brilliant self, How different can it be? I put pil in the skillet, floured and seasoned the chicken the cranked the burner to HIGH.
The chicken cook really fast. I recall thinking that maybe electric stoves were the way to go from now on. I left the kitchen for just a minute to do something else when I noticed an acrid aroma and detected smoke in the air. Rushing back to the kitchen, I looked into the skillet. Turned off the heat and turned a chicken breast over. It was the most chic color of ebony black.
Uh-oh! Well, I thought, at least it is done. I removed the chicken and told my bestie, Louise, to calm down, there was no fire. She ran to open the sliding glass doors and turn on the AC. “Are you out pf your mind!” she yelled back. I shrigged my shoulders and put the fashionably colored chicken onto a plate and into a warming oven.
A few minutes later, the boys returned with chicken anticipation gleaming in their eyes. Proudly serving up the Poulet a la Ebon, my boyfriend, Rick cut into a thick piece of chicken breast.
To his credit, he only smiled and shook his head when the blood from the very raw chicken pooled on his plate.
“Kentucky Fried Chicken, anyone?” asked my bestie.
LOL Oh, yuck! π Great story, Anita. And thanks. Now I don’t feel so alone in the remains of my own acrid smoke.
Marisa, I’m laughing so hard right now. If I do things like that the Fire Dept is here in seconds, and I’m already 6/0 with them. I keep giving them burnt offerings but they keep refusing, so it’s their loss.
As to how to degrease your pan, try the old baking soda and vinegar solution. Just rub baking powder all over it, then pour on the vinegar, and when it stops foaming the grease stain hopefully should go away with the foam. It works for me when I have greasy messes, anyway.
Angie–At least it’s good for a laugh π I will try your idea, and thank you!
Typically excellent blog post from you, Marissa! Since I have celiac disease I make my squash blossom dishes with a batter of corn meal. Blue corn meal or commercial masa seca gives a very Mexican taste. Also I invested in a candy thermometer to control the oil experience. BTW the less high-quality the olive oil the higher the smoke point.
Hi Charles–Thank you so much! Your idea of using cornmeal/masa sounds intriguing. Have you ever tried using rice flour? In baking that’s known to make cookies, like shortbread, especially crackly. Might be good, too. Yes, extra virgin olive oil I know has a very high smoke point; I used basic olive oil. To what temp to you bring your oil?
Thank you Marissa. I don’t particularly like using white rice flour except for dusting. It has a gritty and flavorless quality and I’d rather have the crust flavor complement the blossom flavor. Plus Squash Blossoms are part of Mexican cuisine and I like to riff on that with corn. Brown rice flour has enough oil to probably scorch in the oil. It’s a great bread ingredient but one must be careful not to overheat it. Re temp: 350 F works pretty well. BTW extra virgin has a LOWER smoke point than the cheaper stuff. Highest smoke point? Avocado oil. Go figure!
Okay, good to know re: rice flour. I have some masa…next batch I will try w it. Thanks also for the info re: temp. I have a candy thermometer that will be put to good use here.
Hey Marisa …
Those look delicious!! And of course your story reminds me of one of our family creedos … “You fry it; we’ll try it!”
I bet the darker ends were even more delicious!! Like burnt ends on good brisket!! Tons of flavor !!
I will give these a try next spring as soon as those flowers appear in the garden!!
Hi Johnnie–Thanks π They taste great as long as you avoid looking at them lol Definitely make them–you won’t be sorry!
Hi Marisa,
Such a great story. My grandmother brought zucchini seeds from Tuscany, when she came here, and grew zucchini specifically for the flowers. I do the same. I saute (fry) the flowers in extra virgin olive oil. The oil just has to be hot enough to sizzle when a flower is dropped into it. My recipe is: lightly coat the flowers in flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper, then dip into a beaten egg that has been lightened with sparkling water or just plain water. Next gently place the flowers into the olive oil that is hot enough to sizzle.when the flowers go in. Turn over when the bottom turns a nice golden brown. Lift out of the oil when both sides are golden brown. Do not crowd. Place on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain. This can be done with zucchini slices also. I never have enough flowers so I always saute some zucchini slices along with the flowers, and during the winter months I use just the zucchini slices.
Stuffing them just makes them so much more delicious.
I always enjoy your blog.
DeAnna
Hi DeAnna–Thank you so much! I love stories about heirloom seeds, and family members making sure they made it to the new country; I’ve even read about immigrants sometimes stitching them into their clothes to make it through customs. Your recipe sounds simple and delicious. Do you stuff them with anything in particular?
Marisa, Some of my favorite things to stuff zucchini flowers with are bits of mozzarella, or a smear of mascarpone. Either left over polenta or mild risotto works well also. Do try them plain also so that the mild zucchini flavor of the flower shines through. Now that fall is here my supply of zucchini flowers is gone, and I will be using the recipe for zucchini slices.
Your food always looks so delicious!
Buon Appetito,
DeAnna
Lovely stuffing ideas, DeAnna, and thank you! I will try them plain next–hoping to get the last of the season’s flowers this week!