In our cooking classes students have the recipes in front of them, making various dishes, including how to clean and stuff zucchini flowers…without tearing the flowers. Students are always fascinated to see the difference between the male and female flowers and to realize that the anchovies in the stuffing are actually a lot tastier than they expected! Our simple tempura-like batter is the finishing touch to make these deep fried zucchini flowers a hit on any summer menu!
Female (above) and male (below) zucchini flowers
Here’s the incredibly simple recipe for the batter:
Ingredients:
12 Zucchini Flowers
12 anchovy fillets
1 mozzarella ( 300 grams), cut into 1/4 inch by 2 inch strips
125 (4 1/2 oz.) grams flour
125 (4 1/2 oz.) grams water
1 egg yolk (optional)
5 grams fresh yeast
Olive oil for frying
Procedure:
- To prepare batter: Mix the fresh cake yeast, flour, and egg yolk and water until the consistency of pancake batter. Allow to rise for one hour at room temperature.
- In the meantime clean the zucchini flowers: remove stamen & pistil from inside the flower, then carefully rinse and drain on paper towels.
- Just before frying stuff each flower with a piece of mozzarella and an anchovy fillet.
- Dip in the batter and deep fry until just crisp.
- Drain on paper towels, salt and serve immediately.
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