Going Local: Stuffed and Fried Zucchini Blossoms

For a showstopper of an appetizer, nothing tops stuffed or fried zucchini blossoms. Dipped in a delicate rice flour batter that creates a thin crispy shell, the flowers take on a melt-in-your-mouth goodness that has to be tasted to be truly appreciated.

When we are going to make these, I harvest the flowers in the early morning and put them in sealed containers lined with damp paper towels and place them in the refrigerator. While some people say the flowers will last for a few days, my experience is that they are best used up by the late evening of the day you pick them.

Robert likes his flowers without a filling but I have become very fond of stuffing them with herbed goat cheese. The goat cheese melts slightly and provides a nice counterpoint, both in flavor and texture, to the crispy flower petals. Tied with a chive, the little morsels are just too cute to eat--well, almost!

When it comes to what to drink with these fry babies, Robert and I once again part ways. He prefers an icy cold martini (shaken, not stirred) garnished with one of our pickled okras or a Maytag blue cheese stuffed olive and I am all about the sparkling Indiana wines. I like the way the bubbles cut through the richness of the dish.

During the summer, we often have these as our Sunday night supper as we sit on the patio and watch the sunset over the pond. The recipe for both the stuffed and non-stuffed blossoms along with Robert's martini making guidelines are in the Summer Recipes section of this site.

I'm sure you already know this, but zucchini male flowers are atop a thin stem and the female flowers are the ones with the vegetable attached to them. Male and female flowers work equally well in both recipes.