Fried Zucchini Flowers (Video)

                     

This morning at the market, we saw zucchini flowers. My friend W, who was visiting from Antwerp, suggested frying the flowers, it would be most delicious she assured me. I have heard of fried zucchini flowers but this was the first time I've seen such lovely specimens and my curiousity was definitely piqued. GG, on the other hand, was not so enthusiastic. Her family grows zucchini at their farm in the Phillipines and it seemed absurd to her to pay 1 euro for a single flower. Besides, in the Phillipines they usually cook the flowers in soups and never, ever fry them.

As a compromise, I bought six pieces. Back home, GG tried cooking one piece first, or more accurately half a flower, and rushed over to find me in my study with the result. It is good, she admits in an amazed tone. Coated in a thin crispy batter to protect the delicate petals, the flowers were deliciously tenderly crisp and sweet.

I carried the camera into the kitchen to video-tape the rest of the cooking process. We hardly ever fry at home; I am terrified of the hot oil and the messy aftermath and the last time I fried something was more than a year ago, so we may as well get the most out of this.

The video that follows is Highly Amateurish, full of abrupt interruptions, sentences that trails to nowhere, bad grammar, noisy background and my Donald Duck voice. Also, we ran out of batter halfway through and had to make a new batch, so it seems out of sequence, what with the frying followed by the batter making sequence. But don't let that discourage you from trying it out, it really is a doddle to make.                     

                        

The fritters are best eaten soon after frying, it gets limp after a while. Next time, if there is a next time, we may experiment with tempura flour or substitute with some rice flour.

                      

Comments

[Steamy Kitchen]

I'm curious about how the rice flour would do!

[tgwttihs]

I've never seen zucchini flowers on sale in Singapore before. Looks interesting! Maybe banana flowers will do too.

[Beaulotus]

Eh not just any flour, it's Francine! One of Ze best...

Did you eat it just as it is or did you make a dip to go with it?

[w]

Awesome! I'm glad it worked out well, the first time I made it I was really bowled over by the taste. You can try using soda water or beer for an even lighter batter. I loved it in Singapore when we had a whole platter of blossoms to fry - which probably only happened like twice. If only a handful of ready blossoms it's too much work for only a small bite!

[umami]

steamy kitchen, me too, will have to see if they have the flowers in the market next time.

tgwttihs, if you try please blog about it, I am most curious too.

beaulotus, Francine is, like GG said, very nice to work with. Didn't know it is well regarded. We ate it as is, no dips, but at dinner I happened to have made up a batch of smoked haddock creme fraiche dip to go with breads and it went well with the flowers.

w, thanks, more ideas for next time. I was thinking also of tempura flour.

[Lydia]

I had fried zucchini flower with cheese inside in Rome, yum!!

[umami]

Lydia, yum indeed!