Inspired by my last laughing lemon class, I finally made fried zucchini flowers at home. I was scared to do this before because I knew they were expensive and I didn't want to mess it up. I shouldn't have worried. It was easy.
I had been looking for zucchini flowers for a couple weeks at the farmers' market and finally saw them at Bürkliplatz, at a vendor on Fraumunsterstr nearest to the lake. They were 1.20sfr a piece, not cheap but not too expensive for a special treat. So let's get started (full recipe at the end). You start by mixing up a simple batter and letting it chill while you prep the flowers.
Fried Zucchini Flowers
adapted from Laughing Lemon
I made a few adjustments to the recipe because I didn't have some of the special ingredients on hand. The original recipe includes 20gr chickpea flour in the batter and uses sparkling water instead of tap water.
1 egg
150gr flour
salt & pepper
220ml iced water
2-3 liters peanut oil for frying
up to 10 zuchinni flowers (plan on 2/person)
To make batter: whisk egg until well blended, then whisk in flower and season with salt and pepper. Slowly add water and whisk until smooth. The batter should be somewhat runny. Put in fridge until ready to use (up to 1 day).
Prep your flowers: remove the spines at the base of the outside of the flower. Carefully remove the stamen from inside the flower. Cut off the woody end of the zucchini. You can also remove the zucchini and just fry the flower.
Heat your oil to 360F/180F in a deep, wide pan large enough to accommodate the full length of the zucchini and flower. One at a time, dip the flower and zucchini in the batter and let excess batter drain off over bowl. Carefully drop the flower into the oil. Repeat, only adding a couple flowers at a time so the pot isn't overcrowded and the oil temp doesn't drop. Fry about 3 mins until golden. Remove and hold over pot, flower down to let oil inside the flower drain out. Then place flower on paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with salt. Serve them warm. They are not very good cold, so plan your menu accordingly.
Note: Since you already have hot oil, you might as well fry up anything else you have on hand. We cut up carrots and fried them up in the batter - tempura heaven! I wish I had some dough ready for doughnuts or fry bread. I considered frying up cheese and jalapeños but I restrained myself. This is not America.
You can also stuff the flower with a ricotta/parmesan/egg/herbs/breadcrumbs mixture before frying. I'm going to definitely try that next time.
