Fried zucchini blossoms

You can regularly buy zucchini blossoms/flowers at all kinds of stores, or you can use those from your own garden/zucchini plant. If the flower is still beautiful, it sometimes has a stem and sometimes a mini zucchini on it. The flowers with stem are the male flowers and those with a starting mini zucchini are female. You can use both of them.

Preparation – 10 minutes

Finely grate the zest of half a lemon and mix with crumbled feta. Finely chop the sage leaves and mix it with the feta and lemon zest. Carefully remove the pistil inside with scissors.

You can also leave these in, but they are a little bit bitter. Carefully fill the blossoms with the feta mixture. Do not fill them to the top, because then you can no longer close the flower by carefully folding it.

You do not need a skewer or anything else for this, if you close the flower by hand that will be enough. Heat sunflower oil to 180 degrees celsius oir 350 degrees fahrenheit in a deep fryer or heavy-bottomed pan.  

Finishing the fried zucchini blossoms – 20 minutes

Create a smooth tempura batter, mix tempura flour and sparkling water. It doesn't take more than that. The batter should be slightly thick to ensure the zucchini flowers are well covered.

Why you should add sparkling water instead of tap water.

The sparkling water creates small bubbles in the batter, these holes enlarge as soon as the batter touches hot oil. This way the batter will become crispier.

Coat the zucchini blossoms with tempura batter and make sure they are closed. Fry until golden brown on both sides, don't overcrowd the pan and serve immediately. Enjoy!