L. is off today and my mom and I visited the Farmers market this morning, so I decided to transform the zucchini blossoms that I came home with into fritters. I highly recommend this as they are easy to make and look quite impressive (I thought) when done. Not to mention that they, as they say in old novels when referring to good food, go down a treat.
All I did was whisk together a really basic batter and shallow fry the batter coated blossoms really quickly. Simple. The only downside if you make this for guests is the last minute frying, but well worth it for the end result. To be served with a glass of crisp white wine, I think.
This recipe makes 12 fritters. I wish I had had the wherewithal to buy an armful of these. We would have eaten them all.
12 zucchini blossoms, stem on or off, your choice
2 Tbsps flour
2 Tbsps grated Parmesan
2 Tbsps milk
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 lemon
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Add the wet ingredients and whisk together well. You should end up with a batter that is the consistency of pancake batter. Let it rest for about 10 minutes and whisk again well before using.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat until a drop of water flicked into the pan sizzles and evaporates at once.
I didn't want to crowd the pan so I made this recipe in three rounds of four zucchini blossoms per pan load.
Dip the zucchini blossoms one at a time into the batter. If you are using stem on blossoms, grip the stem and dunk the blossom in the batter up to the base of the stem. If not, use a spoon to lower the blossom into the batter. In both cases, shake off the excess before dropping the blossom into the oil. Cook for about a minute on each side until deep golden brown. Repeat until all of the blossoms are cooked.
As the batches come out of the pan, lay the fritters on a paper towel lined plate to absorb the excess oil.
Once they are all cooked, spritz lightly with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt, finishing salt like Maldon salt if you have it.