Easter and Squash blossoms

Fresh from the inspiration of Tuscany I decided to actually using some of the lovely squash blossoms on my zucchini rather than just composting them. I always knew that they were edible I just wasn't too sure what to do with them. So John and Jim Darrah bought some in Italy and were coached on how to prepare them. Since the english in the little town we stayed in wasn't the best I would have loved to have been part of that conversation. Anyway I went to my trusty recipe source - the internet - and found a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms. Basically you make a batter stuff the blossoms with a cheese and vegetable mixture and the fry in oil until golden brown. We had some leftover stir fried zucchini and leeks in the fridge so I used this as my veggies. You could used any stir fried veggie combo though. They were pretty darn tasty!!!


Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Batter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup beer

Mix the dry ingredients and than whisk in the beer. Let the mixture sit in fridge for 30 minutes.

Leek and zucchini stir fry

1 leeks sliced and cleaned ( I usually slice them first and place in a bowl of water to get the dirt all removed - then I used a slotted spoon to remove from the water leaving the dirt residue at the bottom of the bowl.)
1 medium zucchini cutinto strip with a vegetable peeler
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 tables olive oil.
salt and pepper to season.

Heat the oil over med high heat. Add the leek s and cooks a few minutes until tender add the garlic and zucchini and cooks a few minutes more.
This is a great side with a light fish such as sea bass or halibut.

Blossoms
Pick the blossoms fresh if you have them or buy that day at the store as they do not last long.
Rinse and remove the stem.

1/4 cup of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup leek and zucchini stir fry
salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully stuff 1 tables of cheese mixture into the squash blossoms. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a deep pan until a cube of bread turned golden.

Dip the stuffed blossoms into the batter until thickly coated and pop into the hot oil. Brown on all sides until golden and drain on a paper towel to remove excess grease.

This amount of stuffing will make about 6

.

Picked the first zucchini of the season

The Spring garden is beautiful. We picked our first zucchini and also started picking the spring crop of beets. John is also going to try something new this year. Anasazi beans. He planted a few to test if they would germinate since we just bought them at the grocery store. If they come up we will plant more where the beets are right now. Anasazi are the red and white beans. They are relatively new in grocery stored but there history goes way back to the Anasazi Native americans for which they are named.

I made a cous-cous dish last night for dinner using the zucchini, kale, celery and onions. This is one of those dishes that you can very easily depending on what you have growing. I usually just stir fry onion and a few different veggies and then mix in with cooked cous-cous. You can buy cous-cous in bulk at many grocery stores which saves quite a bit of money over the expensive packaged ones.

Cous-cous with stir-fried veggies.

Cook cous-cous - bring to boil 1 1/2 cups water or broth, add 3/4 cup of dried cous-cous. Stir, cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Stir fry onion, chopped carrot, chopped celery in coconut or olive oil for a few minutes. Add chopped Zucchini and chopped kale and cook for about 5 minutes more, if it gets too dry add some chicken broth to steam. You can vary the veggies substituting Swiss Chard, yellow quash, eggplant, okra, beans, spinach. Just use at least three different textures and colors.