The idea of eating flowers has always struck me as a category mistake, on par with dating guys who still live with their parents or buying cigarettes for minors — something that just should not be done. At upscale restaurants, it sort of irritates me if my salad comes out adorned with edible flowers. Sure, a single, bright orange nasturtium resting atop a pile of greens adds some color to the plate, but it seems merely decorative to me — a fussy piece of garnish. (And when is the last time you wanted to eat plate garnish?) I feel like I’m supposed to think, “My, how clever! A flower that you can eat!!” Uh-uh, I’ll pass.
I have made exceptions to my ban on flower-eating for squash blossoms. I’ve tentatively brought them home from the farmer’s market, equally intimidated and seduced by their charms–so delicate! so weird! They challenge the home cook, seeming to say, “you might know all about my brethren squash and zucchini, but you have no idea about what to do with me once you take me home.” They are the Mae West of produce.
Perhaps I’m making too much of this and am alone in being intimidated by squash blossoms. If you’re with me, though, and have found yourself beguiled by blossoms, I assure you that it’s simple to do something delicious with these odd little beauties.
I may not be keen on flowers-as-food, but I’ve always like it when food is wrapped in other food — dates wrapped in bacon, stuffed grape leaves, ice cream sandwiches. (Not together, obviously.) This recipe–if it can be called a recipe–takes a page from that book. Just clean ’em, stuff ’em, dip ’em in egg and flour, fry ’em. And, of course, eat ’em.
Stuffed squash blossoms
- Once you’ve cleaned off the blossoms, make some kind of cheese stuffing. I used cream cheese, garlic, fresh parsley, and salt and pepper. I wish I’d had some goat cheese, because that would have been divine. Stuff the blossoms with a small spoonful of the filling and twist the tops closed.
- Set out two prep bowls. Into one of them, break an egg and beat it a bit with a fork. In the other bowl, add some flour and season with salt and pepper.
- Dip a blossom into the egg
- Dust with flour. Do this to all the blossoms and place on a plate.
- Fry lightly in olive oil until golden. You can be smarter than me and use a utensil instead of your bare hands to add the blossoms to the pan.
- That’s about all there is to it.
Serve as a part of a light meal. Radishes on buttered baguette will do, and a Tantre Farms salad never hurts.
Great recipe, Shana. It’s similar to one I saw on my friend Michelle’s blog:
http://www.bleedingespresso.com, but I think she posted it some time last summer. They both seem like great recipes!
I hope that there are still some squash blossoms tomorrow!
oh man, you must have gotten the butter and radish memo too! It’s my mother’s new favorite thing, and honestly, I can’t blame her. I’ve had radishes and butter every Sunday for the past three weeks at my parents. mmmm. I’ll have to get her on the squash-blossom wagon now. 🙂
My brother does an even simpler fried squash blossom recipe – no stuffing, just batter, fry, and dust with confectioners sugar. They come out kind of like weird, delicious funnel cake.
Jen – thanks for the link to your friend’s blog. I recently had stuffed squash blossoms at Enoteca in Las Vegas, and was trying to recreate them at home.
Alli – Yep, I’ve been in love with radishes on baguette with butter for awhile now. Don’t skip the sea salt!
Molly – Wow. Divine.
I love this post. The blossom pictures are just gorgeous.
What a great idea! I have tried squash blossoms before, with a variation on the breading/frying routine. I love the idea of stuffing it with cheese.
Here’s the variation on the breading/frying … 1. Dust lightly with flour 2. Dip in beaten egg 3. Coat with Panko a bread crumb/salt/pepper/small bits of garlic combo 4. Fry in olive oil as above.
You just have to be careful not to overcook the garlic, which will make it bitter.
And here’s another variation on the radish theme, radishes spread with a bit of butter, then sprinkle some great salt on top (sea salt, etc. is best, but plain table salt will do as well). I think I may have gotten that from the The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown.
Going to the farmer’s market Friday and will be searching for squash blossoms and locally grown radishes. We usually get the blossoms a little later in the season, but maybe I’ll get lucky.
My grandfather, a farmer, used to come in from the fields and help us pick radishes from the garden for a mid-afternoon snack. He spread soft butter on white bread (yes, it was Wonder Bread at the time), sliced the radishes on top of the butter, and salted it. It was the best sandwich ever…..I would still love them, although I’d use a different bread now.
Looks yummy! And I’m glad to see I’m not the only dork who tends to put food in pans of hot oil/butter with my bare hands.
This is *entirely* off-topic, but I’m curious to know if you’ve read _Stealing Buddha’s Dinner_. (Which has — I dunno — certain Ann Arbor connections.) Perhaps another former colleague has brought it to your attention, as well.
The book most certainly has a theme of food as relief to emotional hunger, to which good cooking is so closely allied. And here, “good cooking,” encompasses cooking done with care and clear intention, whatever the limits of available knowledge, experience, or foodstuffs.
Library link:
http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/166382368
Mercantile link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=9g7cM4P0EVkC
BTW, I know just how you feel about edible flowers flung, will-nilly, over a dish. The modern equivalent, among tragically hip chefs, is the prosaic “lardon.” [Ach! Would you then add cayenne-infused vodka to my poetically terse Sancerre?]
I bet we bought the blossoms from the same farmer! I did them with goat cheese from Zingerman’s creamery.
Comment about the radishes: our friend in Paris (the best cook in the world) serves radishes in a bowl with unsalted butter on the side and NO bread! With an aperitif like Kir or even whiskey, before the first course in one of her fabulous French meals.
Carolina — glad you like the pictures. They were fun to take.
Pem — thanks for the recipe variations.
pinstripebindi – it *is* a bad habit, no? We should know better!
bboru — I don’t know about Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, but thanks for recommending it. I especially like that you offer links both library-ish and mercantile- such a nice touch! Even though I’m with you about the fussiness of edible flowers, I must disagree about lardons. I will take porcine over floral garnish any day.
mae — I do love the radish-butter-salt combo sans baguette. Pairing that with Kir sounds amazing. I must try it.
We made the squash blossoms that we got at the farmer’s market on saturday (stuffed with ricotta cheese) — the fam loved them.
These ended up being a lot easier to make than I thought they’d be too; like you, I had always thought the idea of eating flowers was just, um, odd. But these are pretty tasty and worth the effort if you ask me 🙂
[…] ultimate in squash eating is the blossom. It can be used as an edible floral complement to a dish or stuffed with any number of […]
[…] 5 Don’t forget to eat the the flowers! […]
the squash blossoms were great. I like the photos. I did not stuff them but will do that next time. Yum.
If you think nasturtium flowers are just a garnish you should eat one sometime. They have an amazing peppery taste. When you try one you will never put them off to the side again. I am sure they are also very full of flavenoids and other nutrients. Probably eat enough and you wont get cancer! Capers are the salted unburst blossoms of nasturtium.
The first time I had stuffed squash blossoms was in Mtn. View CA. My wonderful DIL stuffed them with some sort of meat (it was a long time ago and perhaps diced muschrooms, etc) Delicous!! I have tons of squash blossoms in my garden and am curious if I pick them to cook, will the squash still grow or is the blossom the beginning of a squash that will never be if I cook the blossom?
The male flower is the one on the long skinny stem, the female is the flower with the squash developing…you can take the male flowers off the plant and still get zucchini…but if you take the female flower, you end that one zucchini from forming but you get a tasty tiny zucchini with a flower attached, which is really yummy too.Of course there are other flowers besides zucchini flowers to stuff…patty pan, crookneck, even pumpkin flowers work great too.
I stuff my squash blossoms with various things, such as chopped mushrooms, onion, Parmesan cheese and ground chicken or turkey, dip in egg wash and flour and fry till golden, serve with marinara sauce for dipping…or sometimes I make them with a filling I make for fried won ton’s, made from chopped water chestnuts, ground pork or shrimp, a little chopped green onion, a dash of soy sauce and a pinch of cornstarch…mix that all together, stuff the flowers, twist the tops a little to close, dip in egg wash, roll in a panko/flour mixture and deep fry in peanut oil quickly…yummy to the max! ;o )
thanks for the quick recipies-all of you! I love squash blossoms but every time I try ..they are so hard to work with. I have a simple question. How do you get the little suckers open if you don’t pick them in the morning? I always say I’ll pick them near dinner but they close as the day goes on and are difficult to open then… but if I pick them in the morning they close too (but not as bad) any tips?????
How do you clean them? is the green steam edible? I love your page. Thanks.
[…] food whenever possible (excluding bugs and X-factor type stuff). The resistance is because I share Shana’s point of view about edible flowers being stupid. But for $5 a box (20 flowers), I decided to plunge in today. I […]
[…] Stuffed Squash Blossoms […]
Okay so here’s a question that Ididn’t find answered in the lovely recipe. At what stage do you pick the blossoms? Are they picked before they wilt or after? Do you pick only the male ones or both male and female? (There truly are male and female blossoms – males have the pistels).
Thank you.
Don’t pick females before the squash starts to form. Males can be picked at any time but remember to leave a few for pollenation.
Male and female squash blossoms are easy to tell apart. The females have a more rounded and plumper end than the males do. If you watch your plants, you’ll see that the squash actually grow from the end of the female blossoms. The males have a more pointed end where they attach to the stalk, and have pistels.
Also, The way I like to eat these best is in soup. Throw them in any kind of hot broth you like a few minutes before you eat. You can add anything that tastes good – tofu, chicken, greens, whatever. One thing that I would not leave out is cheese. Stringy, white, slightly sharp cheese. That’s always in squash blossom soup in central Mexico, where I learned to love it.
Great post and beautiful photo.
Cooking with flowers is gaining in popularity thanks to blogs like this, but is still viewed as merely decorous by many.
The subtle flavor of roses, violets, and carnations are beguiling, while the forwardness of lavender and jasmine require a deft touch, and the lemon tones of sorrel perfectly compliment fish and make for delightful soups and sauces.
Listed below are a few of my favorite books on flowers:
Flower Cookery, Mary MacNichol
Cooking With Flowers, Jekka McVicar
Edible Flowers, Kathy Brown
There is a pretty good primer on the subject at:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm
[…] a great step-by-step on stuffed squash blossoms. With photos by Shaina […]
[…] When Squash Blossoms Bloom Gastronomical Three’s What to do with squash blossoms Maureen Gilmer gives us tasty squash blossom quesadillas! And Five Ways to Eat Squash Blossoms from […]
Found some beautiful squash blossoms this morning at the farmer’s market. I found your site when looking for ideas of what to do with them. I love what you are doing. I just love to stumble upon wonderful food sites this way.
I bought 30 flowers for $2 and shared some with my neighbor. In Mexico we sauteed them and used them as a quesadilla filling. I think I may stuff them with goat cheese and dip them in tempura batter.
Devany,
Hilo, HI
[…] summers ago, my co-blogger Shana posted a brief photo essay and set of instructions on “what to do with squash blossoms.” Let me tell you, that’s the post that keeps on giving. Even in those times when our blog has […]
[…] done, the fillings are spooned (or tossed with one’s fingers) inside: anything ranging from squash flowers to huitlacoche to chicken tinga. The first few mouthfuls of a street quesadilla might be […]
Thanks for the tips. I’ve always wanted to cook with squash blossoms and this was a wild success.
I used chevre, almonds, basil, parsely, garlic and green onions.
[…] å tilberede blomsten (lenke til oppskrifter) – Seasional Chef: Fem veldig ulike oppskrifter – Gastronomical tree: Friterte fylte blomster, med illustrerende bilder. – Epicurius: Bakt, fylt […]
Now that you have learned how to cook okra, I will be interested to see what spices you add.
Johnny
[…] What To Do With Squash Blossoms […]
Reblogged this on Sorana Tarmu and commented:
Puţine lucruri mă entuziasmează ca descoperirea de noi plante care se pot mânca – mai ales flori. Entuziasmul pentru flori comestibile mi-a rămas din copilărie de când urmăream “Aventuri în pădurea verde”, un serial de animaţie excelent, care urmărea traiul vieţuitoarelor dintr-o pădure temperată de la munte – printre ele un cuplu de marmote, Isteţul şi Albişoara, care toată ziua culegeau flori, nu ca să îşi decoreze vizuina, ci pentru că asta le era hrana. Frate-mio, care avea vreo opt ani, era foarte fericit să îl imite pe Isteţul şi mânca flori de salcâm. După 1989 am descoperit în revistele mele nemţeşti reţete cu flori de zucchini, iar acum că m-am abonat la o fermă de legume locală, primesc săptămânal diverse vegetale, între care câteva pe care nu le-am încercat niciodată, cum ar fi planta mexicană “epazote”, lăstari de floarea-soarelui, flori de dovleac (vezi mai jos) sau citronella proaspătă. Tocmai am încercat epazote în omletă – îi dă o aromă camforată, unică – un deliciu! Mâine încerc reţeta de mai jos.
I’ve skimmed most of the replies & saw the one suggestion of soup, where it is common in the Philippines. Cheese in dishes, uncommon, so, an alternative is to leave out the cheese. What was not mentioned, was how extremely liquified these become. When adding last, especially for presentation, DO NOT STIR! Stirring will virtually destroy the blossom. Allow to simmer atop soup or stew dishes (easy white meat, ginger/garic/string beans, w/ blossom; or heartier, say, gumbo, w/ all the fixins, topped w/ blossom). Thank you for another great idea, & yes, the picture is beautiful.
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I can’t wait to try a squash blossom! I have heard that saying for years, never new it was for real,,,,Duh…
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I tried squash blossoms for the first time today! I used your recipe, then got creative. I put some ham salad in and topped it with some garlic and onion cream cheese. YUM!