So I can't resist buying things I've never cooked before...
last week it was Courgette Flowers.
If I seem them on a menu, I always order them
(up there with Corn Fritters & French 75s)
but in restaurants they are always fried
which while delicious, is a little heavy handed for something so delicate and tasty.
So my mission was, non fried flowers
& a very successful mission it was too. (if I do say so myself.)
The end result was light, powerful flavor hits in beautiful delicate packets.
So here's how:
take the flowers out the fridge a long time before you need themgiving them a few hours to reach room temperature
with dry hands, (so as not to rip the petals)
delicately open them up and pull out the pollen covered "pistils"
then in room temperature water, gently wash them
and rinse out the inside where the pistil may have dropped pollen.
lay them gently to dry... don't pat them - just let the air do its thing.
Again with very dry hands, I opened up the flowers and slipped in two small slices of fig (to provide moisture & sweetness when you bit into them). Then, with a blend of goat cheese, honey, rosemary, lemon, oil & garlic I squeezed a helping (via a plastic bag w/ the corner snipped off) of yummyness. Filling the flower just up to where the petals separated... and them employed a little origami meets duck-tape and folded the petals to seal in the cheese goo.
On a baking sheet, some of them were given prosciutto belts to wear... which I'll admit is cheating. Like deep frying something, wrapping it it bacon is totally cheating - of course its going to taste great! Lastly I baked then at a low temperature 120C I think, for about 20 minutes... to melt the cheese, and warm up all the flavors - but there was nothing there that needed cooking. (yes, prosciutto - not bacon).
Out of oven and served warm, they made an otherwise rather plain salad seem very special.
