fried squash blossoms

zucchini and squash plants are notorious for providing so many copious vegetables that by midsummer you are begging anyone, friends, neighbors, strangers to just take some off your hands.  but there's more to a squash plant than the vegetable (well, technically the fruit).  

years ago in italy, i had fried zucchini blossoms and since then have been wanting to try to recreate the delicacy for myself.  this summer, i took to the internet to figure out the proper way of preparing them.  squash and zucchini plants are monoecious, meaning they bear both male and female flowers.  the actual squash fruit comes from the female flowers.  i had always assumed that to make fried squash blossoms you'd be sacrificing some of the fruits by taking away the flowers, but it turns out the male flowers are supposed to taste better, so that is what you use.  it's easy to tell the difference because the female flowers have the fruit forming at the base of them. 

i picked about 10 flowers from my plants (i picked the ones where the blooms were still closed).  the recipes i found said to pinch out the stamen in the middle of the bloom, which was a bit difficult to do without tearing the blossom.  you also want to check inside the blossom to make sure there aren't any renegade insects trapped in there.

i decided that i wanted to stuff the blossoms with something before frying them.  the first time i made them i used homemade ricotta (so simple to make, and absolutely delicious)!  the second time i used goat cheese.  i didn't realize until i began stuffing the blossoms that i had bought goat cheese with honey, but it actually turned out quite well.  the sweetness of the honey was a nice foil to the fried blossoms.  

one trick i learned after the first time i made them was to make sure the ends of the blossoms were twisted shut well.  in fact i even used a little of the cheese as 'glue' to keep them shut.  otherwise you risk them opening and having the cheese come out while they are frying.  i made a simple batter of flour and beer, coated them and then put them in an inch of oil heated to about 350 degrees.  the hardest part was just keeping the oil around that temperature. 

once they turned golden brown, after just a couple minutes, i took them out, set them on a paper towel and sprinkled them with salt.  that was it.  a perfect summer treat.