As I post this recipe, I cannot help but feeling aware of the fact the other half of the globe is enduring the autumnal cold weather knowing there will be another 5 months before they can come near anything like this…
But, on the other hand, I must not forget my fellow antipodean dwellers and together we must celebrate the sought-after arrival of spring.
What better way than a couple of crispy, stuffed baby zucchini and a cold beer to honour Mother Nature?
I can safely predict that my zucchini crop will be abundant and rich this year and that this is only the first of many zucchini-related posts.
Please bear with me, there will be plenty!
To stuff your flowers, proceed like so:
Gently open out the petals to reveal the yellow stems. Remove the stems and discard.
Rinse your flowers well and drain on kitchen paper. Stuff with a couple of pieces of mozzarella, 1 anchovy fillet, a couple of baby capers, and a mix of chopped up mint, basil, parsley and lemon zest. Gently twist the petals to enclose the filling.
In a large pot, heat up 1 lt (4 cups) of frying oil or, for added flavour, olive oil.
In the meantime, make your batter by mixing 2 cups of self-raising flour and 250 ml (3/4 of a can) of cold beer. Quickly stir it with a chopstick, leaving some lumps for extra texture.
Drop the stuffed flowers into the batter, and then gently into the hot oil. Deep-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, than drain on kitchen paper.
Serve while still hot preferably with a cold beer.
You can use the left-over batter to deep-fry parsley and sage leaves and even lemon slices, a southern Italian delicacy.
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Silvia Colloca 
I have always been interested in cooking with zucchini flowers but never given it a go, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to prepare them or what to do exactly. I will definatly give this a try, thank you!
That’s great Leona! You know, you can even slice them finely, and stir fry the with garlic an zucchini and use them as the base of an omelette. That’s what I had for lunch today…
Sounds like a nice lunch, thanks for that idea – I planted 4 zucchini seedlings so soon I will have heaps of zucchini flowers and zucchini’s! What herbs do you have in your garden that you consider the essentials? I need to re-do my herb garden and would love your opinion. Thank-you.
Oh, you’ll have lots of zucchini indeed, they grow berserk!
In my garden I have mint, origano, basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives, vietnamese mint and thai basil. I’m trying to grow coriander too, i hope it survives! I also have zucchini, chillie, various types of tomatoes, corn, borlotti beans, chinese greens, mizuna, beets carrots, pumpkin and strawberries… My husband is a keen gardener, without him, nothing would survive!
You are right Silvia, as I watch my zucchini grow I am wondering perhaps 2 seedlings were enough to plant! Thanks for sharing what’s growing in your garden, I should try growing borlotti beans .Good luck with your corriander to I do hope it survivies, I seem to have success with corriander until it flowers, then it doesn’t do so good.
Hi Silvia,
Do you buy or grow your own Zucchini flowers? We grow them at home, I stuff them with mozzarella, ham and basil… they are divine. Compliments on your recipe above, I am yet to try them with anchovies… YUM!
Hi Angela, we grow them in the backyard. They are so abundant, I’m running out of recipes!
I also have a good recipe for zucchini flower fritters, I can email it to you if you like, you would love it! I also experimented with sparkling water and plain flour batter and the coating on the zucchini flowers was quite light!
Angela, I would love that recipe! silviacucina@gmail.com