These squash blossoms are accompanied by yellow zucchini that grows in my backyard garden. It seemed such a shame not to eat the flowers that could dress up a dish like this. I showed you how to fry them here. I stuffed them with goat cheese here.

This is fried yellow squash with its blossoms. Fresh from the garden and so fun and tasty.

After giving the yellow squash a good salt bath and drawing out the moisture with paper towels, it was dredged in egg and flour and fried quickly. Backyard garden basil and parsley were added to the flour for flavor, and as soon as it topped on spaghetti that had olive oil and garlic, it got got a dose of pecorino romano cheese.
The squash blossom is prepared a little differently. I simply mix some water and flour together, and fry quickly.

This is such a pretty summer meal. Done in less than thirty minutes. Enjoy!

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Squash Blossoms with Spaghetti

Yellow Squash and Squash Blossoms top spaghetti for an elegant summer meal.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 4 squash blossoms fried Recipe here
• 4 yellow zucchini
• oil for frying
• 1 egg
• 1 cups flour
• handful of parsley and basil chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese grated

Instructions

• Cut yellow squash in spears or coins, salt, leave for ten minutes, and drain with paper towels
• Mix flour with salt, pepper, chopped herbs.
• Put oil in pan up to 1/2 inch. Fry until golden brown.
• Drain on paper towels.
• Make spaghetti according to instructions. Drain, toss with olive oil, chopped garlic, and remaining herbs.
• Top with squash and squash blossoms.

Squash blossoms Recipe here.

The post Squash Blossoms with Yellow Squash and Spaghetti appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Rhubarb slides through the season quickly, and I was fortunate to find it at Whole Foods. We have a wonderful local goat farm in the area, and I’m happy to say after many hours in the kitchen with three pounds of rhubarb, it pairs splendidly with goat cheese in several different ways.

My original intention was to do a duck confit stuffed with rhubarb goat cheese served with a rhubarb gastrique.  I made a wonderful gastrique with rhubarb and various vinegars, a little sugar and a touch of strawberries. It was dark, thick, inspiring in flavor but, I couldn’t find duck legs anywhere.

I looked out of my kitchen window and I saw the squash blossoms were sprinkling gold everywhere. A new idea was born. Rhubarb compote with goat cheese stuffed into squash blossoms, battered, fried crispy and served with roasted rhubarb. I’ve made squash blossoms before and those I purchased, but it’s really fun to do something with the blossoms that show up every day in the garden.

Three of the four ingredients are local. I picked the strawberries at Bradley’s Kountry Acres. The cheese comes from Noble Springs Dairy,  a few miles a way, and the squash blossoms and herbs come from my own garden.

At first I made a simple compote using chopped rhubarb and some hand-picked strawberries. I added in sugar as I needed to and boiled it down until it had a very pleasant taste. Rhubarb is tart and needs something sweet, even if its going to be served savory.

The compote was mixed in with the goat cheese, about 1 tablespoon per 1/3 cup of goat cheese. This is good all by itself. I used all male squash blossoms, some from zucchini, some from yellow squash and this recipe for the batter. These were served with a roasted rhubarb. This was one of the best surprises of the three ways I made rhubarb. I had some very ripe strawberries and I marinated the rhubarb with a few smashed strawberries and roasted about 10 minutes until just soft enough to eat, but still in whole form.

The bite of squash blossom with the bite of roasted rhubarb is a perfect starter course for a meal where each course must contain goat cheese and rhubarb.This is one that would easily become a signature dish at the Pink Goat in the springtime.

Please visit my teammates to see their dishes:  Victoria @ Mission Food, and Bren @ Flanboyant Eats.

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The Pink Goat: Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Roasted Rhubarb

Squash Blossoms stuffed with goat cheese and rhubarb compote, crispy fried.

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 6 male squash blossoms with at least a one inch stem
• 6 teaspoons goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon rhubarb compote
• 1 teaspoons chopped fresh herbs chives, thyme, basil, parsely, etc.
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• coconut oil for frying

Instructions

• Gently rinse off squash blossoms, checking for bugs inside.
• Remove inside stem.
• Drain on paper towels.
• Mix goat cheese, herbs and rhubarb compote together.
• Gently stuff flowers with 1 teaspoon of goat cheese. Some flowers are larger and can use more. You want to have enough room at top of flower to close flower completely.
• Mix water and flour into a batter. Dip flower into batter.
• Heat a heavy bottomed pan with 1 inch of oil until oil is at 375 degrees.
• I use a kernel of corn. When it pops, my oil is ready.
• Fry a few minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve with roasted rhubarb.

Notes

If you don't have a rhubarb compote, you can mix goat cheese with a favorite jam or preserve, or just use herbs, salt and pepper.

Recipe for Rhubarb Compote
2 large stalks rhubarb
2 cups strawberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (more if needed)
Bring everything to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes or until rhubarb is softened. If there is too much liquid in pan, remove fruit and continue to simmer liquid until reduced. Mix back in with fruit. Cool completely before mixing with goat cheese.

The post Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Roasted Rhubarb Compote appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Post Edit:  I’ve made some more squash blossoms (from my own garden)  stuffed with goat cheese, here.

I love when a recipe for something unusual catches my eye and then my local farmer’s market features the ingredient.

Last week, as I was devouring the fundamentals of Italian cooking from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classical Italian Cooking, a recipe for crispy fried squash blossoms jumped out at me as something interesting, fun. It’s just so very Italian to use everything that grows, but in the most beautiful and tasty way and who wouldn’t be temped by a fried flower that is prepared similar to a tempura?

My Saturday farmer’s market adventure always seeks the smaller farmers and gardeners, and I struck gold meeting Karen Bordine and whisking up her organic produce from Readyville, Tennessee, especially these gorgeous squash blossoms.

Karen is a friendly face at the market and you should stop by to see her. She also sells flowers.

As I am reading the recipe instructions, I was surprised to discover there is a male and a female squash blossom, (why don’t I know this) and Marcella says only eat the males, as the females are mushy. Well, I bought quite a few females and did my own taste test, hoping I didn’t make too big of an error.

Truthfully, we couldn’t tell the difference, but maybe my discernment is not keen enough. Marcella Hazan is known to be very opinionated, and I don’t want to argue with her. She must be right!

Female on left, male on right.

Marcella Hazan
Can I be real and tell you that about 10 years ago, I gave her cookbooks away. They belonged to my cousin, Sam, who I have devoted this blog to, and whom I miss now more than ever since I’m food blogging. He would be so enormously proud of me, as it is he who introduced me to modern California cuisine and foodie world. No one else in my family had food in their veins the way he did. He died at age 43 and the world lost one very classy man, who expanded my world in ways he never fully got to see. In reflection, he was probably so ahead of me in culinary style, yet he never let on as he loved my food. I ate the last Italian meal he made and I cooked the last Italian meal he ate. We were close for cousins, more like siblings.

I feel like he still lives through this blog, and now that I will be cooking from his favorite Italian cookbook, he will be in the kitchen with me. You can’t know what that means to me.

Squash Blossom Salad, made with Mache, Olive oil, Lemon

Once I got going, I got out all the zucchini I had on hand, green and yellow, and stir fried them until very soft. The sweetness of the zucchini is such a treat in and of itself, so one needs to avoid the temptation of over-seasoning. The zucchini deserves its own post, which I’ll do later this week. Unsure of how to incorporate the crispy fried squash blossoms into dinner, I put them on top of a mache salad that was dressed with extra virgin olive oil with lots of lemon. Perfect marriage. My fear was that they would fall apart and be fragile during the cooking process, but they must have been just picked that morning because they proved to be hearty.

Fried food?
You don’t see too much (if any) fried food here at Spinach Tiger. These are a special occasion, and I think a wonderful appetizer to greet guests with.

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Squash Blossoms Crispy Fried

Recipe for crispy fried squash blossoms adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classical Italian Cooking

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1 dozen male zucchini blossoms
• grape seed oil
• 2/3 cups flour
• 1 cup water
• salt

Instructions

• Wash blossoms in cold water. Gently dry. Cut stems to one inch.
• Sift the flour into the water and whisk the batter to a thick consistency of sour cream.
• Heat oil in a pan 3/4” high on medium high heat. Holding stem, dip blossom into batter.
• Carefully, place squash blossoms into pan, not crowding. Have a lid on hand in case of splattering. Each time you place a new blossom or turn over, grease is likely to splatter.

Notes

I use a high enough heat to quickly cook. 375 is preferred without about an inch of oil in heavy bottom pot.

Caution: You are putting a water-based slurry into oil. Oil does not like water, and it will react, so have a lid in your hand, until the oil calms down. There will also be a reaction when you turn them over.
Turn over when golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Season with salt.

The post Squash Blossoms Crispy Fried appeared first on Spinach Tiger.