Whenever I see bushels of these delicate flowers piled high at the farmer's market, I sigh wistfully, wishing I could be ambitious enough to actually do something with them. It's the frying, really. I find frying things to be time consuming and stressful and usually a complete disaster when I have a hand in them. All that hot oil and then plopping the stuff in the pot and cowering from the backsplash followed by the intense vigilance necessary to make sure the food isn't either over or underdone. I'm accident prone, and my mother harrowed me with stories about how she lit her entire kitchen on fire while she was making chips as a girl. To squelch the small fire, she poured water on it, which of course caused the fire to explode from the stove, engulfing the entire kitchen in flames.
I got over myself and pushed the images of fire trucks racing to my family's rescue out of my head, and with my fry-master dad (whose recipe for the absolute BEST french fries will soon follow) and boyfriend at my side, I proceeded to fry up a storm. And surprise surprise, it was easy, fast, and delicious.
Ingredients:
25 squash blossoms, with stamen removed (the little nub inside the blossoms)
1 plastic freezer bag
24 oz vegetable oil (or enough for 3 inches deep in a large pan)
8oz ricotta
¼ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon of finely chopped thyme, sage, oregano, and chive mixed together (you can vary it, but choose leafy herbs and be sure to include chive, as it's pungency livens up the creamy ricotta)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 lemon halved
Directions:
While prepping blossoms, heat the oil on high. It needs to reach about 350 degrees to be ready. The best way to test if the oil is ready is to toss a prepared blossom in, and if it bobs to the top and cooks in about 1 minute, 30 seconds if it's unfilled, you're good to go.
Mix the ricotta, cream, herbs, oil, and 1 teaspoon of pepper until blended. Spoon the mixture into a plastic freezer bag, and push down into a corner, cut the tip of the corner. You now have a pastry bag! Using the bag, fill each blossom, leaving an inch of the petals free. After you have filled the blossom, twist the petals to close the blossom. Do this with each blossom. If you have extra blossoms, save them for dredging, they're delicious by themselves.
Set up a dredging station. Beat the eggs in a bowl, and in a separate bowl mix together the flour, breadcrumbs, salt and remaining pepper. To dredge, dip the blossoms in the egg mixture, then gently roll in the flour mixture until completely coated.
After testing that the oil is ready, fry the blossoms in batches, about 30 seconds on each side, or until entirely golden brown. Sprinkle with salt and squeeze some lemon over them, and you're ready to go.
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