Stuffed courgette flowers drizzled with honey

Courgette flowers are really a rare gem to find - here in the UK at least. Back in my childhood days when my parents owned a vegetable garden, I used to see plenty of them. I say vegetable garden, but it was really much more than that - an old derelict farmhouse dating back to 1769, no kidding, it was built 20 years before the French Revolution! A tiny farm it was, barely enough room for 2 cows, and it had never really been renovated either, I don't think, at least not to the extent to bring in running water or electricity. The doorframes were so low that I had to play limbo dancing from an early age, probably 12 years or so, and it was a very rustic affair altogether. Back then I didn't really appreciate this sort of thing, more than anything it was annoying to have to go there every weekend instead of hanging out with my friends, and although I enjoyed food, my interest didn't go as far as straining my back tending to the carrots, onions, lettuce, beans and tomatoes and whetever else my parents were growing there. But at least it gave me some idea of where our vegetables come from and how they grow, unlike some kids at school who were convinced peas were part of the berry family and were surprised to hear that cucumber doesn't grow on trees.
It was in said garden that I watched numerous zucchine grow to enormous sizes (suffice to say that I was 15 at the time of the Chernobyl "incident") and was always intrigued with their beautiful orange flowers. But when my Mum baked them in a beer batter, I was less amused - how could I possibly eat a flower? In beer? The occasional daisy in a salad or dandelion leaves, maybe, but this? Since then, I've only had courgette flowers on rare occasions, in very expensive restaurants mainly, until I found some at the Borough Market this summer... the most delicate of vegetables, individually placed in tiny zip-lock bags, just waiting for me to pick them up. And so I did.
I gently snapped off the stigma inside the flowers, careful not to tear the flower itself, stuffed them with a creamy goats cheese and some thyme, fried them in a beer batter and drizzled them with honey, similar to what I had eaten at Salt Yard not too long ago. It almost broke my heart to destroy these beautiful flowers, but the resulting taste experience was enough reward to want to do it again and again and again...

Stuffed courgette flowers drizzled with honey
(serves 2 as a light meal or 3 as a starter)

6 courgette flowers
80 g creamy goats cheese (I used a St.Tola I found at Neal's Yard)
1 pinch of thyme leaves
1 small clove garlic (crushed)
pepper
oil for frying
honey to serve

For the batter:
30 ml beer
30 g flour
1 egg white

Carefully open up the courgette flowers and break off the stigma inside. If your flowers come with zucchine attached, cut through them twice (lengthwise) to make sure all of it will cook.
Combine the cheese, garlic, thyme and pepper to a smooth paste, then gently stuff the flowers, twisting the end of the petals to fully close.
Heat plenty of oil in a deep pan, dunk the flowers carefully in the batter, then fry in the oil until starting to brown.
Serve immediately, drizzled with honey.
Mix the beer with the flour, beat the egg white and gently fold into the beer batter.

Comments

[angelika]

Hi Johanna, that looks snd sounds delicious ! Goat cheese and honey are alway a perfect marriage of flavours. Courgette flowers are also rare on Naschmarkt; and my Mummy has a lot of plants in her garden but does not allow me to take the flowers, she wants to have the zucchine...Great story about the old farm house, is it still a hide-away of your family ? Take care, angelika (exhausted due to 3 birthday parties in our house next week and such a long list of dishes to be prepared in advance, also some recipes of thepassionatecook...)

[Paz]

Hi Johanna,

I've discovered your blog from flying Apple's blog and have been meaning to visit for a while. I'm glad I've finally made it here.

Your recipe is also enticing.

I think that the courgette flowers are the same of squash blossoms, which I recently learned about from The Traveler's Lunchbox (At least, they look the same in the photos.). Until then, I'd never heard about them.

I wanted to try the recipe made from the Squash blossoms, but understand that the season for them is now over. ;-(

I like your story about the farmhouse and needing to do the limbo to go under the doorframes. ;-)

Best,
Paz

[Alicat]

I was also going to ask if they were the same as squash blossoms, which I've never had, but want to oh so much! Pictures look wonderful by the way!

[johanna]

I believe they are similar, Alicat. The flowers look exactly the same from what I could see on a US blog recently - we don't get squash in Austria that much, if anything related in terms of autumn vegetables, then it'd be pumpkin... but they let it grow to harvest as many seeds as possibly from the ripened fruit and produce the most delicious dark green pumpkin seed oil with its distinctly butty flavour. Never would they sacrifice a rich harvest to be eating some flowers! I wonder if you cannot just grow them in their back yard - they might need a big flower bed if your intention is to grow them till they're mature, but if you're only after the flowers? Maybe I'll give that a go next year...

[Andrew Spark]

This blog posting is great.I appreciate your work.

[Peter Cook]

Your recipe for stuffed courgette flowers drizzled with honey looks great. We must try it with our home-grown courgettes.

[stef]

The blogger obviously said they were zucchini blossoms which are in the squash family. Yellow squash blossoms are also used here in the US.