Mar 30 2015

Zucchini Blossom Fritters

Posted by georgiapellegrini in Step-by-Step Recipes

These Zucchini Blossom Fritters are a family recipe shared by TK member Katie. They are wonderfully unique, and contain the delicious flowers that bloom from a zucchini plant before the fruit forms. We’re coming up to zucchini season, so if you can find the blooms in your market or your own garden, you should definitely try this using fresh zucchini blossoms! Since the blossoms can be difficult to find in some locales, we were inspired to use grated zucchini instead. With this slightly modified dish, you can now now enjoy a batch of fritters anywhere and any time of the year!

To make the fritters you will need: extra virgin olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese, flour, milk, a whole egg, sliced garlic, baking powder, fresh basil, Salt, ½ cup grated zucchini (or 7-8 squash blossoms if you can get them), and cooking oil for frying. Try your best to drain the zucchini of excess moisture.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the garlic over medium high heat until lightly browned.

Add the grated zucchini and continue to sauté until cooked through and most of the watery liquid has cooked off.

Next, in a large bowl add 1 tablespoon of freshly chopped basil and 3 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese.

Whisk the egg, and then add it to the large bowl.

Pour ½ cup milk into the large bowl as well. Start whisking all of these ingredients together.

Add the zucchini mixture and give it a stir.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and ½ teaspoons salt.

Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Mix everything together until it is a little thicker than pancake batter.

Pour about ¼ inch of oil into a skillet; heat over medium high heat. Scoop the batter (a full tablespoon) and drop it into the hot oil. Gently press down on the top of the fritter with a spoon to flatten.

Once you have placed a few in the pan, fry the fritters until golden brown on one side, about 3–4 minutes. Flip them over and continue to fry for an additional 3-4 minutes.

Remove from the pan and place onto a plate covered with paper towels (the towels soak up the excess oil). Let cool.

All golden brown and delicious, your fritters are now complete. Top with additional chopped basil or brush the tops with butter. Enjoy them while they are still warm, crispy, and full of goodness. They make the perfect appetizer, party food, or afternoon lunch and would work well with all kinds of condiments, from crème fraiche to diced ham.

Go check out more recipes from Katie in her TK recipe box or the recipe index of her blog, The Parsley Thief!

Printable Recipe

Zucchini Blossom Fritters

by theparsleythief on September 2, 2011 in Appetizers, Canapes

See post on theparsleythief’s site!

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Description

Zucchini blossoms are the edible flowers that grow from a zucchini plant. In this family recipe, the flowers are lightly sauteed in garlic, then chopped and used as the base for a fritter batter, along with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese. They’re delicious!

Ingredients

8 whole Squash Blossoms
1 clove Garlic, Sliced
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Chopped Fresh Basil Leaves, Plus More For Optional Garnish
3 Tablespoons Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 whole Egg
½ cups Milk
1 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Kosher Salt
Vegetable Oil, For Frying

Preparation Instructions

Prepare the squash blossoms by inspecting each flower for dirt, or bugs (little critters do like to hide inside them). Give them a gentle rinse with water and dry with paper towels. Remove the pistil from inside each flower. Note: For this application, it’s fine to cut a slit alongside the length of each flower, to make removal easier. You wouldn’t want to do this if you were stuffing the blossoms. I also like to remove the little green spikes from around the stem of the flowers.

Saute the blossoms with the garlic and olive oil, in a skillet over medium high heat until softened and lightly browned. Remove from the skillet and coarsely chop. Transfer to a bowl and add in the chopped basil leaves, Parmesan cheese, egg, and milk. Use a fork to gently beat the ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl and stir to combine. The mixture should be slightly thicker than pancake batter. If needed, add in a bit more milk.

Pour enough vegetable oil into a skillet to coat the bottom by about a 1/4″; heat over medium high heat. Scoop the batter by the heaping tablespoonful and drop into the hot oil. Use the back of a spoon to flatten each fritter slightly. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Flip the fritter over and brown the other side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle lightly with some coarse salt and chopped fresh basil. Serve while hot.

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There’s so much to say about Georgia, we don’t know where to start. Leaving Wall Street for the French Culinary Institute, followed by a stint at the Gramercy Tavern and La Chassagnette in France, her passion for food and food traditions are evident and inspiring. Visit her site at Georgia Pellegrini, where you’ll find more recipes, photos, learn all about her wonderful books (including her latest one, Modern Pioneering, and enjoy her latest adventures.

Mar 25 2015

Growing Vegetables

Posted by Erika (TK) in Kitchen Talk

The other day, my breakfast consisted of fried eggs with a dash of hot sauce, and freshly squeezed orange juice. The eggs were from a friend’s chicken, the oranges from her tree, and the hot sauce was homemade using Meyer lemons and hot peppers grown by my brother-in-law. Knowing that just about every item came from someone’s garden made it that much more special to me.

That’s one of the reasons I keep trying—despite repeated failure—to grow stuff to eat in my garden. Sure, it takes time and work and patience, but the payoff is worth it. Not only are you rewarded with produce that’s often superior in freshness and flavor but you also enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from pulling off a “garden to table” meal. If you share that sentiment, then this post is for you!

We’ve talked about growing herbs before, so now let’s talk about veggies. Tell us:

Do you have any tips for growing vegetables?

I’m not much of a gardener. Oh, I love plants—flowers, vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, shrubs, majestic oaks and diminutive crocuses, willowy bamboo, stubby succulents, ornamental grasses … I love them all. My father has the heart and the hands of a farmer, but with the way things have been going for me, I suspect it might skip a generation. I’m still trying though!

In an attempt to make me look good, my friend Lacey shared a few tips for me to pass on. She just planted 839 vegetable plants, so she knows her beez-neez. (And okay, I think it was more like 52, but in my book, that’s just like 839.) She’s been doing it for some years now, planting corn, peppers, snow peas, beans, cabbage, you name it. She starts all her vegetables from seed, and this is what she does:

1. Plant 2 to 3 seeds in a little peat pot. Water well and put in a sealable bag.
2. Seal bag and keep in a place where it won’t get too cold. Keep the bag sealed, almost like a mini greenhouse, and don’t open it or even water it until seeds begin to germinate.
3. When shoots are about 2 inches high, take the peat pot out of the bag and transfer to your vegetable garden or a larger container with soil.

It sounds easy enough that even I can’t mess it up. Seriously, how badly can I mess up instructions that mostly involve keeping a bag in one place and doing and touching nothing? I can’t wait to try her method out! Of course, it goes without saying that you should always check for any special instructions specific to the variety of vegetable you’re planting. The method above seems to work well for the Southern California climate; you may have to vary it depending on where you are.

How about you? Do you have any tips for growing vegetables? Favorite veggies you like to plant each year? Any particular challenges planting specific varieties? Any questions that other gardeners here may be able to answer? Come share below!

Mar 23 2015

Fudgy Black Bean Brownies

Posted by DessertForTwo in Baking

I just now noticed that this is the second recipe I’ve pulled from Sarah’s recipe box to share here on the Tasty Kitchen Blog. It was pure coincidence, but after these Fudgy Black Bean Brownies, I’ll be pulling from her TK recipe box even more. Sarah knows her chocolate desserts, and these brownies are no exception.

These brownies are made in the bowl of the food processor entirely (no cleanup!), and they’re also relatively healthy with a gluten-free option. I didn’t think all of my chocolate dreams were going to come true with this recipe, but they really did. You might be discouraged by the recipe title, but don’t be. If the black beans are pureed very, very well, they are completely indistinguishable. I promise. Cross my heart. I wouldn’t tell a lie here on the Tasty Kitchen Blog!

So yes, we’re really making brownies with black beans. Embrace it. They’re good for you!

Let’s start with our lineup of ingredients: black beans, cocoa powder, applesauce, sugar, vanilla, salt, almond flour, an egg, baking soda, and cooking spray. I used regular flour in place of the almond flour successfully, but Sarah’s original recipe is gluten-free with almond flour.

You’re going to need a food processor for this recipe. I’m worried if you just hand-mashed the beans, you would have bean skins in the final product. I don’t think you want that, so use a food processor, my dears.

Into the bowl of the food processor goes the beans first. Puree them very, very well. Stop and scrape the sides several times to ensure everything is well blended.

Next, Sarah says to add all the dry ingredients: cocoa powder, baking soda, almond flour, and salt.

Add the wet ingredients: sugar, applesauce …

… egg, and vanilla.

Spray a mini muffin pan with 24 cups with cooking spray very well. This is something originally omitted in the recipe, but when I reached out to Sarah, she definitely recommended it.

Then, use a cookie scoop to make quick work of the batter. You will get 24 mini fudgy brownies. That’s a lot of brownies for not a lot of work. Sarah makes me one happy pregnant lady!

Here’s what it looks like before baking.

And this is after the brownies have baked.

Thanks again, Ms. Sarah! Your blog Simple and Sweets continues to inspire me in the kitchen, and keeps me very well fed!

Printable Recipe