Sizzling Squash Flowers, Batman!
Flowers might not be a staple in our north american diets, but they sure do make a great dish! Simply fry up some squash and nasturtium flowers and eat them as you would tempura.
Recipe:
10 squash flowers (cut off a little below the base of the male flowers, remove the pistils and stems, and wash gently)
10 nasturtium flowers (cut off a little below the base of the flower - no need to remove any parts of it before eating)
1 small egg
2/3 cup water (I've heard you can substitute water for beer... as with most situations in life)
3 tbsp flour (or enough to create a creamy batter)
Pinch salt
Pinch pepper
Olive oil
Optional: thin strips of red pepper and zucchini stuffed into each squash flower before coating with batter
Whisk together egg, water, flour, salt and pepper. Coat the flowers in the batter and fry in olive oil until the outside is crispy. Serve with your favourite sauce (I served mine with Chatty's cilantro hot sauce and mango chutney). I also used the leftover batter to fry up some tempura yellow wax beans. YUM!