You Ate What?! - Fried Ricotta Squash Blossoms

Finally!  The wait is over.  I have eaten a squash blossom... and it was... well... ordinary.

Perhaps it was the breading or the seasoning that made my taste buds flop.  I am a bit disappointed by my overall experience in making the fried squash blossoms.  Allow me to explain the lack of enthusiasm for this particular food experiment.

I began this process by searching recipes for techniques in cooking squash blossoms.  I've seen the flower used in recipes on Food Network and figured it would be a delightful dish to try.  My new garden provided the blossoms and my mind built up the anticipation.

If you've ever touched or seen a Squash plant, then you know that it has a pokey protective layer on the stems and blossoms.  I was concerned that it wouldn't be edible if I didn't try to remove some of the hair-like stubs from the outside of the blossom.  As I comically attempted to "shave" the flower with my sharp knife, 3 perished in the process.  I realized that my efforts might be wasted and gave up on the ridiculous idea of plant shaving.

When it came to cleaning the blossoms and removing the center, it was quite tedious.  The flowers are extremely delicate and tore very easily.  I was close to quitting the whole process, but Jon convinced me that no one would care if the blossoms didn't "look pretty".

After stuffing the Squash Blossoms with Ricotta Cheese.

I proceeded to clean, cut, and bread the blossoms.  The first step consisted of stuffing them with ricotta cheese.  The second step was an egg wash.  And the last step was breading the blossoms in a blend of gluten-free corn meal, salt and pepper.  We heated up the deep fryer to 375 degrees and carefully slid them into the bubbling pool.

Breaded with corn meal and ready to fry.

The blossoms emerged golden brown and beautiful.  I was nervously excited to try this unusual meal.  We said our pre-dinner prayer and eagerly dove into the dish.

Squash blossom after the fryer.

I'm not sure if I was expecting an explosion of floral taste or just a hint of floral.  There was none of that.  In fact, the blossom simply provided nothing more than a gluten-free skin to the melty ricotta cheese.

With that said, I am going to try this again!  Are you ready for round 2 of the squash blossom experiment?  This time I will incorporate more herbs, spices, and veggies.  If all else fails, we will have a large supply of acorn squash to contend with.

I apologize if you were expecting a recipe in this post.  As a fellow foodie, I am morally obligated not to pass along sub-par recipes.  It's the truth.  If you have any ideas, please feel free to send us your squash blossom recipe to try at hintofthyme@gmail.com.  All credit goes to you.

If you missed my random post about harvesting the blossoms, read it here - Gardening and Cooking - It's a Learning Process.

Have a great week, readers!  Thanks for stopping by Hint of Thyme.


Copyright 2012 Hint of Thyme.  All rights reserved.