Goat Cheese Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Do they look incredibly pretty? No. In fact, they kind of look like giant cocoons. But don’t let their sad and frumpy appearance fool you. These zucchini blossoms, filled with a creamy mixture of goat cheese, cream cheese and herbs, are rich and delicious!

Ryan and I like to go to the local farmer’s market in Chico as often as we can. Our most recent visit resulted in a bag of zucchini blossoms, some purple Chinese long beans, and a purple basil plant. The basil is now growing at warp speed in my back yard, waiting to be used for purple pesto (so cool). The Chinese long beans shriveled in the veggie drawer of my fridge before I could think of a way to use them. That’s a dollar I’ll never get back. And the zucchini blossoms…well we decided to stuff ’em with  cheese and fry ’em.

We decided to try out Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe. A few things we did differently: we used herb flavored goat cheese instead of plain, we used milk instead of cream, and we left out the green onions (because we forgot them at the store).

They went from delicate flowers to little deep-fried torpedoes of gooey goat cheese. The marinara was the perfect compliment for me. Ryan mixed up some olive oil and balsamic vinegar for his dip of choice.

My only complaint was that the batter wasn’t super crispy. Maybe next time I’ll double dip them in the batter or try out a tempura fry with panko.

Here’s how we did it:

Start by removing the stamen from inside the flower. You could probably eat them, but I feel like you would get bursts of pollen in your mouth. I might be crazy…not sure.

Before you mix up the filling, whip up your batter and start heating the oil for frying.

Mix together all of the ingredients for the cheesy filling. Place a ziplock bag into a glass (makes filling it easier) and fill it with all of the cheese mixture. Make sure to chop the basil fine enough so it doesn’t clog the bag when trying to pipe the filling.

Rookie mistake – I forgot to season the filling with salt and pepper. Don’t do that.

Carefully peel back the flower petals. Cut the tip off of the ziplock bag and squeeze filling inside. Fill with just enough cheese so that you can still twist the top of the petals closed. (Thank you to my hand model.)

Dredge each stuffed blossom into the batter. Let excess batter drip off.

Then place each blossom into the oil and fry until golden brown. I turned them each once. And they fry quickly so keep an eye on them!(Sorry no photos during the frying step – something about not wanting hot oil splattering on my pretty pretty camera.)

As they come out of the frying oil, place them onto a paper towel. Try to eat them as soon as possible, while they’re still hot! The longer they sit there, the more they start to lose their crispiness.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
Ingredients

[list style=”style6″]
[li]1 cup flour[/li]
[li]1 cup sparkling water[/li]
[li]3/4 kosher salt[/li]
[li]1/3 cup (2 oz.) herb goat cheese, room temp.[/li]
[li]2 Tbsp. (1 oz.) cream cheese, room temp.[/li]
[li]1 Tbsp. milk[/li]
[li]1 Tbsp. fresh basil, finely chopped[/li]
[li]Freshly ground black pepper[/li]
[li]Salt[/li]
[li]8 zucchini blossoms, stamens removed[/li]
[li]Vegetable oil, for frying[/li]
[li]Marinara sauce, for dipping[/li]
[/list]

In a small bowl, mix together the goat cheese, cream cheese, milk and basil. Season mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Add mixture to a ziplock or piping bag. Pipe about two tsp. cheese mixture into each zucchini blossom. Twist the petals at the top to keep the filling from spilling out during frying.

In a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, pour enough oil to fill up about 1/3 of the way. Heat over medium heat until a fry thermometer reaches 350 degrees or until a cube of bread dropped in browns in about a minute. Dip each stuffed zucchini blossom into the batter. Allow excess batter to drip off. Carefully slide into frying oil and fry, turning once or twice, for 1-2 min., or until golden brown. Remove blossoms from oil and let cool on a paper towel.

Serve with marinara sauce or balsamic vinaigrette.