This time of year, my garden is just beginning to decline — I can already tell my tomato plants are not nearly as prolific as they were even a couple weeks ago. Normally my zucchini and squash plants follow suit, but this year, for some reason, they are as abundant as ever, and I have far more than I can use. So, inspired by this article in the Washington Post and this recipe from Fine Cooking magazine, I decided to exert a little zucchini birth control.
I have had squash blossoms at restaurants before, but I had never experimented with preparing them myself. As the Washington Post article advises, I went out into my garden early in the morning and picked a few male blossoms. It is easy to tell the difference between the males and females, as the male flowers are attached directly to the stem:
And the female flowers are attached to a little squash:
I wasn’t up for deep frying the blossoms I picked, so I loosely followed this recipe. I filled each blossom with a mixture of farmer cheese, cilantro and poblano peppers, sauteed them, and served them with a basic tomato sauce similar to the one in the video (left out the olives).
They were awesome. Such a simple recipe, but has a different, more exotic feel. I highly recommend them if you’re looking for something new to do with your prolific zucchini!
–R
Bounteous 