“Mom are you going to eat those?” my son D’Angelo asked.
“Yes hun, these are edible flowers”, I replied.
Before I knew it, he was instructing me to blend the ricotta with mozzarella cheese and “just add a little more salt mom”.
Yes these ricotta stuffed squash blossoms are definitely addictive.
Lately I’ve been trying to get my green thumb going. Actually, I’ve been at it, on an off, for about 3 years now. The only luck I seemed to have had was with a papaya tree, which just kept growing and growing as if it was reaching for the sky. I have yet to reap any papayas. I was beginning to think that it was male. The other day, I threatened to chop it down and it bore about 7 papayas which later dried up and fell off the tree. I have since given up on that papaya tree.
Even though I haven’t reaped any fruits of my labor from the papaya tree, I refuse to give up. My farmer Joe, was very kind enough to give me some manure, which I added all my kitchen scraps to and composted it. I evenly distributed some of the compost in one section of the backyard, simply to observe its progress, and lo and behold, I now have what appears to be some type of squash. I have no idea if it’s zucchini or butternut squash, but I think it may be butternut squash because I eat it regularly. If you look close enough in the photo, you will also see some egg shells on top of the soil (I compost that too). I told my son D’Angelo to throw the eggshells into the patch and he sure did. It’s amazing how males follow instructions…
Lo and behold I woke up one morning and was saluted by these gorgeous squash blossoms. I quickly ran into my sanctuary for my shears and clipped them all off. Aren’t they just beautiful? I read somewhere that you have to pick them early in the morning, otherwise they will shrivel. I’ve been observing them and that is indeed a fact. I wasn’t about to let these shrivel. Ange’luscious would turn these into tasty little squash blossoms stuffed with herbs and ricotta cheese….Yummy!
I removed the stamens in the center, gave them a gently wash with water (they are extremely delicate), allowed them to drain/dry on paper towels, then stuffed them with my cheese mixture. I also made a batter with flour, eggs, salt and water, baptized the stuffed squash blossoms into the batter and deep fried them in avocado oil…..yummy again! I’ve been snacking on these all week.
Whilst I anticipate the exact species of squash that will be harvested in the near future; I’ll continue to focus on these appetizing fruits of my labor.
What are your favorite edible flowers and how do you prepare them?