Courgette Flowers

I’ve got so much to do today as we are off camping in North Wales, so I shouldn’t really be posting about stuffing courgettes. That said our very cute Border Terrier Ernie is snuggled on my lap and tea is mashing in the pot so I have a few moments to spare before the chores begin.

Our friends the Faloon’s are on holiday and we are heading off to water their greenhouse for them later today. In true local grower style we tend to swap produce and baked goods when we have a glut of anything, so they generously gave us the lovely courgettes above with flowers attached as they would have turned into marrows by the time their holiday was over.

The flowers on ours usually get eaten by the snails and slugs before they get to this stage but I did manage to add a few to the pot. I have always wanted to try eating the flowers as I have seen it so often in books and tv programmes.

I stuffed them with a mix of marscapone (I had not got the traditional ricotta so I savouried it up with finely grated parmesan and cheddar), mint leaves, lemon zest, salt and pepper. This was losely based on the Times recipe and I made the tempura batter and briefly fried them. We ate them with Maldon salt and lemon wedges. They were nice but very rich. Must get that ricotta next time.

We also had roast pork with crispy crackling and a delicious dish of french, runner and broad beans from the garden with a few of our freshly harvested shallots and a lovely dressing that I can’t tell you about because Ed made it whilst I was tending to the hot courgette flowers.

Now, where’s that camping list…