Goats cheese and sundried tomato stuffed courgette flowers

It was our last day in Provence and we were flying back from Nice airport. We therefore headed to the capital of the Cote d'Azur for one final potter around town before heading back to England. Luckily Saturday is also the day of the 'marche paysan' and there was beautiful French produce for the sampling. Sadly though, not enough space in my suitcase for bringing it all back. What I did spot and did bring back though, were some wonderfully vibrant and fresh courgette flowers.

 

I had also purchased some more sundried tomatoes as well as some goats cheese. I therefore had all the necessary ingredients to make stuffed courgette flowers for dinner tonight. I have eaten this sublime delicacy before, but have never before attempted to cook it. I don't know why these flowers are so hard to find in England, or so expensive to buy when you do (they were 12 for 1.50 Euros in the marche!). It was therefore with great anticipation that I set about making these.

What you will need

8-12 courgette flowers

150g goats cheese

Fresh chives

Fresh mint

4-5 sundried tomatoes

2 dried red chillies

Zest of 1/2 lemon juice

 

For the batter

4 heaped table spoons plain flour

1 heaped table spoon cornflour

½ tea spoon baking powder

½ tea spoon sea salt

200ml sparkling mineral water

 

Firstly make the batter. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and slowly whisk in the sparkling water until you have a medium-thick batter.

 

Next, wash the courgette flowers and dry thoroughly. Gently remove the stamen from inside the flowers with some small scissors.

 

Chop the sundried tomatoes, chillies, mint and chives and add to the goats cheese. Mix all the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper.

 

Delicately place 2 tea spoons of the mix inside the courgette flowers and twist the ends together to close up. These flowers are very delicate so don't fret if they do tear, just try and bring the ends together as best as possible. The batter really does work wonders in keeping the filling in.

 

 

When you have prepared all the stuffed courgette flowers, place enough oil (I used rapeseed) in a pan as necessary to fry the flowers.

 

Once the oil is up to temperature (you can test with a drop of the batter), dip each flower gently into the batter and add to the oil.

 

It is best to cook 2-3 at a time. They will take about 1-2 minutes to brown and crisp up, at which point, remove them from the oil and dry on kitchen paper. Serve these immediately whilst piping hot.

 

I served these with a baby leaf and rocket salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Gipsy Spread had his with some new potatoes tossed in olive tapenade. We were definitely still dining on the mediteranean tonight.

This meal meant my day ended a lot better than it had started. Think, double locking the house so the cleaner couldn't get in and realising when almost at work; turning back home to remedy and then boarding the wrong train back to work!

 

It was nice to end the day with this delicious dinner. The flowers were delicate and fragrent. The goats cheese, herbs and sundried tomatoes danced a waltz with the dried chillies in my mouth, complemented perfectly with the texture and flavour of peppery rocket and baby salad leaves. I just wish I had access to courgette flowers more often.