Fried Squash Blossoms

I was going to tell you about bread today since the weather has finally cooled off a bit, and I've got a loaf in the oven right now. BUT. Squash blossoms are in season. I saw them Monday at the Central Square farmer's market and I'm sure there are a couple of weeks left, but guys... it's August.



August, meaning that it'll be September before we know it, meaning that we must gorge ourselves on summer food now, while we still can! What are you guys wolfing down right now? Corn? Tomatoes? Peaches?



You might consider adding squash blossoms to the list. The most popular way to eat them is to stuff them with something tasty and fry 'em up, which is precisely what I did here.



I did learn something cool from Zoe while I googled around on methods for stuffing and frying. You don't have to be so super careful not to rip the petals when you're cutting out the stamens, you just have to be deliberate and only tear it in one place. Then you can fold the flap over the filling and the coating will seal it shut in the frying oil. No need to twist it shut for round cylinders, flat things are easier to fry in less oil, anyway.



Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms
serves 4 as a light meal (we had salad, too)

I served these with a simple tomato sauce: finely chop a small onion, sweat in a bit of olive oil, add a minced clove of garlic, then add a 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes - I used the very last pint jar of home canned from 2010 - and simmer until thick. Add herbs (basil, oregano, marjoram) if you have them around. 

one dozen squash blossoms
1 cup ricotta cheese
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs: basil and oregano are great, sage would be nice, I think.
salt and pepper
one egg
1/2 cup flour
vegetable oil for frying

Fill a big bowl with cool water.

First, prep the blossoms: remove the calyxes (little green leafy things) from the base of the flower. Slit the petal in one spot all the way down to the green part and carefully cut out the stamen. Carefully swish the flower in the water and lay it, open, on paper towels to dry. Repeat with all the blossoms and allow them to dry.

Meanwhile, get the filling ready. Mix up the ricotta with the herbs and some salt and pepper. Taste it, make sure it's good. Once the blossoms are dry, pipe or spoon in a small amount of filling into each flower. Don't overstuff! It'll just leak out and make frying more difficult. Fold the flap over the cheese.

Beat the egg in a shallow bowl until well blended, season with a little salt and pepper. In another shallow bowl season the flour, too. In a heavy skillet, heat about an 1/8 of an inch of oil over medium-high heat. The oil is hot enough when a pinch of flour dropped in sizzles immediately. One at a time, carefully dip each filled flower in the egg, letting the excess drip off, and then into the seasoned flour, patting off excess flower so the coating is light, not clumpy. Fry until golden, a few minutes on each side, then drain on paper towels. Don't eat them right out of the pan or you'll burn your mouth on the hot cheese, make sure to give them a minute!

Lemon + Basil Chicken Meatballs

When I get an idea for a meal, I have a very, very hard time letting that idea float back into the ether. These meatballs bounced around like a ping pong ball in my head for two weeks (two weeks!) before I had a chance to make them. The thing is, I wanted meatballs, but the traditional type with three kinds of meat, woody oregano, heaps of garlic, long-simmered tomato sauce... nah. It is just too dang hot outside for classic meatballs.



I wanted something appropriate for the summer weather that has finally arrived here in the northeast, so I turned to basil, the summeriest herb. I started out with this recipe but I made some alterations because I wanted them to be fresh and citrusy... and I didn't have any milk in the house. Turns out I didn't need it. Lemon juice softened up the breadcrumbs just fine and I didn't miss the dairy fat because I used DUCK FAT!



I had duck leftover from my creative practicum for school (I made duck rillettes as part of my alternative charcuterie plate) and now I look for opportunities to use it. It's an animal fat so it's not as light as, say, olive oil, but since ground chicken tends to be pretty lean, adding back some fat really enriches the meatballs. If you don't have any duck fat or chicken fat (maybe saved from a roast), butter or oil would be just fine. No matter what fat you choose to use, you should try these meatballs.



Lemon and Basil Chicken Meatballs
serves 4, or 2 twice

The first day we ate these over spaghetti tossed with some sorrel pesto, but later in the week I split open a baguette, smeared it heavily with basil pesto (frozen from last summer, I'm trying to make room in the freezer for this year's haul), topped it with shredded mozzarella and stuck it under the broiler until the cheese bubbled. They were so good I didn't even get a chance to take a picture. I also think these would be excellent as cocktail nibbles, maybe with basil oil drizzled over or a pesto dip. 

1 cup fresh bread crumbs (from about 3 slices white sandwich bread)
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 a medium onion, very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon duck fat or chicken fat if you have them, butter or oil if not
salt and pepper
1 egg
1 pound ground chicken
4 tablespoons basil, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Combine the breadcrumbs with the juice of the lemon and set aside.

Heat a saute pan over medium low heat and heat the fat or oil. Gently cook the onion until translucent, then add the garlic and cook for another thirty seconds or until the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. If you move the onions to another bowl, save the fat in the pan.

Combine the chicken, egg, lemon zest, lemony breadcrumbs and cooked onions. Season with salt and pepper to taste (at least 1/2 a teaspoon of each). Use your hands to gently mix the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Heat a little more fat in the saute pan or use what's leftover in the pan to saute a little patty of the mixture and taste it. Does it need more salt or more lemon? Adjust the seasoning if you need to.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat (incidentally, you should use separate mats for savory and sweet cooking, those things absorb smells and flavors and cookies that taste like onion are... not delicious).

Roll the meat into small balls, about an inch in diameter, trying not to compress them too much as you roll. Easy does it, ok? Line them up on the sheet pan as you form them. Bake the meatballs for 20-30 minutes or until bits are golden brown and the meatballs are cooked through. Enjoy with pasta or as a meatball sub or on toothpicks with pesto for dipping, yum.

Stone Soup Farm CSA: Week Ten (and baked tomato sauce)

I know. I know. Those tomatoes! They're distracting me, too. Well, they would if they were still around. Before I wax rhapsodic, let me run down the inventory this week: beets with their greens (which are really purple), two yellow zucchini, two small pattypan squashes, a bunch of basil, a pound of carrots, two gorgeous onions and a head of red leaf lettuce. On Tuesday (vegetable day! the best day of the week!) we had a salad with the lettuce and a couple of tomatoes (plus an astonishing array of things I found in the fridge).

Wednesday I used the two remaining tomatoes in a riff on this baked pasta sauce from The Wednesday Chef. I chopped up the tomatoes into large chunks, spread them with some olive oil in a baking dish, and sprinkled a generous handful of breadcrumbs on top. (I had to use store bought panko, my freezer stash of crumbs was burned beyond recognition). I forgot the cheese, which it turns out was an error on my part. After 20 minutes at 400, I stirred the smushy melty awesomeness into a sauce, added a handful of basil and a modest shower of parmesan cheese and tossed it with some campanelle pasta. Adam's comment? "Need's more parm." He was totally right. I remember thinking that I didn't want to salt them too aggressively before they went in the oven because they'd be concentrating in flavor a bit and I knew I would be adding parmesan with the pasta. I was afraid of over salting, and instead wasn't aggressive enough. Lesson learned: don't be bashful!



I did love the texture of this sauce, however. I know it's cucina povera, but using bread crumbs with tomatoes is inspired and to me it feels decadent to use purposely sogged bread. I could be a total weirdo, but hey, maybe you'll like it, too!

What interesting things have you done with tomatoes this summer? And aren't you glad they're back with such vigor after last year's blight?

Stone Soup Farm CSA: Week Eight (and classic bruschetta)

What a colorful week! We got a very heavy load of: a small watermelon, five baby yellow zucchini, a big bunch of carrots, two cucumbers, two tomatoes (the first tomatoes!) a baby eggplant, a bunch of basil, a bunch of arugula and FOUR ears of corn.

Positively thrilled by the tomatoes (tomatoes! tomatoes! they're here!), I wanted to keep it simple so I could really savor them. So I chopped 'em up and slapped 'em on some toast. I pushed a couple of cloves of garlic through a press - you could mince, too. Then I added a splash of a mild balsamic vinegar to mellow out the raw garlic. Next up, three chopped tomatoes and three tablespoons of basil chiffonade (rolled up like a cigar and sliced into strips), then seasoned it with salt and pepper and doused it with a tablespoon or so of olive oil.



A little stir and a 10 minute rest later, here's the finished product piled on some crunchy toasted baguette slices. Oh, and that green toast-topper in the background is two cucumbers, peeled, seeded and grated, mixed with salt, pepper, two tablespoons of chopped fresh dill and a dollop of yogurt. Yeah, we like snacks for dinner. What's your favorite thing to put on toast?