Well the restaurant where I work is serving these curious flowers, stuffed, beer-battered, and fried, atop pesto sauce. Naturally, I'm jealous, so when I saw squash blossoms at the market this weekend I decided I was gonna "Ve-gan-iiize it!" (to the tune of "Le-ga-liiize it!"). I took pictures. It was epic, bro.
Squash BlossomsThere were four of them, and two of me. They look almost too small and delicate to be stuffed and hold together, but they're deceiving. They're about the length of my thumb, if you measure starting at the wrist. When I finally did stuff them it felt natural and satisfying. But before that, were the processes...
PestoI love pesto, as I believe every person in the world loves pesto, in some form or another. One of the best things about it, is that it is so deliciously flexible. Here in this post lies a pesto that rebels against many of pesto's traditional guidelines, while maintaining integrity of the basic nature of the sauce.
I made pepita, cilantro, thai basil pesto. I substituted nutritional yeast for Parmesan cheese, providing a nice rounded funky taste reminiscent of hard cheese, and plentiful in many of the same nutrients, minus the breast-feeding. (oops, did I say that out loud? It's late.) Okay pesto,
first, the ingredients:
this recipe was halved, and adapted, from my mom's, which is from somewhere...
1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup thai basil with
1/2 cup cilantro
1/8 cup nutritional yeast
1 clove garlic
generous pinch of salt
Grind the seeds and garlic in a food processor. Add basil, cilantro, and nutritional yeast and process until the mixture is pureed.
At this point you're supposed to add the oil "in a slow, steady stream" while the processor is going. I tried this tonight and had a slow steady stream of organic oil onto my counter. Perhaps you're better with your processor, but in my experience, pesto tastes good whether it achieves the texture of mayonnaise or not, so I opened the not-as-porous-as-it-looks lid, and dumped the remainder of the the oil in to process at awkward intervals of "chop" and "grind."
It smelled intoxicating when I was stripping the stalks of their cilantro and basil leaves. Herbs are intoxicating, have you noticed? Not just "herb," but lots of herbs. They have smells, I mean, that make your eyes water and your nostrils flare. Rosemary, sometimes, can make me feel like I'm in a pine tree filled with chopped onions, but yet I love rosemary for it. The fresh herbs today were tantalizing, torturing, and tickling me in the eyes, the nostrils, the finger tips, as I plucked leaves indiscriminatley, dirty and withered, and stuffed them into a measuring cup. Half and half, cilantro and basil pesto, with pumpkin seeds and nutty yeast.
So then it was pesto, whether Italy says so or not. I love pesto, did I mention that??! Anyway, refrigerate, and move on to next step.
Portobella Mushroom and Summer Squash Filling
1 portobella mushroom, stem removed, brushed with hand, chopped
1/2 half yellow summer squash, chopped
1/3 small white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
olive oil
earth balance
This steamy mixture could've run the meal, but tonight it's filling a flor. I sauteed first the onions, then added garlic, a minute, added mushrooms, sautee two minutes, cover and steam a minute or so, stir, sautee, smell. Add squash, stir, sautee. Cover and steam. Open when its steamin and throw it in the food processor, I thought it would fall outta the flores if I left it chunky, so puree seemed like the theme of the night.
Stuffing.
Stuffed.
Beer-battered and frying.
The final product!
Served with a pint of Arrogant Bastard Ale, which is in the batter, and a side of corn salsa and chips.
The verdict?
I'll level with you. They were gross.
"Saaad, really? After all that?!"
Yes.
Here's what I think went wrong:
a) I don't have that which to deep fry things, so the frying process was messy and ineffective. The blossoms should have been quickly heated through and the batter should have quickly cooked up crisp, but the insides were just warm and the batter cooked more slowly than is ideal.
b) Arrogant Bastard makes a gross batter. Beer batter should be made with a light but flavorful brew, I think. Arrogant Bastard is fine for drinking one of, but overall it is high in alcohol, too malty AND too hoppy (aka too sweet and too bitter), hence the name. It's Obnoxious American beer. My excuse is that the recipe I was using, taken from the the restaurant at Stone Brewery where A.B. is made, calls for this beer. The last time I made it I used Stone Pale, my fave of Stone's offerings, and I think that would've been better.
c) So I didn't "use a recipe" for the filling. At my restaurant the filling is summer squash, carrot, and ricotta, and to be honest that sounds gross too. Too many sweet things, and too much mush, and I've heard people comment that they are either "delicious" or "way too rich" so who knows.
If you'll notice, I didn't include the batter recipe or pictures, and that is because it didn't turn out well and besides, I was getting bored.
Anyway, wasn't this fun?! :)
What I would do next time:
-Try and emulate a more ricotta-ey filling by using a tofu base, but no carrots, eww (love em, but not here), maybe a lot of basil and lemon, garlic..I'm not sure. Ricotta-ey filling still sounds like a lotta mush to me....
-Dump a huge bottle of oil into a big pot and try to actually deep fry the things. OR! maybe I could bake them in a very hot oven.
-Use a pale ale for the batter, or maybe just use a non-beer batter.
-Eat those delicious mushrooms without stupid pureeing them. Sigh, what a waste of yummies.
By the way, don't worry, the pesto was great!
