Beignets des Fleurs de Courgettes

Especially for my friend David B in London. Recipe One, how I like to do them, Recipe Two how a French woman from Vence showed me how to cook them.

Please don't wash the flowers, keep them in a shady place, and use them the same day as you buy them.

To back track a little, I have just spent a little time with my friends Richard and David in London, where I was able to show off  my rented Saab convertable, I took them to Picasso's for breakfast, in the Kings Road Chelsea, I think I was born to drive a posh black convertable car, but alas alack I don't have one, but hiring one for a few days was a pretty splendid thing to do.

David asked me if I had a recipe for Courgettes Flowers, well I do, it has changed rather over the years, but I think I improve on it all the time. The french make a traditional batter, with the addition of a little beer, and some chopped parsley.. Here is how I make it.

For the frying you will need 1 Litre of sunflower oil, for the batter you will need, 2eggs, some flower, some water, a good splash of beer, chopped chives and parsley, a dash of powedered cumin and a sprinkle of curry powder (optional) salt and pepper, beat all together, nice and thick and gooey and put in fridge to get cold. When you are ready to pop flowers in hot oil, quickly beat two egg whites good and stiff and fold them into the batter, dip the flowers (cook two by two) into the batter and then pop into hot oil for a couple of minutes, making sure to turn them so that they are gold on both sides. Serve with a spicy tomato ceviche and a luxourious tomato puree.

Well that was how I used to make them. Now I make tempura Batter with rice flour and cornflour, add some chilled water, stir gently so that it remains quite lumpy, add salt and pepper and parsley, cumin and sesame oil a few drops of, and it is much lighter and easier to cook than the original batter.

As for the tomatoes, 5 large ripe red tomatoes, 1 spring onion, 1 juicy lime, 2 cloves of garlic, harrisa hot sauce, 1 small fresh chili, tamari (a splash of) cumin, fresh corriander chopped, fresh basil chopped, some olive oil and balsamic vinager.

Bring some water to boil in a saucepan, or boil a kettle and pour hot water over cored tomatoes and leave for a few seconds, take tomatoes out of water remove skins, then remove flesh, chop it and put it into a seive, where the water can drain away. Put discarded skins and tomato pips into small pan with a little olive oil, and the coarsley chopped garlic cloves, add a small amount of harrisa and tamari and cook for a least 10 minutes or so, then put in seive and rub the puree through with a wooden spoon into a bowl.  Once the flesh has drained well, add finely chopped spring onions and a pinch of cumin, a little olive oil, juice of 1 lime, tamari,salt and pepper very finely chopped fresh chili and corriander, mix very gently and place in fridge for a few minutes.

I spread a bit of the puree onto a plate and them spoon on some of the ceviche, decorate as you like and add cooked courgettes flowers. Most people can eat at least five, but you can only cook a few at a time. so I put two on each plate and then pass around a dish after. Voila.
Hopefully I will be writing on a regular basis now, as I am back to a fairly normal routine.

Tara

The original of this recipe can be seen here.