Beignets de fleurs de courgette (reblogged from 2011)

On our way down from Mount Brinchang to Sungei Palas, we stumbled upon a vegetable farm called 'Mountain Strawberry Farm'. I wanted to know if anyone was growing zucchinis (courgette in French) and so we gave this one a try. Happily, they do grow zucchinis - just one single row of it. The worker that attended to us, a Bangladeshi man who has been working in the same farm for the past six years, was surprised that I wanted to buy zucchini flowers above all vegetables offered for sale because he too, eats them from time to time (I didn't ask how). However, when I told him that I only wanted the female flowers (those with a tiny zucchini attached to its stem), he became reluctant because (I could understand why) each female flower plucked equals to one future zucchini fruit lost. Besides, he didn't know what the boss lady might say to him...Not wanting to put him in a fix, I ordered a kilo of fresh zucchinis, some leeks, tomatoes and a head of iceberg lettuce and he happily plucked a dozen of male zucchini flowers for me to 'try'...all's well ends well with a little concession on all sides...

Cabbages in neat rows...

Tomatoes in the green house...

Pea flower...edible but not for sale either. The zucchini patch is on the back row...

The male zucchini flowers...not exactly what I wanted but will do for this time. I am sending the seeds to someone I know in Cameron Highlands to have them grown...

Voila the end result. I was pleasantly surprised with the result as the fried flowers were delicate, fragrant (somewhat like a fried sweet potato) and delicious. A sprinkle of fine sea salt at the end really helped bring out the delicate flavours of this dish.

Recipe for the batter:

In an ice-cold mixing bowl (double bowls with ice put in between)...
1 egg
3 tablespoon of flour
a pinch of salt
pepper
ice cold sparkling mineral water (like Perrier)

Thin the batter to a liquid consistency. Remove the pistils from the flowers and gently rub off the tiny hairs around the stems of the flowers with a piece of kitchen towel. Swirl the flowers gently in the batter and deep fry them in hot oil until golden (this will really only take a minute or two). Drain off the oil with kitchen paper towels and serve immediately with a pinch of fine sea salt.