Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Fiori di Zucca)

I love zucchini flowers.  My Nonna used to make them when my Nonno picked them from the garden.  She would make a batter, dip them, fry them and sprinkle them with sugar.  When I recently asked her why she doesn't make them anymore her response was, "They don't turn out so good...."  So I asked her if they had any in the garden because I wanted to try making them. Nonno went out and came back with three large zucchini.  "She wants the flowers!!" Nonna shouts in Italian.  He's not sure if there is any, but he went out to look anyways.  And he came back with about a dozen.  I have seen a lot of recipes for stuffed zucchini flowers so that's what I wanted to try!

When preparing the flowers, make sure you take out the yellow stamen inside and cut off the stem (if necessary).  You don't need to wash them, but it doesn't hurt to wipe them with a damp paper towel if they look a little dirty.  Be gentle when you open them as you need them to stay in tact in order to be stuffed.  Some of the smaller ones or ones I couldn't stuff, I simply dipped in the same batter, fried them and sprinkled them with sugar like my Nonna does!

Ingredients:
12 zucchini blossoms, ready to be stuffed
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1.5 tsp garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves minced garlic)
2 tsp basil, or about 4 fresh basil leaves finely chopped
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup & 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cold water
1 tbsp lemon juice
oil for frying (vegetable, canola or coconut - I used a combo of vegetable and coconut)

1. Mix together the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, basil, garlic and salt.  Continue mixing until it has a smooth consistency.  Using a freezer bag, place the mixture into it and cut off the corner to make a piping bag.  Do this just before you are ready to stuff the flowers.

2. Add the lemon juice to the water and give it a quick stir.  In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and lemon water.

3.  Meanwhile heat the oil over medium heat.  You will need a large pan with a couple of inches of oil so the whole flower can fry.

4. Gently pipe about 1-2 tbsp (depending on the flower size) of the ricotta filling into the flowers.  The large flowers will swell up as they are filled.  Twist the top of the petals together to close and seal the flowers.

5.  Test the oil by dropping in some batter.  If it's hot enough it will sizzle and rise to the top.  Dip each flower into the batter one at a time.  Hold the flower by the top where you twisted the petals.  Make sure it is totally covered in batter and let the excess batter drip off.

6. Gently lower the flower into the hot oil.   Cook until the flowers are crispy, about 2-3 minutes.  If the whole flower isn't covered in the oil, turn it over part way through.  Fry the flowers in small batches depending on the size of your pan.

7.  Remove the flowers with a slotted spoon and place on a baking sheet with a paper towels.  Keep the stuffed flowers warm in a low oven while the others are being fried.  They taste best when they're fresh, but can easily be warmed up again in the oven at a later time.

Pink Lemonade Popsicles

My little one has been asking to make popsicles for such a long time, so tonight was the night.  Off to bed we would go afterwards and they'd be ready for a delicious snack the next day.  And with the temperatures they're calling for, we are going to need a frozen treat like this to cool off.

Please do not mind my photo of the popsicles.  I couldn't find my moulds for the life of me, so we had to improvise.  What you see is a result of placing the mixture in a parchment lined loaf pan, putting in a popsicle stick through when they were pretty solid and then cutting them into 8 pieces afterwards.

Ingredients:
1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest (I always use a bit more!)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
1/2 cup and 2 tbsp sugar
1-3/4 cup water
handful of frozen or fresh raspberries
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. In a blender or food processor, combine the lemon zest, juice and sugar.  Pour in water.  Add the raspberries and salt and blend until the mixture is smooth and pink.

2.  Pour into your popsicle moulds, dividing evenly among the moulds.  Cover and freeze until solid, at least 5 hours.    If you are using sticks, insert them into the moulds when they are partially frozen and will stand on their own, about 2 hours.  Continue to freeze them until solid.

If you're liking me and you can't find (or don't have) moulds, there are several workarounds.  As I mentioned above, you can line a loaf pan with parchment paper that overhangs on all sides and pour the mixture in.  The directions above didn't work too well for me as the mixture was still pretty liquidy 4 hours after it was placed in the freezer.  So what I did was at that time I placed the popsicle sticks in, went to bed and woke up in the morning.  Of course I couldn't pull out the block, so I cut it into 8-10 squares in the pan.  Then I was easily able to remove it from the pan and put them back in the freezer as individual pops.  If yours freezes up faster, then slice them individually  after 3-4 hours.

You can also use paper cups or individual glasses and follow the steps above for inserting the popsicle sticks.  When ready to eat, you may have to let them sit at room temperature for up to 5 minutes so they can be easily removed.

Alternate flavour: Instead of raspberries, add 2-3 strawberries (fresh or frozen) that have been hulled.

These had quite a tangy flavour, but they are really quite good and refreshing on such a hot day!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I had a lot of zucchini lying around and I was debating between making a bread or muffins.  Since muffins are a staple in my house, it was an easy decision.  And since everything has to have chocolate (my little one's request), we decided to bake chocolate zucchini muffins.  An early wake-up call meant going downstairs, dressing up in our matching aprons and having a fun morning.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/3 cup sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1-1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Line muffin tins with liners or spray them.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, milk and vanilla extract.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Fold in the zucchini and chocolate chips.

4. Divide the batter amongst each cavity; each should be pretty full.  Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool 5-10 minutes in pan and then move to a cooling rack until completely cool.

Makes 24 muffins.

These taste especially good while warm as the chips are still gooey, but they still taste delicious when cooled.  They have a nice texture and are really quite moist.  You can't even tell that there's zucchini in them.  We will definitely be making them again - and sharing with our friends!

Coconut Curry Chicken Stiry-Fry

There's nothing like planning to make a stir-fry and then realizing that your husband finished the soy sauce and didn't add it to the "need to buy" list!

I had already prepped everything and was really stumped.  So I took to my good friend Google and found some stir-fries that use coconut milk (which surprisingly I did have in my cupboard).  Working with ingredients I did have on hand, I was able to tweak a recipe and come up with this.  It turned out pretty good, but I wouldn't put it up there as one of my favourites.  Good thing is that it is gluten free (if you need that sort of thing).  I don't know much about paleo, but I think the stir-fry itself could be paleo, if you changed some of the veggies and didn't use the noodles I did.

Ingredients:
Coconut oil for frying (or some other cooking fat)
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into stir-fry size
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 handfuls of frozen, shelled edamame
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 can (398mL) coconut milk
1-1/2 tsp curry powder
3/4 tsp ground ginger
salt to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare the sauce by whisking together the coconut milk, curry powder and grated ginger over medium heat.  Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally.  Lower the heat and continue to stir on occasion.

2. Stir-fry the chicken in a hot wok with about 1 tbsp coconut oil.  Cook until meat is no longer pink and cooked through.  Remove the chicken and set aside.

3. Reheat the wok and add the onion with some more coconut oil.  Cook the onion for a few minutes until it is translucent and tender.  Add the garlic, frozen edamame and carrot.  Stir-fry until the veggies are tender.  Return the chicken to the wok and add the sauce.  Cook until everything is hot once again.

At this point you can eat the curry on its own, or you can serve it over rice or noodles.  I chose to use bean thread noodles.  To prepare them, simply boil water.  Place 4 sets (50g each) in a bowl and cover with the boiling water.  Let them soak for 15 minutes to soften up.  Drain the water and toss them in with your curry.  Mix everything together to coat.

Serves 6.