Turns out squash and pumpkin flowers are more popular in world-wide cuisine than this gal realized. When we moved to Africa, we suddenly saw oodles of squash flowers and pumpkin flowers/leaves in restaurants and African cookbooks. Now I know why. Here's a good treat we'll never ignore in our garden again...
Step One: The flowers are picked, washed, and dried. They're very fragile, but even our three year old did okay... The more you rip them, the harder they are to stuff.
Step Two: Remove the stamens (above). Though the base of the flower is especially meaty and delicious, the stamens that sit inside of it are not for eating. Again Jonas takes over.
Step Three: Though there are many ways to eat these, we stuffed our with cheese and herbs. (Ricotta is popular to stuff with in other parts of the world, but I have yet to find it here!)
Step Four: We rolled ours in egg, then sadza with a little salt. (Again we're using what's available, but I think polenta, cornmeal, flour, or breadcrumbs are all pretty good alternatives.)
Step Five: We sauteed the flowers. Baking or frying are also common ways to make these.
Step Six: Cool for a few minutes. Then enjoy!
