Zucchini Blossom Fritters (Bajjis)

Zucchini & Patty Pan Blossoms (squash flowers)
FROM THIS TO....

Served with  Hot and sweet sauce (YUM)
THIS :P

Before I get into my post, I want to thank all the people caring to follow this blog J A big thank you Gita Jaishankar for making me reach an awesome number of followers. I am sorry I did not take notes on who made up the first three centuries ): but I will in the future! So thrilled, so humbled – did I say So thrilled already?

Too beautiful to NOT eat (lol)

This is probably the third summer that we have not traveled to India or anywhere abroad (yet) and I have taken immense joy the luxury of starting my own veggie patch and seeing the fruits/veggies of our effort. Zucchinis, Patty pans and Tomatoes and more recently chili peppers have been delighting us in abundance! Each day I would see these wonderful yellow blossoms from both my patty pans and zucchinis and saw, wow another veggie in the offing until this wonderful Italian friend of mine thanks to whom my summer has been a blast, told me that these could be made into fritters and are ever so popular in Italian cuisine! When we got together she made them Italian style with all purpose flour and eggs. For those who know me, you are aware that if I can avoid using eggs, I do and IF there is a possibility of adapting recipes to Indian or vice-versa, I am all for it – right?

How to distinguish MALE flower?

But my friend also taught me to distinguish the “male” flower from the female, squash bearers. The male flower blooms brightly in the morning and do have a pistil that rather resembles the male reproductive organ – Sorry to be “green” about this folks, but the look for the penile projection! The male flowers are the tasty ones and are the ones to be used for this recipe. So if you have your own garden and are growing zukes or patty pans, you can make yourself this delicious treat.

Fry away

Close up

Ingredients

Male Zucchini/patty pan blossoms / oil to fry

NOTES

Wear GLOVES since these stems have a million small and very mean thorns

PICK Flowers EARLY in the MORNING

Cut the flower at the head of the stem,

WASH them thoroughly, because there is a veritable bee/ant fest happening inside!

DRY thoroughly with paper towels

Store in Ziplocs and refrigerate until ready for use!

For batter

1:1 besan/ chickpea flower: rice flour

Salt

A dash of asafetida

Curry leaves

1 tbsp Homemade chili powder or sambar powder (adjust according to preference)

To maintain some Italianess, I added some fresh rosemary and basil (also Homegrown – told you I’d be using that word a lot this summer)

MIX all these with water to a smooth flowing consistency!

Washed and drained

Preparation

Dip and drop – dip the flower in the batter and drop in hot oil
Note:: It can splutter a lot since no amount of drying gets rid of all the water! SO be aware of this and take precaution!

Cook until golden brown

Serve with chutney/ketchup or enjoy by itself

Add caption

Presenting Zucchini Blossom Bajjis, folks J

Cheers until the next post