Every day during the summer, at 6:56 am and 8:43 am, Marion Sauveur gives you an idea of a recipe to brighten up your taste buds. Today the courgette flower.
Marion Sauveur we sit at the table every morning with you. And this morning, we're cooking a flower!
The zucchini flower, a pretty yellow flower, long and on which the zucchini grows. There are two types of zucchini flowers: male and female. They are easily recognized since the females are the ones on which the courgettes grow while the males have a single stem.
For these zucchini to grow, the female flowers must be pollinated by bees. And we pick the female flowers, with their courgettes. Small zucchini measuring 6 cm. Flowers have been eaten since Antiquity and for a long time they were consumed for their virtues.
In France, the courgette flower has been brought up to date by a very great chef: Jacques Maximin. It was in the 1980s when he worked in the palace, Le Negresco, in Nice. The female flowers have a sweeter flavor and the males have a more bitter taste.
The peculiarity of zucchini flowers is that they open early in the morning and as soon as the heat becomes too strong they close again. The ideal is to pick the open flower. On the market, choose them open if possible and especially very yellow! Above all, once the flower is in your hands, don't wait to consume it. It is a very fragile flower.
How do you want to prepare this zucchini flower?
It is easily cooked as a donut. But today I suggest you stuff it! You will see it is not that difficult.
The most delicate phase is to clean the flower quickly, under a stream of water, and to open its petals without damaging them to remove the pistil in the middle of the female flower and the stamens of the male flower. They taste bitter.
Ingredients:
4 zucchini flowers with their flower
2 zucchini
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
1 tomato
fresh cheese fresh
basil Fresh
thyme
Pepper
Salt
Production :
We brown chopped onions in a pan with a little olive oil, it must smell of the south! Add the zucchini and the diced tomato 2-3 minutes, the vegetables must be crunchy.
Add thyme and fresh basil and take it out of the heat.
The courgette flowers are plunged into boiling water for a few seconds. They are cooled in ice water, before gently drying them with absorbent paper.
We stuff the flowers of our pan with vegetables and cream cheese, it will bring sweetness.
Sprinkle them with a drizzle of olive oil and bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees.
If the flower petals have torn, you just have to fry them or make donuts.
Where can you put your feet under the table to eat stuffed zucchini flowers?
At the restaurant Le Lapin Blanc in Avignon. The chef Amélie Nogier cooks with local products and she makes zucchini flowers stuffed with fresh goat cheese from Ventoux, with pesto and parmesan. They are served with elongated cherry tomatoes and seared fiddle zucchini. A very gourmet plate!