Zucchini flowers stuffed with herbed goat cheese

Hosting a dinner party? Simple but delicious, Australian Grown stuffed zucchini flowers make for an extra-elegant entree. They look fancy, but they're dead easy and taste fantastic! They're also a great way to jazz up a simple pasta or salad.

Preparation time

30 minutes 

Cooking time

10 minutes 

Serves

6 

Ingredients

24 Australian Grown zucchini flowers

450g Meredith Dairy goat cheese

1 egg

2 tbsp dried rosemary leaves

1 tsp lemon rind

3/4 cup plain flour

3/4 cup chilled soda water

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

500ml frying oil

Olive oil to drizzle 

Finely grated parmesan for decoration

Salt and pepper

Method

• Mix the goat cheese, egg, rosemary leaves and lemon rind in a bowl and set aside.
• Gently open the petals of the flowers and remove and discard the stamens.
• Spoon the cheese mixture evenly among the flowers, carefully twisting them sealed and setting them aside until you're ready to fry.
• When you're ready to fry, dress your plates so they are ready to go with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Now's the time to prepare your pasta or salad if you're incorporating the zucchini flowers into a main instead.
• Heat the frying oil in a large frying pan.
• Lie out some kitchen towel or a tea towel so the cooked flowers have somewhere to drain.
• Whisk the flour with a pinch of salt and pepper, the bicarbonate of soda and chilled soda water.
• Working in batches, dip the flowers in the batter and then drop them straight into the frying oil for approximately two minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove the flowers from the oil with a slotted spoon and allow them to drain on the kitchen towel before plating up.
• Arrange neatly on plates/pasta/salad and sprinkle with a little extra salt, pepper and finely grated parmesan to decorate.