Floral tribute
April 23, 2009
Had a few people round last night, which gave me an excuse yesterday to come over all Stepford and cook three courses for dinner – which my friends will tell you is virtually unheard of.Senor is usually dessertmeister, but I replicated his orange and quince cake (more on that later) from the weekend, and the main was Neil Perry’s cinnamon-scented lamb, which is the new Syrian chicken as far as I’m concerned (foolproof and everyone loves it).
But my major Proper Little Housewife moment came in stuffing zucchini flowers as a starter.
Have never done it before, but having now discovered just how easy it is, I plan to get stuffed much more often.
The persuading factor here was the man who sold us the fleurs at the Northside Produce Market last weekend telling me that you don’t have to fry them. This is what’s always put me off – but much easier to chuck in the oven on a very high heat, with a good splash of olive oil. In about half an hour they were done and darn good.
I stuffed them with a mixture of goat’s cheese, olives, garlic, anchovies, parsley & breadcrumbs just thrown in the food processor till combined. But beware, they don’t need much – I had 200g goat’s cheese, probably half a jar of pitted kalamatas, about four anchovies and perhaps a cup of breadcrumbs. And for 14 flowers I used about a third of that mixture (now safely in the freezer for next time).
Never have known what the season for zuke flowers is, but these were healthy specimens indeed and grown somewhere in NSW, I’m thinking (don’t have the details, dammit) so it must be zuke fleur season somewhere in the Sydney basin at the moment … and they’re so lovely to look at, don’t you think?
How to shuck an oyster 
Zucchini flowers aren’t strictly in season at the moment but they’re more widely available because there’s this guy who grows them in igloos near Windsor.
Igloos? Do tell. And does that mean it’s all unnatural and not allowed under the blimmin low-food- miles/eat-local/eat-seasonal ethos??
I think igloos are like greenhousey things and I reckon they’re fine with food miles because they’re only coming from Windsor which is practically CBD in farming terms. And the flavour’s not compromised either so the eat seasonal ethos seems okay too.
And VERY yummy they were too, lovey. Genius.