Spicy Cheese, Bacon and Basil Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Deep Fried Cheese Stuffed Squash or Pumpkin Blossom with a Twist of Spicy Chilli, Savoury Bacon and  Refreshing Lemon Basil Recipe.

Pumpkin Squash Blossom, Male and Female Blossoms with Baby Pumpkin Fruit

How to cook the pumpkin blossom is the question once i saw a plenty of it on my grandma’s garden. Once i googling stuffed pumpkin blossom, the result comes out as stuffed squash blossom. What the heck @#%@$^#%, it comes to a question what is the different beetween pumpkin and squash blossoms.  Well, to keep it simple, pumpkin is one type of squash and squash is generally refers to four species from genus Cucurbita. Genus  Cucurbita including the species of squash, pumpkin or gourd depending on species, variety and local parlance, are grown for their edible fruits and seeds. So, to make it clearer, both squash and pumpkin belong to the same family (the cucurbitaceae). A pumpkin is a type of squash.

Pumpkin Squash Blossom, Male and female Flower with Baby Pumpkin Fruit

All part of the pumpkin plant is edible, i mean all of it, including the blossom. Most of the pumpkin or squash blossom recipe using only the male flower. You can diffeciate the male and female pumpkin blossom by observing the area directly below the flower. Male pumpkin blossom should be a long wiry stem that connects the blossom directly to the vine;  it’s usually several inches long, without any swelling at the base of the flower. Look for a shorter, thicker flower stalk and a small, round swelling just below the flower base, it’s called the baby pumkin that waiting to grow.  Once you’ve harvest the pumpkin blossom, wash it gently inside and out under cool water. Soaking in a big bowl of water may damage the delicate blossoms if kept wet for too long. Use that method with caution. Remove the stems and stamen before stuffing. and use same day for best results. To store the pumpkin blossom, right before you wash it, rolled it up in a lint-free cloth and put it in the fridge and then wash it prior to cook.

I told you before that most of the pumpkin or squash blossom recipe using only the male flowers. It’s simply because the male pumpkin flower gonna be wilded in one or three days after it’s blossom, while the polinated female blossom gonna be grown up into pumpkin fruit. Well, sometimes life is a simply sucks, to honoured the male pumpkin flower; The farmers used to ended the blossoms in their plates. This gender discrimination made me curious even more about the female pumpkin flower, especially the polinated ones with the baby pumpkin buds under the yellow petals. Don’t tell my grandma that i’ve picked the blossom with baby pumpkin blossom too, otherwise; she probably smacked my fuc*ing head off.

The baby pumpkin fruit bud in the female pumpkin blossom is the highlight of this snack for me. It’s  got a velvety sweet flavour with a soft texture . I gotta told you that afterall i’m not feeling guilty at all to harvesting the female pumpkin blossom. One of the trick to  make sure your baby pumpkin buds throughly cooked, poke it several times with fork to make the heat penetrated it perfectly.

Cheesey Stuffed Pumpkin Squash Blossoms!!!

I used to stuffed any vegetables with meat and i was planning to stuffed the squash blossoms with somekind seasoned minced chicken or pork meat, but eversince i noticed that i didn’t had any of it in my fridge, i checked out my fridge one more time and found lemon basil leaves, bacon, The Laughing Cow cubed cheese, remaining few spoonfull of ricotta and feta cheese and some leftover Roasted Pumpkin from making Pumpkin Risotto Recipe. Binggo!!!, i decided to cleaned up my fridge and mix all of it and stuffed it good in the pumpkin blossoms, but not to forget to  add chilli flakes, lots of it to suits my Indonesian licking.  I’m using Basic Beer Batter Recipe  for coating the stuffed squash blossoms and then dredging it in panko breadcrumb right before deep frying it.

 

Deep Fried Cheese Stuffed Squash or Pumpkin Blossom:

Ingredients:

• 10 or more large pumpkin squash blossoms
• 3-4 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

Pumpkin Blossom Spicy Stuffing Recipe

• 1/2 cup Roasted Pumpkin
• 1 box 24  Laughing Cow Cubes Cheese Spread,  chopped
• 2 tablespoonfulls of ricotta cheese
• 2 tablespoonfulls of feta cheese
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/4 cup finely chopped lemon basil leaves
• 2 slice bacon, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 tbsp chilli flakes

Basic Beer Batter Tempura Recipe:

• 1/4 can VERY COLD beer
• 1 egg white
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• salt and pepper to taste

 

How to Make Cheese Stuffed Squash or Pumpkin Blossom Fritter :

• Stir together the stuffing ingredients, no need to add any salt at all because it’s elements is quite salty
  

• Carefully open each blossom and fill with about 1-2 tablespoonfull  filling, gently twisting end of blossom to enclose filling.
  

• Dip the stuffed pumpkin blossoms in the basic beer batter to thinly coat.

• Dredge the beer batterred stuffed pumpkin blossoms in panko breadcrumbs

• Tossing  the breaded stuffed pumpkin blossoms to remove the excess breadcrumbs

• Heat the  oil  in a 10-inch heavy skillet, fry the coated and stufffed pumpkin blossoms for about 1 minutes

• Turning the breaded pumpkin blossom once and pierced the baby pumpkin fruit buds in the female blossom  with fork to make it throughly cooked and let it fry until perfectly golden brown.
• Transfer with tongs to paper towels to drain.
• Coat and fry remaining blossoms. Serve it with chili and tomato sauce.

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