fried zucchini blossoms

[ned]

I've been frying quite a few zucchini blossoms this summer. Stuffing them with herbed riccota that has an egg yolk and parmesan in it. I'm using a batter made from prosecco, flour, baking soda and an egg. I've varied the proportions of the batter, omitted the egg, messed around with oil temperatures ranging between 300 and 375.

I want a batter that is light in color and that will still crunch and hold up under the weight of the blossom. Instead, I'm getting too much color and not enough structure. Not sogginess but not snappiness either.

Any and all advice is welcome.

[heidih]

I have found with the blossoms that my optimal result is a very bare coating with a crunch. If there is more than a skim of coating it is not going to "snap". We do it with rice flour and beer and a hint of cornmeal. The consistency is such that the flower seems almost not coated, but when they come out they are almost greaseless, have a crunch, and I can taste the essence of zucchini. I like (but have not tried) Mariana deBlasi's spraying them with a salt water mist.

[CanadianBakin']

If you're interested in searching him out, I believe transfattyacid on the Vancouver forum is a chef at Parkside which is one of my favourite restaurants. I have had amazing fried zucchini blossoms there and he may be able to give you some ideas. Unfortunately he hasn't been active since May this year but if you PM him, you never know .

[chefadamg]

if you can find it....rice flour/sparkling water, ice and an egg yolk. Forget the egg white as I've found inhibits crunchyness. The batter needs to be THIN THIN THIN....less batter will yield a better crunch.

[iriee]

rice flour seltzer and salt and pepper works great. nice and light tempura