Stuffed pumpkin flowers

[Bageless]

I have a garden of out-of-control pumpkin plants and must pinch off some of the flowers. Do they give the same result as zucchini flowers when stuffed?

[jackal10]

Yes, except that they tend to be bigger and a bit coarser.

As ever they need to be cleaned well, since earwigs and others find them a handy home. They are also a feast for pollen beatles.

[Fat Guy]

When I saw the thread title "Stuffed pumpkin flowers, Can they replace zucchini flowers?" I just assumed there was some kind of zucchini flower shortage.

Botanically, though, they must be quite similar, no?

[melkor]

I've got the same problem with my pumpkin plants, I'm more worried about what I'm going to do with all the pumpkins.

It's like that all over the patch they are growing in.

[KatieLoeb]

To quote the Bard:

"Would a squash blossom by any other name taste as sweet?"

All pumpkins, squash and zucchini are "Gourds" by nature, so I'd imagine their flowering parts would be quite similar.

[Adam Balic]

The flavour is slightly different (not enough to worry about) and if you use the female flowers you will have to remove the pistil, as this can be very large in some varieties of pumpkin/squash compared to zucchini. May be better to only use the male flowers, depending on the variety.

My Italian relatives use both pumpkin and zucchini flowers, as the pumpkin flowere are much larger they treat then slighly differently. The batter has a much higher proportion of eggs, so that if forms a custurd filling in the flower, with a crisp eggy batter on the outside.

[Priscilla]

I have a sprawling volunteer multi-vine pumpkin patch snaking out of the compost covering a huge area of my garden (out near the stinging nettles mentioned elsewhere). Immense! And it all on its own, although the Consort did tie the patch into the watering system after it became obvious it was here to stay.

Loads of male flowers, bigger than my hand. (Pumpkins too! Hope they make it -- have had bad luck trying to grow pumpkins but these volunteers seem to know what they're doing.)

Have fried some blossoms with a little goat cheese and parmigiano/pecorino romano inside, dipped in batter. Very mild, not tasting so much of pumpkin as zucchini flowers do of zucchini. But good.

Adam, I used a crackly flour & water batter that I use for zucchini blossoms. Could you outline the proportions of the egg-rich one your Italian informants use for pumpkin? The custardy middle idea intrigues. Is there stuffing as well?

[Adam Balic]

Adam, I used a crackly flour & water batter that I use for zucchini blossoms.  Could you outline the proportions of the egg-rich one your Italian informants use for pumpkin?  The custardy middle idea intrigues.  Is there stuffing as well?

In general, stuffing is for tourists, although, this may be a particular preference of the family and not a true cooking 'Rule', which seems to be very common in this part of Italy.

Flour is mixed with egg and thinned out with water (I use sparkling for some reason) until it 'looks right'. To get the custurdy effect, more egg yolks are added so that you get a batter that has similar proportions to a clafoutis.

As you know pumpkin flowers are quite large, when you pick then fresh they are opened out. If you dip these flours in the batter the weight of the batter collapses the flowers, trapping some batter on the inside of the flower. The flowers are also deep fried in olive oil (Tuscan), so this falvours then as well. I think that they don't bother to stuff them because the oil and eggy batter give a rich and flavourful dish by themselves.

[Priscilla]

Thank you Adam I am SO trying this right quick here maybe tonight.

What about non-fried applications? (Got blossoms wanting cooking!)

In Mexican cookery squash blossoms are folded into quesadillas as they go on the griddle. Have made Mario Batali's squash blossom & mascarpone ravioli -- very nice.

[Adam Balic]

In this part of Italy there is a special type of zucchini. Unlike many other types, the female fruit is quite large, even in the unfertilized state. The male flowers are picked and fried, but the female flowers are used in other types of cooking. The have a fantastic 'zucchini' falvour and are very tender. The last time I was in Florence I had a pasta dish of these zucchini flowers in a cream (or mascapone and cream sauce) and a hint of saffron.

I am going to Florence in ten days to attend a wedding, so I could send you some seeds if you like. No idea about USA laws about doing this sort of thing.

[Pan]

I am going to Florence in ten days to attend a wedding, so I could send you some seeds if you like. No idea about USA laws about doing this sort of thing.

Check with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, but it sounds illegal to me. They want to prevent agricultural diseases from spreading unchecked.

[Adam Balic]

Often this is true if you are just sending seeds etc that you pick off the ground, but if they come from a commercial source they are sometimes treated differently. But, again I have no idea about the USA.

[Pan]

Oh, I see your point. If you buy them in a package, that might change things. But check with the USDA to be sure. I do recall that I was allowed to bring in Chinese herbal medicines from Hong Kong in 1987, probably because they were either bought in packages or dried powders.

[Priscilla]

I have declared European seeds to U.S. Customs and no trouble ensured.

One time they looked askance at a tinned-steel Chinois, however.

[Bageless]

I did try the pumpkin flowers with a recipe in which they are stuffed and chilled but not cooked. (Stuffing was breast of chicken sauteed in olive oil and a couple spoonfuls of cognac, then chopped in food processor and mixed with some whipped up butter and chopped fresh marjoram. Then the stuffed blossoms were chilled in fridge for a couple hours and served with a vinaigrette.) I found the flowers that had opened up had a lot of bugs and were tougher. I ended up going back out to the garden and picking some younger ones. The stuffing was very nice and may use it to stuff something else. The flowers didn't have much taste; maybe I will try the batter recipe given above.

This was my first home experiment with squash flowers. I recently had them at a restaurant here (France) stuffed with ground shrimp and other things and they were excellent.

[albiston]

Adam, I used a crackly flour & water batter that I use for zucchini blossoms.  Could you outline the proportions of the egg-rich one your Italian informants use for pumpkin?  The custardy middle idea intrigues.  Is there stuffing as well?

In general, stuffing is for tourists, although, this may be a particular preference of the family and not a true cooking 'Rule', which seems to be very common in this part of Italy.

Flour is mixed with egg and thinned out with water (I use sparkling for some reason) until it 'looks right'. To get the custurdy effect, more egg yolks are added so that you get a batter that has similar proportions to a clafoutis.

Just a litlle cooment:

My mom (from Rome) fries the flowers (with other stuff in a big veggie fry, only once a year sadly!) exactly as Adams writes.

In Naples and Campania generally (where I lived till a few years ago) they are made differently. The batter is just flour and water and yeat (or beer sometimes), a sort of thick poolish bread starter, left to rise, actually bubble more than rise, for a few hours. The flowers are then often stuffed, cow milk mozzarella (fior di latte) and a tiny piece of anchovy is a common one.

Alberto

[Adam Balic]

mozzarella and anchovie sounds great. I am going to try this next week when I am in Italy.

[Priscilla]

I fried some pumpkin flowers last night for a first course, using an Ada Boni recipe, and once again it was remarkable how delicate a pumpkin flavor they have. More substantial texture than zucchini flowers, I would say, but a more delicate flavor. Very very good to look at, and good to eat, too.

Planning on trying the mozz/anchovy raised-batter next.

[Bill Klapp]

A big problem in Italy would be locating pumpkins in the first place, since all manner of squash and gourds travel under the generic name "zucca"!