• By Rosanne Buchanan

    I’ve eaten courgette flowers before, prepared by talented chefs, and was always a bit intimidated at the thought of making them myself… But now that I have planted my own, I decided the time had come to attempt cooking these delicacies. Once picked and washed, I put them in a bowl of ice water to keep them fresh.

    I tried a recipe from a recipe book at home, which included flour, a cup of light beer, an egg white and a dash of salt. I whipped up the batter, got the cooking oil nice and hot (I half-filled a medium-size saucepan) and simply dipped each flower in the batter and then straight into the hot oil for 3 to 4 minutes. I worked with about four flowers at a time and drained them on paper towel to remove any excess oil. They came out nice and crispy, without tasting ‘deep-fried’ or oily.

    I love the flavour of the flowers – they’re a bit sweeter than the veggie. And they look impressive as a starter!