Grow Your Own Magazine

As I promised Pigletwillie, I've been adding some Mexican recipes to the forum. I must say, one thing that has got me into gardening, has been the yearning for courgette flowers, as sadly they are not commercialised in Britain (what a waste!).

So all of you lucky enough to have a good crop this year, please dont put the flowers in the compost, give them a chance with some of these recipes, and of course, I'd love to see what other delicacies can be done with this favourite of mine.

First, a very easy one: Courgette Flower Quesadillas

Ingredients:

1 handful of courgette flowers (about 10 would do)
Vegetable oil
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
150 grams of mature cheddar cheese, grated
2 Tortillas

Preparation:
Clean the courgette flowers and chop.
Lightly fry the garlic and onion. Add courgette flowers, salt and pepper. Bring down the heat and leave to cook until liquids evaporate.

In a large frying pan heat one tortilla, put half the cheese in and half of the courgette flower mixture. Fold in half and lightly brown on each side. Repeat with the other tortilla.

(Serve with the salsa or chillies of your choice if you want.)

Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 crepes
1 big handful of courgette flowers (about 20) washed
2 red peppers
1 cup sour cream
1/4 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
Milk, as required
Salt and Pepper, to taste
100 gr mature cheddar cheese

Salsa:
Deseed the red peppers and boil until soft. Remove from water and chop. In a pan, fry onion and garlic, when brown, add peppers. Add cream (and milk if its too thick) and season with salt and pepper. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes and then remove from heat. Then blend.

Filling:
Boil the courgette flowers in a bit of water with salt until soft. Drain and chop.

Fill each crepe with courgette flowers and roll. Put them in a baking dish. Cover with salsa and grated cheese on top. Bake in the oven until cheese melts and browns.

For the filling:
1 cup chopped courgette flowers
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup sweetcorn
1/2 onion, finely chopped
100 ml. double cream
2 eggs
Oil
Salt ant pepper
1 jalapeno chilli (optional)

Pastry:
250 gr flour
125 gr butter
2 eggs
1 pinch salt

Make a pastry by mixing flour salt, melted butter and eggs and knead until you have a soft dough. Leave to cool in the fridge for 30 mins. Then roll and cover a round baking dish.

For the filling: in a little oil, brown the onion, add courgette flowers, pepper, sweetcorn and chilli (if using). Season with salt and pepper.T hen put this mixture in pastry. In a separate bowl, mix eggs with cream, and with this cover the vegetables. Bake in the oven at 180'C for 45 mins.