{"id":4858,"date":"2011-09-19T09:58:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T13:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heidiannie.com\/2011\/09\/tempura-tempura\/"},"modified":"2011-09-19T09:58:38","modified_gmt":"2011-09-19T13:58:38","slug":"tempura-tempura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/?p=4858","title":{"rendered":"Tempura, tempura! recipe for fried basil leaves!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or maybe-\u201cBatter\u2019s up!\u201d ?<\/p>\n

I was reading a favorite blog<\/a> , Chopinandmysaucepan,<\/p>\n

and found the recipe for stuffed zucchini flowers the other day.<\/p>\n

They looked really good, and I had at least a dozen flowers (with no<\/p>\n

real hope for squash-just flowers) on my plants.\u00a0 So I decided to make<\/p>\n

them.<\/p>\n

\"004\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I went out and picked my flowers and prepared them to stuff.<\/p>\n

Apparently the stamen inside the flower is bitter and needs to be<\/p>\n

removed.\u00a0 (I hadn\u2019t known this before- glad I read Chopin\u2019s post!)<\/p>\n

\"005\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Take these out- I found it worked well to use a serrated butter knife.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"006\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mix together:
\n1 TBS of ricotta cheese for each flower.<\/p>\n

I used 12 TBS for my flowers.<\/p>\n

The juice from\u00a0 lemon or lime-depending on your preference.<\/p>\n

I used half of a lemon and half a lime. \"Smile\"<\/p>\n

a handful of flat parsley, chopped<\/p>\n

a pinch of fine sea salt<\/p>\n

\"007\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was going to show you the stuffing process, but I<\/p>\n

couldn\u2019t stuff and take a picture at the same time,<\/p>\n

and Jordan wasn\u2019t available<\/p>\n

to be cameraman.\u00a0 Open up the flower carefully and gently<\/p>\n

stuff one tablespoon of mixture into the center.<\/p>\n

Mold flower around the cheese and then give the tips of<\/p>\n

the flower a twist and it will stay closed.<\/p>\n

\"008\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next comes the tempura batter.<\/p>\n

You can buy a mix.\u00a0 I have done that in the past,<\/p>\n

but it is just as easy to make.<\/p>\n

Although there are a lot of recipes out there that are<\/p>\n

very different from each other.<\/p>\n

Flour, egg,and water\u2026flour, cornstarch,water and soda\u2026<\/p>\n

flour, cornstarch, and seltzer water\u2026?<\/p>\n

I used a little of each:<\/p>\n

1 egg separated<\/p>\n

1 cup flour<\/p>\n

1 heaping TBS cornstarch<\/p>\n

1 cup ice water<\/p>\n

Mix together flour and cornstarch, beat egg white until fluffy,<\/p>\n

mix yolk and water together and stir into flour mix until all<\/p>\n

incorporated and fold in egg white.<\/p>\n

\"009\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Heat up cooking oil (3\/4 cup \u20131 cup in pan) until a drop of tempura<\/p>\n

starts to sizzle and then dip each flower into batter and place in<\/p>\n

pan so that they don\u2019t touch.<\/p>\n

\"010\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fry until lightly browned- turn over and fry other side.<\/p>\n

\"013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eat while still warm- these are truly delicious!<\/p>\n

BUT- I still had a lot of batter left!<\/p>\n

\"017\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So I fried up chicken pieces for a salad topper.<\/p>\n

AND then I still had a lot of batter.<\/p>\n

\"019\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I remembered hearing some where how good basil is fried in<\/p>\n

tempura batter- so I fried up a leaf.<\/p>\n

\"020\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was so very good !<\/p>\n

\"021\"<\/a>SO VERY GOOD!<\/p>\n

\"023\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That one wasn\u2019t even close to enough!<\/p>\n

The basil was fantastic.\u00a0 The flavor burst with the frying- it was crisp<\/p>\n

and fulsome in your mouth.\u00a0 Really- it was better than the stuffed zucchini<\/p>\n

blossoms.\u00a0 I made up at least\u00a0 2 dozen basil leaves and we ate them- every<\/p>\n

one!<\/p>\n

Tempura batter and basil leaves- my newest obsession in appetizers.<\/p>\n

Give it a try- you will like it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or maybe-\u201cBatter\u2019s up!\u201d ? I was reading a favorite blog , Chopinandmysaucepan, and found the recipe for stuffed zucchini flowers the other day. They looked really good, and I had at least a dozen flowers (with no real hope for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recipes","category-stepsonthejourney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}