Remove the inner stamen. It is VERY bitter.

Thank you sleevendog. I don't know how I got away with it before or maybe I was removing the stamens and can't remember. I assumed one removed the stamen to make room for more stuffing but not necessary. Just before your post I was looking up how to prepare squash blossoms and as a matter of course the videos were removing the stamens. Last night I tried it without stamens and there it was, sweet blossoms! So thank you very much. There are so many of them have to find new ways of making them. :)

K.

IMPE, different types of squash have different tasting blooms. & I always remove the sepals & stems, but leave the internal parts alone (unless I've removed the stamen to pollinate female flowers by hand). I have tasted blossoms I thought had a weird flavor (C. mixta?) - maybe for the reason stated above.

I usually chop mine up & make fritters w/ eggs, green onions, herbs & cornmeal/ wheat flour. Otherwise I just munch them whole in the garden - the squash I grow has lots of sweet nectar in the blossoms that reminds me of Halloween candy. It's a volunteer that I saved seeds from for years now - thinking it may be Cucurbita moschata...?

I've been using the flowers from my costata romanescos all season. If I stuff them, I remove the stamens, but for simple deep-frying or sauteing I haven't bothered. I haven't noticed any bitterness. Like carolb says, I think it's a variety thing.

Wow, that looks delicious!

carolb....I too am beginning to think, or am convinced, that the taste of the blooms depends on the variety. The zapallo del tronco squash I am growing makes so many flowers. The squash is quite tasty but no matter how I dice it the flowers just do not taste that good. Even removing stamens and what not. It is a C. maxima and the flowers do smell 'different'. I made a comment on that. The trombocino squash I have is beginning to produce more flowers now and I will try them separately. Trombocino is a C. moschata, and if my memory serves me I liked those flowers a lot.

By the way, your way of making fritters sounds delicious. If you have a moment, and don't mind, please post the recipe.

rgreen48: I have heard romanesco flowers are terrific. I have one plant that is still very young. I am looking forward to those blooms. Is it true that the squash is very tasty but produce very few fruit?

Thank you so much!

K.

Hi K... yeah, they do produce a few less fruits than what you might expect from zukes. I've still gotten a decent harvest from mine though. I think I planted like 14 plants, and I've gotten like 20-30 or so fruits. One vine doesn't count because after letting the first zuke go to seed, it really hasn't had any female flowers. I still have that one on the vine, but If I picked it, it might offer more flowers.

The plants are still fruiting, but the main stems have slacked off. Now I'm pollinating flowers on the secondary branches.

I've let these get a bit larger than I would have for other varieties, and the flavor and texture has been very good. I've eaten them a few different ways, but the easiest for me is grilling 10" x 3/8" or so slabs and they are delicious! I coat with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, leave the cover down on the grill, and they simultaneously steam, and grill, with a juice that is incredible.

As you know, they also seem to have more male flowers than other varieties. I'm running out of recipes for the blossoms. One of the best so far was zesting lemons into ricotta cheese, adding a few herbs, and letting that marinate for a bit. I filled the blossoms using a bag with a corner cut out, and coated them with a simple flour, baking soda, water, and lemon juice batter. Deep fried them, and wow! Slightly messy for me to make lol, but definitely worth it! I found it easiest to cut out the stamens right after harvesting before the flowers have a chance to close up a little as they do by afternoon.

I should stop now... I'll make myself hungry!

Sorry I have no written recipe for the fritters I just chop the blossoms & add a bit of chopped green onion, dill, salt & pepper & a pinch of cumin seed, then add 1 egg + 1/3 cup yellow cornmeal & 1/4 cup whole wheat flour per 2-3 cups chopped stuff & mix until the blossoms 'melt' down enough to hold together., adding more flour if necessary. Then I saute in olive oil until brown & crispy & drain on paper towels. Sometimes I like to sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese on them while hot.

Thank you carolb its so nice of you to post. That sounds quite good and quite flexible. Do you drop into the oil by spoonfulls or as making scrambled eggs? I saw something like this in an Indian recipe for 'pakoras' using chickpea flour and flavoring seeds, but no egg. Chickpea flour has so much flavor that it might overwhelm the delicate flowers but I will try both. Thank you for sharing.

rgreen: So the main plant stops producing after a while? And then the vine portion becomes productive? I wasn't familiar with that. I usually plant so late that the plants seems to produce all season long. And if you keep removing the flowers they will make more? That's a way to get more flowers?Sorry for sounding so amateur. But thank you.

K.

Slightly off topic but Sleevendog, I'm intrigued by the corks(?) in your pot handle. Is it for insulation? And if so how do you grasp the handle? Can you enlighten me?

This is the first year that I'm growing these, and I don't know if its a variety thing that will happen to all Romanescos, or because of the circumstances I have them under - growing very crowded in row cover tunnels - but right now, the side branches are more productive than the main vine. One thing that I've found is that this is a 'vining' variety. It grows more like a winter squash than the more common zucchinis.

I got mine out to a fairly early start, and I won't say that the main stem 'stops producing,' but just as I thought these plants where about finished, a number of them started to push both male and female flowers from those side branches.

The thing about these flowers is that whether you pick them or not, they die after one day. So flower production is fairly heavy throughout its life. However, if you let a fruit go to seed, then it often slows down in flower production.

Basically the energies of a plant are directed towards the purposes of 3 stages of life... meh, you could talk about germination, blah blah... lol, but, in general... seedling and growth. Flower and fruit set. Then, finally, seed production. By harvesting the fruits (which for zucchini, is before seed production,) you can prolong the flower and fruit set stage.

Now that my Trombocino squash is blooming well I see how much the taste of squash blossoms is dependent on the variety. These blossoms have no bitterness whatsoever whether you leave in the stamens or not. The flavor itself is more squash-like. Another interesting thing is that the stalk attached to the blossoms is so sweet! Whether I chop them up and add to fritters or leave 3-4 inches of it when frying the whole flower they are deliciously smooth and sweet. When taken from the plant they are spiny but that softens away when cooked.

Too bad, the zapallo del tronco flowers are just not right. Maybe it is a C. maxima thing as carolb said.

carolb: I made fritters your way, with this and that herb and they were delicious. Thank you so much.

rgreen48: My Zapallo squash is now doing what you described for your Romanesco. The main plant has slacked off a bit and a trailing branch has formed on each of the plants, and these are sending out many male and female flowers. I think these want to root and become new plants. I have the plants growing out of landscape fabric so they can't root, I think. Let's see how the rest of the season goes...

Sounds good K. And I wonder if I can make that fritter thing work without an egg? :-?

rgreen48: You know, I was thinking exactly the same thing. The next time I make them, and there will be a next time soon, I want to try them without egg too. With the egg they certainly are delicious and remind me of Korean style scallion pancakes (well just a little bit, not totally). I suppose the proportion of flour would have to be a little higher to be able to bind and I would use water to make a very thick batter and fold and work the flowers and herbs and seasonings in. I will post when I do make them again. I hope you enjoy making them and having them. We do love to eat don't we!

K.