There's so much satisfaction coming from this vid, starting with the garden and picking your own fresh veggies, to marrying the textures and flavours in the saucepan.
I have very fond memories of eating these flowers in quesadillas as a child. My mom would make the masa from scratch and stuff the raw masa with the flowers, cheese, sautéed onions and mushrooms and fry them!
In Turkey, specifically in western parts, a traditional recipe is to stuff them like a dolma. Search for “kabak çiçeği dolması“ and you will see what I'm talking about. I think Italians stuff them with mozzarella (usually when it comes to dolmas we stuff them with rice or a rice/minced meat combo) and fry them. No matter how you use them, they're really delish!
I remember watching you (and your brother!) since the Brooklyn small apartment kitchen days. Glad to see how much has changed (or hasn't? Gardening! Cooking!) in the last ten years.
Visited Crete recently and had some stuff zucchini flowers and they were just the best! Very underrated ingredient, plus if you get the zucchinis with the flower attached you can make 2 different dishes or the same dish (depending what you are making) but with 2 different textures and flavor profiles
Did you had the ones with rice and veg or the ones with meat?? I grew up in a farm in crete and I loved cooking those!! Did you try stuffed vine leafs as well?
I’ve been meaning to try blossoms for years, and these two applications look like a great place for me to start. I have blossoms on my pumpkin plant right now that I could use. I love your videos and your style of cooking - fresh, flavor, from scratch, and what do I have on hand - which is how I cook. I’m almost 60, and still look forward to new techniques, ideas, and flavor combinations.
Thank you for sharing zucchini blossoms are a strong food source in Mexico and Central American countries . As most of your commenters will know they're used to be fried or stuffed and are an excellent resource of vitamin c and potassium for muscle growth , 🤝🏻thanks for sharing...
Empanadas with Zucchini flowers are my all time favorite. First time I tried them was in Mexico. It has been years now and I can't stop thinking about them.
Congrats to you and wife on your baby Daughter ! I love your Garden! Yum that soup looks yummm Oh. oh my Gosh today’s taco Tuesday, I may do squash blossom quesadillas , those looked great too . Listen when you’re holding your daughter up to pull the first piece of fruit off one of those trees your heart will never be the same. It’s wonderful to feed your baby girl fruit you’ve grown
We look forward to eating squash blossoms every year. We barter with a thin pancake batter and fry in bacon grease or lard. Salt and pepper piping hot and omg!!!!! Amazing!! This used to be served in Restraunts in NY back in the day. My grandmother in Poland would cook these a lot Make sure to brine them in salt water and dry off before coating them.
I eat them fried, and of course, that gives mainly a flavor of deep frying. Do the blossoms themselves actually have a discernible flavor of their own? I've hesitated to cook them another way because I thought I might "waste" the blossoms on something kind of flavorless.
Good for you! I love this recipe. My family is from Southern Italy and we do something else with the flowers. We make a fritter or like pancake out of them. We actually make a batter with parm cheese eggs flour milk and chop the flowers in and fry them. Lack of pancake! Absolutely delicious. The other thing I do with them is put them on top of pizza give it a try
I remember when I first watched that video and absolutely loved the vibe and watching you cook. A lot of your videos got me through college! 😂🙌🏻 still haven’t tried the zucchini flowers but it’s one of many goals in life 💜
Loved the recipe ideas. You’ll see your daughter will be six or seven before you know it!!! Very best of luck to you and all the best to your family!😊😊😊😊
Ciao from the south shore! If you are Italian zucchini flowers are usually fried with a buttermilk mixture. Whenever my mother made them I would make a turkey with smoked mozzarella sub. I would top off with the fried flowers and an aioli. Yum!
Love zucchini blossom quesadillas, we usually add a little epazote (goosefoot, worm seed). I finally succeeded in growing a few plants and add it fresh to so many dishes.
I've been watching for a long long time, and it's so incredible to watch you go from those old 5 ingredient college stoner meals to this and i'm so happy i've been growing with you :) thank you for continuing and inspiring me for years
Can you do a garden tour? Would love to see. Please cover your growing environment (hardiness, sun level, state, container or in ground, etc.). Would love to see what plants a professional chef chooses to grow as well as just ornamental plants. Do you compost or found a great retail soil product? ...would be cool if u give us a tour once a season, so we can see how a chefs garden transitions over one year! Indoor gardening too? 🤗🤗🤗 thanks for the consideration!
I started watching back when you were still making videos with your brother in that tiny kitchen. And I do kinda miss it to me honest. Back then I was still a teenager. I am in my mid twenties now. It's pretty crazy if you think about it. Thanks for helping me improving my cocking skills over the years. It has been and still is my therapy from the crazy busy world out there. A little time just for you and the fruits of Mother Earth to create some happiness! 🌱🍳🥘 Sending much love from the german capitol to you and your family!
Here in Italy zucchini flowers risotto is a popular recipe. It’s really delicate…a little onion, butter and the flowers in a pan. Adding rice (carnaroli rice) and toast it with the ingredients. Then cooking like a traditional risotto adding boiling vegetable broth till it’s cooked. Delicious, simple and for a vegan version just use olive oil instead of butter.
My Italian Nonno had his garden and chicken plot right next to all the other Nonnos (8 minute bike ride from home) and would bring home fresh fiori di zucca that my Nonna Maria would then fry for us. Such a treat! Congratulations on your decade long journey! I've actually been watching your videos from the beginning as well. You've earned this!
We had a kid in 2020 and moved from Portland to North Idaho. Getting into gardening now that we have some space. And learning how to cook. We became quite spoiled in Portland with all the great restaurants. Glad we found this channel.
As a child we went to an Italian resturant with a huge garden around it. We ate the fried Zuccs as an appetizer. So yummy! Told others but they thought “No, Jean”. But you know Mike “ Oh Yes!”
From Mexico you will also find a variation of a savory crepe or gallete. Usually paired with a white sauce and finished in the oven as a gratin with lots of cheese. Zucchini blossoms, huitlacoche and fresh mushrooms are considered delicacies in Mexico. They are often paired with traditional prehispanic herbs referred to as a group as "quelites".
I have really enjoyed lots of your videos over the years. Lots of inspiration to create real food, get smart about creating real food and enjoying the process.
Mazel Tov!!!!!!!!!!!!North Shore?.....fancy!😆Learn everything you can about winter gardening and/or how to protect your garden in the cold. Love everything you do!!!
Mike, you've been a huge inspiration in my cooking. Even though I went vegan 4 years ago, I still continue to watch your videos, refer your videos to family and friends, and get plenty of meal ideas from your videos to veganize. Keep doin what you're doin!
Bro, I have always appreciated how you guys have always incorporated actual Mexican ingredients. I've followed you since you were still brothers green with Yosh. From a Mexican immigrant living in the USA, I thank you friend. Flor de calabaza.
Also, we take advantage of the flowers because they are a native plant of the American continent, more specifically Mexico. Just like tomatoes and peppers, squashes are a big part of our cuisine and gastronomy.
fried stuffed zucinni flowers with ricotta cheese is so amazing! I first tried it when my uncles girlfriend cooked it for us when they where visiting from Florida many years ago. She told us her Italian grandma used to cook it all the time in her household growing up!
Made this soup today. But instead of corn, I used some fresh green peas from the garden and jalapeno for spice. Best soup I had in a long time. Also great for the summer as it's so fresh (also delicious when it's cold). What a great inspiration. I will definitely cook with zucchini flowers more often from now on. Never thought about picking them.
I LOVE your channel. I've been a fan for a long time and have watched your growth. I have to say, the animations are absolutely the cherry on the top of your videos! It doesn't get much better than your videos. The content, transitions, animations, music. You've hit the nail on the head!!!! Keep shining!
I just made these for the first time last week! They are so amazing. I will 100% be making more of these. I stuffed them a anchovy, lemon, ricotta mixture and breaded then with Panko. I shallow fried them and they were delicious!
Hey Mike, long-time follower. Congrats on your family/baby/new endeavors. I LOVE the gardening aspect and I hope you continue to incorporate fresh veggies and gardening tips into your videos!
The flor De calabaza is used a lot in the everyday dishes of indigenous pueblos of central Mexico, like the Purepechas. I appreciate you highlighting it on your channel.
Mike, please do a video with Luke @ MIgardener. I would love too see you cooking something like this, and him giving gardening advice. Would make for a killer episode! Just a thought.😁 Happy gardening/cooking!
There's a very ancient Turkish "dolma" type dish made with Zucchini Blossom. In Turkey we prepare dishes with Zuc. blossom, eggplants and parikas & peppers & grape leafs.
Will deff be trying this!!! My zucchini plant is huge and have blossoms everywhere, soup looks so good… Will love to see more recipes from the garden in the near future 🧑🏽🌾
The first time I ever had squash blossoms, they were chopped and hidden in something similar to a fritatta. I was a child at the time, and I wasn't told what I was eating until afterwards, but that meal started my curiosity about edible flowers, which I still like to grow all these decades later.
First time I saw you and your brother was when you guys were on that episode of Chopped. Use to watch that with my mom all the time and they mentioned you guys had a RU-vid channel so I checked it out and have been here since. Crazy how fast time flies.
