Every year in Suvereto, we try to find the ideal receipe for fried zucchini flowers and sage leaves (and sometimes other vegegables). We seem to have found something that works and is therefore worth saving, the only problem is that it involves a “magic flour” that only exists in certain supermarkets (and we never remember which one!) The challenge, when we run out, will be to try and replicate the magical flour with the basic ingredients.
Ingredients
- Zucchini Flowers – as fresh as possible and cold, washed and pistil cut off
- Sage leaves – from the garden, rinced (it’s faster to fry whole branches)
- Optional: small tender zucchini, carrots, aubergines,… cut in long strips
- Magical flour
- 1 egg
- sparkling water, cold
- salt
- 2 l frying oil
Proportions of the magical flour:
- Wheat flour “00” (81%)
- Durum wheat flour (re-ground semolina) (7%)
- Rice flour (4%)
- Wheat starch (4%)
- Raising agent (3%): Sodium Bicarbonate E500 + Sodium Pyrososphate E450
- Wheat germs (0.9%)
- Flavours (?)
What to do
Prepare the vegetables at the last minute to keep them as cold as possible. Then prepare the batter by mixing flour, salt, egg and then adding sparkling water until the batter is somewhat runny.
Dip the vegetables or sage leaves/branches into the batter and then in the fryer, small batches at a time (max 2 flowers or 2-3 sage branches). It takes about 2-3 minutes to fry. Other vegetables may take a little longer.
Pour the fried vegetables on kitchen paper and salt immediately, then serve a hot as possible.
