Time to Experiment: Squash Blossoms

I saw these gorgeous squash blossoms at the farmer's market a few weeks ago. Tyson mentioned that he had liked them, so I brought a good half pound. I asked his sister for some recommendations on what to do (since the only recipes I really found online involved deep frying, which doesn't really fit my cooking style right now). She recommended stuffing them with cheese and rice, drizzling some oil over them, some salt and pepper, and then bake. Sounded easy enough...

The results were, well, just so-so. I think I cooked them well (baked in a 350 oven for about 20 min). I pulled the stamens out as directed, stuffed them, twisted the delicate leaves, drizzled extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with salt and cracked pepper... And it looked pretty darn cool.



Where I went wrong was the stuffing... I was trying to be all healthy and crap, which is fine when I know what I'm doing, but here I was in uncharted (for me) territory trying to be all clever and waist-friendly. The stuffing mixture consisted of: pearl barley (because I was out of brown rice), lowfat cottage cheese (because I didn't want to go to the store to get ricotta), a small handful of leftover cheese blend (parmesan, asiago, provolone, and fontina), and some egg white. And salt and pepper of course.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this little failed experiment since that's what learning is all about. Moral of this story: sometimes you gotta put good tasting food in your food to make it taste good. This just didn't work for me. Next time I think I'd try basmati rice, manchego cheese, some ricotta, and a whole egg. Now doesn't THAT sound tasty?