Chicken Parmesan & Stuffed Squash Blossoms

A few months ago, I planted some zucchini squash and they're now flourishing like crazy. Just about every morning, I'd be greeted by its blossoms, and in the course of about 4 days, I had collected two short of a dozen. Coincidentally, I found a recipe for stuffed blossoms in the "Eating by Color" cook book last week and gathered all the ingredients to make this tonight.
Squash Blossoms

• part-skim ricotta cheese
• finely chopped fresh mozzarella
  
• freshly grated Parmesan
• tempura batter mix
• sparkling/soda water
• squash blossoms
  

Strain the ricotta in a strainer lined with cheesecloth for 2 hours. Depending on how many blossoms you have, I suggest just using half the amount of mozzarella and Parmesan to the ricotta cheese. The original recipe called for 12 blossoms with a cup of ricotta, so you'll have to use your judgment from there. Combine all the cheeses together.

I used tempura batter instead of flour, and my sister suggested using soda water to lighten up the batter even more. Add enough water (cold!) so that the batter is runny after mixing and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Spoon or pipe the cheese mixture into each blossom in equal portions. Holding the blossom by the stem end, coat with the tempura batter and let the excess drip into the bowl before plunging into the fryer, holding tips in first for a few seconds before letting go of the rest. Cook until golden and crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the blossoms, shake and place in a brown paper bag to drain. Season to taste with salt and serve.

The result was not the success I hoped for...too oily although the flavor was good. I got the oil to 375° (the highest possible) and let it drain, yet was left with puddles of oil. It seemed that the tips of the flowers dragged and held in the oil.

The Chicken Parmesan was a success. I used a basic recipe from an online source, and I was pleased with how tender it turned out. I got the chicken breasts on bulk from Costco, which came in these little pouches of two and made storing and separating so convenient. Along with the blossoms, I actually got zucchini squash from the plant (imagine that), enough to line the entire bottom of the casserole dish just below the chicken so as to incorporate more veggies into our meal. The thing I would change next time is to flatten out a chicken and leave a corner or two uncovered by sauce so as to get a bit of crunch. Yum.

*Update: I tried frying the blossoms again, this time without the stuffing, and they turned out great! The trick was to make sure to fry them long enough (about 2-3 minutes on each side) so it's not soaking with oil. The flavor of the blossom is quite wonderful...like a subtler version of the squash in leafy form. Stuffing them made it too nerve-racking for me because I was afraid that the cheese would ooze out and get lost in the oil, which was why I didn't cook them long enough and wasn't successful in the first try. I continue to gather flowers and want to try them in a stir fry.

Chicken & Dumplings Again

Yes, I'd made this dish already but this version was so good yet different that I had to write it down so I would remember how to recreate it.

Last week, I bought a Costco chicken and we had half of it left (mostly because we were tired of eating it just roasted) after we made tacos, so I decided to make chicken & dumplings out of it tonight. I first boiled the whole thing (bones, skin & pulled meat) to extract as much chicken-ness out of it as possible (about 10 minutes), then removed skin, carcass and any other "floaties" hanging around. Use enough water to cover the chicken.

Next, I added about 3/8 tsp salt, 3/8 tsp onion powder, 1 cube vegetable bouillon and about 1/2-2/3 cup each of celery and carrots, and let them cook for about 30 minutes. I happen to have some chopped cilantro left over from our chicken taco meal and didn't want to waste them so tossed them in as well and let the soup reduce some more. The last step is to add the dumplings, which was just the standard procedure according to the directions on the biscuit mix.

The key to the intense flavors of this one was several fold: rich roasted chicken and the cilantro (who would've guessed?). I'm still cooking it right now (almost done) and it's already amazing! No gravy necessary this time.

**Final note: not necessary to add salt because flavors intensified once finished.