Stuffed Zucchini Flowers with Ricotta Cheese

We grow zucchini flowers in our garden over summer just for this dish. The special zucchini flower seeds which we use seem to grow mainly male flowers so there are usually quite a lot of flowers each day to pick. In this dish the flowers are filled with ricotta cheese which has been mixed with fresh oregano from the garden and then steamed. The flowers are served in a butter sauce with pine-nut sauce. They flowers are one of my favourite entrees which are why we grow the zucchini flowers.

around 12 zucchini flowers
a small bunch of fresh oregano, chopped
200g ricotta preferably from a tub of fresh ricotta
50g butter
olive oil
1 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
the juice of 1 lemon

Remove the stamens from inside the flowers and trim the ends. Mix the oregano with the ricotta cheese and season with salt and pepper. Put the mixture into a small plastic sandwich bag and trim of the corner of the bag with a pair of scissors to make a piping bag. Pipe the ricotta mixture into each of the zucchini flowers and seal each flower by twisting the end. Place in a vessel to steam the flowers, drizzling a little olive oil over the flowers. I use a metal colander placed over boiling water in a saucepan and covered with a lid for steaming the flowers.
Steam the flowers for 4 minutes and then place the flowers on a serving plate.
Meanwhile heat the butter in a small pan until it is golden and foaming. Add the pine nuts and the juice of the squeezed lemon. Pour gently over the zucchini flowers and serve immediately.

Fromage Frais

Fromage frais is sold in France alongside yoghurt. Elsewhere in the world it seems to be more difficult to obtain. Here is a recipe which I have often used and which makes a very acceptable fromage frais.  Like yoghurt fromage frais is made using a culture but with some some rennett to firm the cheese up.

It is advisable to sanitise the chux and the container. The easiest way to do this is to use Milton anti-bacterial tablets as per the intructions on the Milton's box. Milton's anti-bacterial tablets are available in the baby section of supermarkets.  Wring out excess liquid from the chux by hand before using it to strain the cheese.

2 litres full cream unhomogenized organic milk
Mesophilic DVI cheese culture (obtainable from a cheesemaker supply company)
2 - 3 drops of rennet in 5 tbsp cooled boiled water
1 sanitised "chux" or similar
Salt and pepper to taste

Note that the rennett will only work in unhomogenized milk.

Place the milk in a sanitised 2 litre plastic container and microwave for about 4 minutes on high. Alternatively heat the milk on the stove to around 21°C in a sanitized saucepan.  Stir 1 tbsp of rennet solution and a very small amount of culture into the milk (enough to fit on the end of a skewer). Leave stand in a container at room temperature until the curd is solid (about 12 hours).

Drain the cheese through a chux lining a plastic colander for about 1½ - 2 hours in a cool place. If desired, gently work in the salt and pepper although I prefer fromage frais without either of these. The final consistency of the fromage frais should be rather like a thick yoghurt. Store in a covered container in the fridge.