Squash blossom fritters and chile rellenos

I've been making the above this summer and thought I would share how I do it. First, pick some squash or zucchini blossoms that have bloomed that day. I pick the male flowers because I don't know if the female ones got fertilized and will begin to grow. Usually there are more male flowers anyway. Clean them carefully by rinsing them out and reaching inside to take out the stamen (the thing with pollen on it.) Try not to tear them. Buy several pasilla chiles or Anaheim chiles. (I think pasilla have more flavor.) Recipes:

Squash Blossom Fritters

1. clean, dry squash blossoms with part of their stems left on
2. any type of cheese you like, cut into a long wedge shape to fit the size of the blossom
3. cornmeal
4. vegetable oil
5. beaten egg
   

Put the cheese wedge (try to keep it from breaking) carefully into the blossom with the skinny side close to the opening of the flower. Use a couple of toothpicks to pin the flower petals over each other, sticking the toothpicks through the petals and into the cheese.

At this point, pour enough oil into a skillet to about 1/2 inch deep and heat over medium to medium low heat.

Dip the stuffed blossoms into beaten egg, coating thoroughly. Then coat with cornmeal.

Fry in oil for a minute, then turn and fry another minute. The cheese will start to melt and may ooze out a little. Remove and drain on a paper towel with a paper grocery bag underneath.

Eat promptly with a good homemade salsa. I like to made a roasted orange bell pepper and habanero salsa with these.

Chile Rellenos

1. pasilla or Anaheim chiles, roasted, seeded, and peeled
2. long wedges of any cheese you like (goat cheese and aged white cheddar are good, although Monterey Jack is traditional)vegetable oil
3. beaten egg
4. cornmeal
   

Preheat oven to "broil." Put the chiles on a cookie sheet or roasting pan in the oven to roast, turning them periodically to brown/blacken them until they look about 75 to 90% blackened. You can turn the oven off and let them sit inside for about 15 minutes or remove them and put them in a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap for about 10 minutes. You should be able to get a knife under the skins and peel the skins off easily after doing this. Try to keep the peppers whole and not pierce them. Make only 1 slit in the side of the pepper to reach in and clean out the seeds and veins. You can run them under gently running water to help get the seeds out.

Stuff the peppers with a wedge of cheese similar to how you stuffed the blossoms and fasten with toothpicks. Follow the same instructions for coating with cornmeal and frying as for squash blossom fritters. Remember with both fritters and chiles that you don't need the cornmeal to color much to be done.

Many people return the chile rellenos to a casserole dish and bake with a tomato sauce after frying. However, I like to just eat the chile rellenos fried with salsa and accompanied with some type of tangy vegie salad (like arugula) and maybe some Spanish rice.

Good stuff! As soon as I perfect the habanero and orange bell pepper salsa recipe, I'll post that, too.