As reqested by Vicki. I had forgotten that courgettes were still attached to the flowers in this recipe, but hope it's still useful. It was a great success when I made it last year. This recipe was given to me by a friend who had cut it out of one of the weekend papers - Daily Telegraph, I think.
Courgette Flower Risotto
1 litre good chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch saffron threads
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
25g unsalted butter, diced
1 small onion, finely diced
300g arborio or carnaroli rice
100ml dry white wine
15g parmesan cheese, finely grated
6 courgettes with flowers
Handful flat-leaf parsely, finely chopped
Heat stock to simmering point in a saucepan. Add a tiny pinch of salt to the saffron threads and roughly crush under a teaspoon. Mix in the hot stock. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil with half the butter, in a wide, heavy-bottomed saucepan and gently fry the diced onion for 5 minutes, or until very soft. Add the rice and stir until it looks translucent, then mix in the wine. As soon as this has almost evaporated, stir in one ladleful of hot stock and simmer briskly. Stir regularly, adding another ladleful of stock as each becomes absorbed. After 18-20 minutes, the rice should be tender and cooked, but with a sauce. Remove from the heat, season to taste adn mix in remaining butter and parmesan cheese.
Meanwhile, remove the flowers from the courgettes, halve the courgettes lengthways and slice, then slice the flowers. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a nonstick frypan over a high heat and briskly stir-fry the courgettes for a minute. Add the flowers, season to taste and fry for a further minute, then mix into rice with the parsley. Serve immediately.
On the same page as this recipe was a book recommendation - 'Good Enough to Eat: Cooking with Flowers' by Jekka McVicar. Apparently available from Amazon. I have yet to investigate it myself, but it could be a useful reference for cooking with a variety of flowers.
