A visual delight to serve as a starter washed down with a cold lager.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Beer battered zucchini flowers with goat's cheese

Batter

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup lager (more if necessary)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Stuffing

• Zucchini flowers (2-3 per person, depending on size)
• 125 gm goat’s cheese
• 2 tablespoons pitted and chopped olives
• Freshly ground black pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

To make the batter; combine all the batter ingredients and blend well in a food processor or blender. Allow to stand for 30 minutes.

To stuff the flowers, remove the stamens from the zucchini flowers. In a bowl combine the cheese, olives and pepper and stuff the base of each zucchini flower with a teaspoon of the mixture.

To deep-fry the flowers, pour the vegetable oil into a deep fryer or a large saucepan to 1/3 of the depth. Bring to the boil over a high heat. When a breadcrumb colours within I minute it is the correct temperature. Dip 1 or 2 flowers at a time in the batter. Shake off the excess and drop the flowers into the oil to fry until golden. Lift out with a slotted spoon, drain on absorbent paper and serve.

From Beer and Food: A celebration of flavours by Bill Taylor (2002, Beckett Maynard Publishing)
Recipe by Joan Campbell, Vogue Entertaining and Travel.

Reproduced with permission.

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