Fried courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta, mushrooms & thyme

When we went shopping at Delicious Orchards for all the ingredients for Y's birthday dinner we saw these courgette (squash) blossoms on our way to the till:

Y was looking longingly in their direction so, ignoring the $9.99 sign we picked out eight of them. Which ended up costing a breathtaking $1.50.

I'd dredged up a memory of seeing them stuffed with ricotta, then shallow fried. So I beat together ricotta with an egg, & salt & pepper and added some cooled down sautéed minced mushrooms with garlic and thyme to add a little bite.

Stuffing them with a teaspoon is messy, and I'll use an icing bag next time, but eventually I got the flowers filled (and the counter decorated with) the ricotta mixture. I made a simple tempura batter with a cup of cold water, a cup of flour & an egg, mixing it together so there were still some lumps in the mixture. Then, holding each flower by the stem, they (& my fingers) were coated in the batter and then fried three at a time in an inch of hot oil.

They worked out fine, light & cheesy & crispy, with a little bite of courgette at the stem end, but next time I will add some finely grated Parmesan and some soaked chopped porcini to the ricotta mixture for a more intense flavour.

Grilled cheese, salad, vinaigrette, courgette flowers - not one of my finer food pictures, but you get the idea...