Öland has plenty for everyone! Oland is really the Island of the Sun, the taste and the senses.
We will cover this in different articles from now on, touching the areas of the Sun, the Taste and the Senses as we see them. Hope you will enjoy and appreciate Öland by this as much as we do. So letusstart withOlandas the Island of the taste and a bit of the Gold of Öland.
At the moment the gold is growing around the Island, the gold that will be ready and delivered to the Harvest Festival, and we are talking about the pumpkin of course.
But what many do not know, is that in addition to the finished pumpkin, gold is produced right now and by that we mean the pumpkin flower a wonderful delicacy that we’ll show how to take care of.
Pumpan
Pumpablomman
But before we do that, we want to highlight a couple of important rules when picking pumpkin flowers.
- It is only male flowers that you can picked for cooking, and you must not take male flowers in one concentrated area, spread it out and pick some here and some there, so it does not destroy the pollination work that the bees perform. Female flowers are those who become pumpkins later, so this is the farmers money, so let them be.
- You must ALWAYS talk to the farmer who owns the land and cultivation for permission to pick the flowers, and when doing that you should also show him that you can distinguish between male and female flowers, so that he understands that you will not ruin his future income.
How to distinguish the male and female flowers from each other will we tell and show you at the end of this articel.
So to the delicacy that we have around us right now.
Fried Pumpkin Flowers.
This we need for about 4 people, but it’s so good, so for us it’s just for two J
150 g flour
salt and pepper
1 pinch nutmeg
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 eggs
6 tablespoons white wine
6 tablespoons water
16 pumpkin flowers
1. Mix togetherthe flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, oil and egg yolksin a bowl.NOTE: the eggwhitewill yousavein anothersmall bowlfor later.
2. Pour in the water in the bowl and start to stir it with a fork or whisk, I prefer to work with a fork, but it’s a little personal how to do.
3. Add the wine when you stir the batter.
It may require more fluid than what is in the recipe, add some gradually until the batter gets a light and creamy texture. When the batter is smooth and even, set it aside to rest for about 30
In the meantime, we’ll take care of the flowers and prepare them. It’s also time to put the cooking oil on the stove so that it comes up at the right temperature until we need it.
4. Free the flowers from the stems and green leaves and put them aside for time being.
5. Now it’s time to take care of the egg whites that we have from the two eggs, whisk the whites stiff, it must remain in the bowl whenyou turn it upside down.
6. Now turn the whipped whites into the batter, and stir gently so you get it porous and smooth.
7. Now it’s time to dip the flowers in the batter, push them down in the batter, so many there is room for.
Ensure that the cooking oil is up to the right temperature, do that with a small piece of white bread, placed it in the pot, when it will start bubbling around the piece of bread, and it will turn brown, then the oil is up to the correct temperature.
8. Now take the bowl with the flowers and add them in the oil one by one until it is filled, have a skimmer on hand to turn the flowers with sot hey get golden browno n both sides.
9. When the color is golden brown,take them up with the skimmer, let the flowers drain to the pot a little and place them on a serving platter with paper or napkins underneath, so that additional oil is taken up.
Now to this delicacy of Öland, it’s perfect as an appetizer, or as a small snack to the entrance drink.
You can of course use other flowers too, such as zucchini flowers, and sage leaves are good to fry like this also.
Below a little bit about how you distinguish between male and female flowers, it’s essential to know.
Male and Female flowers
Here is some info on how you differ Male and Female flowers, and as we said earlier, it is important to be able to do it so that all the gold can be to be taken care of.
Male flower left, and Female flower to the right.
A female flower, note the fruit bulkhead below the flower, about a day old flower. Female flower is also growing considerably shorter from the stem, in a horizontal direction.
The male flower grows upwards, and has no fruit bulkhead under the flower.
Finally, once again, never pick pumpkin flowers on the fields without first asking the farmer for permission! Remember that it is his profession and income and respect it