It's not too bad
being back home from holiday as I have some French produce here and
the weather is also quite agreeable. I got these lovely courgette
flowers in Les Halles in Avignon (plus one from my own balcony),
where I did some vegetable shopping. Courgette flowers are a beautiful ingredient and they can sometimes
be obtained in the UK farmers' markets, but it's more a rarity here.
However in France they are quite easy to get, so of course I couldn't
resist and brought these home with me without knowing what to cook
with them yet. I ended up combining them with one of my favourite
cheeses, halloumi, as it doesn't melt when fried, and serving some of
those lovely Provençal tomatoes on the side as well. I recently
ordered a large bag of organic couscous from a local food co-op that
I now need to use up (I will probably post a bit more couscous
recipes in the future...). So that's how this dish came about. It
might sound fiddly, but it's actually quite easy.
Ingredients
250 g halloumi
1 tbsp vegetable
oil
10-12 courgette
flowers
4 black tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 small yellow
courgette
1 tsp Herbes de
Provence
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground
black pepper
For the couscous side dish:
1 cup couscous
1 tsp Herbes de
Provence
1 garlic stock
cube
1 tsp olive oil
Clean the
courgette flowers and remove the stamen inside them. Cut the halloumi
into small dices and fry them in the vegetable oil until golden
brown. Set to side to cool a little, because that makes the stuffing
part easier.
Bring one cup of
water to boil and add the garlic stock cube, Herbes de Provence and
olive oil in there. Once it boils, set it to side and add one cup of
couscous. Let the couscous cook with the seasoning, off heat and
under lid for about 10 minutes.
Slice the
tomatoes, chop the courgette and the garlic. Heat one tablespoon of
olive oil in a small pan and quickly cook the garlic, courgette and
tomato slices in there. Season with Herbes de Provence, salt and
pepper.
Stuff the
courgette flowers with the halloumi dices, put just a few dices into
each flower, and close them with a toothpick. Heat one tablespoon of
olive oil in a large pan and quickly fry the courgette flowers on
both sides.
Serve all
components together and enjoy your meal!
Your VegHog
