Farm Fresh Chllenge: Stuffed Squash Blossoms

We are half way through our  season of fresh vegetables from Calvert’s Gift Farm CSA. This week’s box held… Green beans, tomatoes, la ratte fingerling  potatoes, sweet peppers, arugula, apple pears, cherry tomatoes (green and purple) and garlic. Extras included: Flowers, purple basil, rosemary and squash blossoms.

From our CSA box from Calvert’s Gift.

I decided to make Baked Squash Blossoms stuffed with mashed Potatoes and Bean and Tomato Succotash for this week’s edition of …

[Not associated with the real Chopped, the Food Network or Ted Allen.]

INGREDIENTS:

In the Box:

• 2 cups La Ratte Fingerling Potatoes
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 2 TBLS purple basil
• Squash Blossoms

From the Pantry:

• 1 tsp Sea Salt
• 2 TBSP Butter
• 1/4 Cup Skim Milk
• 1/4 cup Half and Half
• 1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2 tsp Olive Oil

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

1. Cut the Fingerling Potatoes into approximately 1/2″ pieces. Peal and thinly slice the garlic.

2. Add the Potatoes and Garlic in a large pot of boiling water. Cook until the potatoes are soft enough to mash. Remove from heat and drain.

3. Add the butter, salt  and Basil and mash.

4. Add the Milk, Half and Half and Parmesan stirring well after each edition. You want the Potato mixture to be as smooth as possible.

5. Put the Olive Oil in an oven safe dish. (I used a pie plate.

6. Filling the Blossoms — Fill a pastry bag with the potato mixture (if you don’t have a pastry bag you can cut the corner off a zip-loc bag and fill that). Carefully insert the tip of the bag into the blossom and fill it  with potato. Place the blossom in the oven safe dish. Add additional potato at the base of the blossom. Repeat with all blossoms.  Set aside until you are ready to bake.

7. Bake the blossoms until the Potatoes brown.

BEAN and TOMATO SUCCOTASH

From the Box:

• 1 Cup of Green Beans
• 1 Cup of Cherry Tomatoes (green and purple)
•  Three Sprigs Rosemary

From the Pantry

• 1/2 tsp Olive Oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large pot heat water to boil and cook the Green Beans and Rosemary until the Green Beans are tender. Drain.

2. Cut Cherry Tomatoes in half.

3. Add the Olive Oil to the pot and put the Cherry Tomatoes, Green Beans and Rosemary in.

4. Saute  on low heat  Squash is baking.

I finished our meal with a nice piece of Salmon (1 lb) which I placed in a separate pie plate and baked at the same time as the squash blossoms.

Here’s what the final dish looked like:

The squash blossoms were delicious. I found the beans and tomatoes a bit sweet for my tastes (though others thought they were just right.)   Enjoy!