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Preparation
15 minutes
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Cooking
45 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Stuffed pumpkin flowers with fried snakehead fish is a unique and incredibly appealing dish that can be used for meals or as a snack. Let’s join TasteVN into the kitchen to make this delicious fried dish for the whole family to enjoy!
Ingredients for Stuffed Pumpkin Flowers with Snakehead Fish For 4 people
Pumpkin flowers 200 gr Snakehead fish paste 400 gr Shallots 4 bulbs Bird’s eye chili 3 fruits Spring onions 5 gr Ground pepper 1 tablespoon Fish sauce 1 tablespoon Seasoning powder 1/2 tablespoon Sugar 1/2 tablespoon Rice flour 50 gr Fried flour 50 gr
How to choose good ingredients
How to choose fresh, young pumpkin flowers:
- You should choose large, firm, fresh male pumpkin flowers with a deep yellow color.
- The pumpkin flowers should still be in bud, not fully bloomed. Pay attention to the bud; it should be large, and the stem should be dark green for better taste.
How to choose snakehead fish for making paste: For snakehead fish, you can buy pre-processed fish or buy fresh fish to process yourself.
- For fresh, live snakehead fish: You should choose fish with clear eyes, shiny scales, firm flesh, and thick body for easier filleting.
- For pre-processed snakehead fish: the fish meat should have a bright, pink or light pink color, not dull or greenish, and should not have any strange fishy smell.
How to prepare stuffed pumpkin flowers with snakehead fish
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Prepare the ingredients
Cut off the old stems of the pumpkin flowers, leaving about 5 – 6cm of the stem, and peel off the outer skin.
Then, remove the outer calyx leaves and use scissors to cut off the flower stamens. The next step is to soak the pumpkin flowers in diluted salt water for about 10 minutes to remove dirt. Take them out and let them drain.
Peel and finely chop the shallots. Chop the green onions and chili peppers finely.
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Grind the fish paste
Put the scraped fish paste into a mortar, then add 1 tablespoon of ground pepper, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 tablespoon of seasoning, chopped green onions, and chopped shallots, and grind until smooth.
Mix the fish paste evenly for about 5 minutes, then add 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil to give the fish paste a glossy finish. Cover and mix for another 5 minutes.
Note: The purpose of grinding the fish with the mortar after scraping is to save time; the fish will be chewy, firm, and absorb the seasoning better. If you don’t have a mortar, you can also grind the fish by hand.
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Stuffing the zucchini flowers
Put the fish cake mixture that you just blended into a pastry bag. Cut off the pointed end at the bottom of the bag.
Insert the pastry bag into the center of the zucchini flower and gently pump the fish cake filling into the flower.
Be careful not to overfill it, as the filling may spill out when frying, making the dish less visually appealing.
After you have finished stuffing the fish cake filling, place a slice of chili in the filling to add color and flavor to the dish.
If you are making this dish for young children, you can skip the chili.
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Fried Squash Blossoms
Combine 50g of rice flour and 50g of crispy frying flour in a bowl, mix well. Then divide the mixed flour into two portions.
For one half, mix it with 100ml of water to make the wet batter for dipping the squash. Keep the remaining portion dry for coating the fish cake.
Roll the squash blossoms in the dry flour mixture, ensuring the flour coats evenly around the blossoms. After taking them out, dip the blossoms in the wet batter again.
Heat a pan on the stove, add oil to the pan, and when the oil is hot, drop each squash blossom in to fry until golden brown on all sides.
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Final Product
With just a few simple steps, you can have a very attractive dish in your hands! The fried squash blossoms are crispy, sweet, and fragrant, combined with the salty, rich flavor of the fish cake filling, which will surely be very delicious.
The dish will become more flavorful and aromatic when served with a bit of chili sauce or ketchup!
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It’s really easy to make this attractive stuffed pumpkin flowers with fish paste at home, right? Let’s get cooking now, TasteVN wishes you success!
*Refer to images and recipes from: YouTube channel Delicious Dishes
