This recipe is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian - we used squash blossoms (somewhat hard to find; try them if you can find them at your local farmstand or market) but essentially you can batter and fry almost any vegetable, although the cooking time varies. Once we finished with the squash blossoms, we had leftover batter and subsequently battered and fried zucchini. [But note: this was simultaneously a brilliant and a horrible idea - brilliant because it was very good, horrible because I ate too much and had a stomachache the rest of the night.]
oil for frying (neutral eg. vegetable, corn...)
1 c flour + more for dredging
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
pepper
1 egg
3/4 cup beer (or sparkling water)
kosher/coarse salt for finishing
Put enough oil in deep pan on stove over medium high; prepare veggies as you allow the oil to heat - bring oil to 350 degrees. Mix batter ingredients but be careful not to overmix. Dredge veggies in flour, then dip in batter. Add veggies to oil - don't overcrowd to allow for proper browning. Cook and turn once if needed, until golden (a couple minutes). Drain and serve, sprinkled with coarse salt.
