Stuffed Squash Flowers

Vegetables, also Vegetarian Foods

Stuffed Squash Flowers
Ingredients:
10 fresh squash flowers, rinsed then carefully dried with paper towels
½ cup dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked until soft, then drained, stems discarded, caps finely minced
1 cup minced fresh pork
3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and chopped
3 scallions, coarsely chopped
1 large egg, beaten
3 Tablespoons mixed light and dark soy sauce
1 piquant pepper, seeds discarded, then minced
½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons thin soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon Chinese black vinegar

Preparation:
1. Cut away and discard stamens and the green calyx.
2. Mix mushroom, pork, garlic, scallions, beaten egg, soy sauces, minced hot pepper, and one tablespoon of the oil, and stuff the flowers, most of the meat mixture toward their bottoms.
3. Heat wok or fry pan, add the rest of the oil, and put flowers into the hot oil bottoms down, petals up, and fry until golden. Near the end of the frying put the petal part into the oil and fry them until the entire flower is crisp.
4. Remove them to a small plate, petal parts toward the center, base of the flowers around the plate’s edge.
5. Mix one tablespoon of the thin soy sauce with two teaspoons of sugar and one tablespoon of Chinese black vinegar, and pour over the stuffed flowers, and serve.

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