Baby courgettes, with flowers, in chickpea and beer batter

Talking of being the least green fingered person you’re ever likely to meet, I tried to move some courgette leaves off the grass the other day and completely pulled out the whole bunch, with roots and everything. I don’t know how it happened. Either I’m superwoman, or courgettes are much more delicate than they look. Those massive prickly leaves and thick stalks are deceptive. And you’d think that I’d get loads of little baby courgettes out of the mishap at least, but all I got was this

Still, I managed to make that into the tastiest handful of baby courgettes I’ve ever eaten. The flowers themselves taste gorgeous and this dish would be nowhere near as tasty without them. I used the chickpea batter, that I was using to make la socca, except with a tiny bit of water and a lot of beer. Then I fried them for about 5min in sesame oil, turning over half-way, and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper when serving. For some reason, I didn’t expect them to be very nice, coming from my unkempt garden, but they really, really were. So, the moral of the story is: if I can grow these, then so can anyone with a pair of hands. And some seeds. And earth and water