I love the summer season because of the glorious abundance of homegrown vegetables and crop! One of my favourite things to eat are Pumpkin Flower Fritters, made from the blossoms of the pumpkin plant which we call Ful Biran in Bengali, this basically translates as ‘fried flower’ in English. A perfect Ful Biran (Pumpkin Flower Fritters) should be light and crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Oh, and it should be delicious too of course! Pumpkin Flower Fritters can be served as appetisers to a meal or as an afternoon snack.

You can use this particular batter for dipping a variety of vegetables that you want to deep fry; sliced aubergine, bottle gourd, courgettes, bindi (lady fingers) etc. also make good choices. If you are using a hard vegetable like bottle gourd it helps to leave the slices mixed in the batter (for at least 30 minutes), the salt in the batter draws out water and makes the bottle gourd softer and it cooks much faster; however make sure the batter is extra thick to begin with before adding the slices as the water may cause it to become runnier, skim off any excess water that has collected at the top of the mixture after this time, don’t mix it back in. Everyone has their own batter mix and this is the perfect batter mixture for me, I hope you all enjoy it as much as me and my mother in law did.

Makes enough batter for 10 – 12 pumpkin flowers

You will need:

10 – 12 pumpkin flowers
1/2 cup of rice flour
1/2 cup of gram (besan/chickpea) flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed curry powder (I use Rajah)
1/2 tsp garlic granules (I buy mine from Aldi, garlic powder is also suitable)
1/3 tsp coriander powder
1/3 tsp cumin powder
1/3 tsp turmeric powder
chopped coriander (optional)
water as required
oil for frying

Method:

1. Start by preparing your flowers. Discard the base stem (use your hands or cut using a pair of scissors) including the green leaves surrounding the base of the flower and the pollen bulb inside. Gently wash the flowers in cold water, leave to drain in a colander while you prepare the batter.

2. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix together. MAKE SURE you sift the gram flour as this can become lumpy in storage and will create a lumpy batter otherwise.

3. Chop some coriander (a very little amount is needed) and add to the bowl if you are using this.

4. Slowly add enough water to create a fairly thick batter that will stick to the flowers, you don’t want the batter to be really thick or really runny.

5. Heat some oil in a frying pan/deep wok.

6. Once the oil is hot, dip the pumpkin flowers into the batter ensuring you get a thorough coating and gently lower into the hot oil. Fry for about 3 – 4 minutes each side until golden brown to make sure they get really crispy on the outside. Drain on kitchen towel before serving.

7. Enjoy your crunchy Pumpkin Flower Fritters as an appetiser or as an afternoon snack with a hot cup of tea!

Bon Appetit!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Ful Biran (Pumpkin Flower Fritters)

 

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Author: Afelia's Kitchen

Ingredients

• 10 - 12 pumpkin flowers
• ½ cup of rice flour
• ½ cup of gram (besan/chickpea) flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp mixed curry powder (I use Rajah)
• ½ tsp garlic granules (I buy mine from Aldi, garlic powder is also suitable)
• ⅓ tsp coriander powder
• ⅓ tsp cumin powder
• ⅓ tsp turmeric powde
• chopped coriander (optional)
• water as required
• oil for frying

Method

1. Start by preparing your flowers. Discard the base stem (use your hands or cut using a pair of scissors) including the green leaves surrounding the base of the flower and the pollen bulb inside. Gently wash the flowers in cold water, leave to drain in a colander while you prepare the batter.
2. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix together. MAKE SURE you sift the gram flour as this can become lumpy in storage and will create a lumpy batter otherwise.
3. Chop some coriander (a very little amount is needed) and add to the bowl if you are using this.
4. Slowly add enough water to create a fairly thick batter that will stick to the flowers, you don't want the batter to be really thick or really runny.
5. Heat some oil in a frying pan/deep wok.
6. Once the oil is hot, dip the pumpkin flowers into the batter ensuring you get a thorough coating and gently lower into the hot oil. Fry for about 3 - 4 minutes each side until golden brown to make sure they get really crispy on the outside. Drain on kitchen towel before serving.
7. Enjoy your crunchy Pumpkin Flower Fritters as an appetiser or as an afternoon snack with a hot cup of tea!

3.5.3208

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