Fried squash or pumpkin blossom is one of the most nostalgic food in Bangladesh. It is even mentioned in our literature many times. Even one of the poem about Bangladesh fighting on saving mother tongue called Mago, Ora Bole, where the first line mentions about pumpkin flower. It shows how old and close to our heart this recipe is in Bangladesh.

Well, I don’t have pumpkin flower, but I have planted some butternut squash plant in my balcony, there it grew some flowers! There are thousands of recipe of this fried squash flower, but today I am following a very simple one. You just need chickpea flour aka gram flour, rice flour, onion, chili and turmeric powder, then you are good to go!

First we need to make a smooth paste of onion and chili. I have used a small food processor, where it makes a course paste. But if possible use a blender or mixer to make a smooth paste. You can add little water if needed.

Combine gramflour, rice flour and salt in a medium bowl, then add onion and chili paste in flour mix. Gradually add water to make a smooth batter. The batter should not be too thick or too thin, just like loose pancake batter.

Wash flowers if needed and pat dry water with help of kitchen towel. Remove the inner stigma if you want, some people prefers to keep it. Dip a flower into the batter and coat well. Gently shake off excess batter.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. When a drop of batter sizzles in the pan, the oil is ready. Gently lay the blossom in the pan and repeat with 4 or 5 more flowers, depending on the size, don’t over-crowd the pan.

Fry until the flowers are light golden-brown on the bottom. Do not over heat the oil, otherwise it will burn the outer layer of flower.

Turn the flowers with tongs and cook until light golden-brown on the other side. Each side will take 2-3 minutes to properly cook from inside.

Remove from the heat and transfer the flowers to a pan covered with paper towels. To keep warm, put on oven and continue with rest of the flowers.

It’s a great snacks to go with ketchup or tamarind sauce. But as we are Bangladeshi, we eat this fried flowers with rice too!

Recipe: 3 Serving Prepping time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: 7-8 pc Squash/Pumpkin/Zucchini flowers 200g Gram flour (aka Chickpea flour or Beshon) – Alternatively use plain wheat flour 50g Rice flour Spice and Condiments 100ml Vegetable Oil (any neutral taste oil will do) 1/3tsp salt 1/2tsp Turmeric powder 2-3 Green chili 1 small Onion

Instruction 1. Blend onion and chili into a smooth paste. 2. Make a smooth batter of gramflour, rice flour, salt, turmeric and onion chili paste. 3. Heat your vegetable oil in low medium heat for 5 minutes. Dip flowers in batter and fry in low medium heat.Kumra Phuler Bora 5. Fry until golden both sides and take it out of the pan and put it on paper towel to absorb extra oil. 6. Serve warm with your favorite sauce.