I was reading in the news the other day that a Chinese company, in order to increase its sales and punish its employees for their poor performance, obliges them to eat sour zucchinis. The company puts those employees who do not achieve their targets in sales to eat sour zucchinis in front of their coworkers and their supervisors.
In case someone spits the zucchinis, he or she is obliged to eat more. This method is supposed to give the employees incentives for increasing their productivity, so as to avoid this horrible procedure in the future.
It seems that this particular company has also other methods of punishing its workforce but seeing that they had no actual importance and clout among its staff, they decided to resort to such a cruel method. Now what do you think about that?
Unfortunately for them, instead of increasing the performance, they faced a 50% staff resignations. I think this is a great case study of how to treat your staff.
I was reading that article and coincidentally, a friend of my father’s, who has a vegetable garden, gave us some zucchinis with their blossoms on. Have you ever tried zucchini blossoms? If not, you have no idea how delicious they are! Plus they are a great source of vitamin C, potassium, natural fibers, vitamin B6, folic acid, phosphorus, magnesium and calcium. Also, and this is something not so well known, zucchinis contain polyphenols, just like olive oil, that have antioxidant properties and protect from heart attacks and diabetes.
You can fry them plain or you can stuff them with cheese, ground meat or rice. They are delicious in whichever way you decide to make them. I decided to stuff them with three types of cheese and add some mint to jazz them up a bit and let me tell you they were absolutely delicious.
- 100 gr. / 4 oz. la vache qui rit cheese or 6 triangles or cream cheese
- 200 gr. / 7 oz. yellow cheese of any type, grated (you can use Monterey Jack)
- 60 gr. / 2 oz. feta cheese, finely crumbled
- 5 tbsp milk
- 2 tsp dried mint
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of paprika
- 16 tbsp all purpose flour
- 22 tbsp water
- 1 tsp of salt
- About 25 to 30 blossoms
- Olive oil to fry them
- In a bowl mix all the cheeses, milk, mint, paprika and salt.
- Remove the stamens of the flowers and stuff them with 1 tsp of the cheese batter.
- Close them carefully.
- In another bowl, mix the flour with the water and salt until one batter as thick as the one of the crepes is formed.
- Bathe the stuffed flowers in it and place them in a rack to drain a bit until oil becomes ready to fry them.
- Fry them in batches.
- It took me about one to one and a half minute per batch but this depends on the fire.
- You will understand they are done when they take a nice golden color outside.
- After the second batch I lowered the heat from 8 to 7 because the oil started becoming too hot.
- Remove, let cool a bit and serve with tzatziki or plain yogurt on mayonnaise.
- 100 γρ. la vache qui rit τυρί ή 6 τρίγωνα ή τυρί κρέμα
- 200 γρ. τυρί κίτρινο γκούντα ή ένταμ, τριμμένο
- 60 γρ. φέτα τριμμένη
- 5 κ.σ. γάλα
- 2 κ.γ. ξερή μέντα
- 1 πρέζα αλάτι
- ½ κ.γ. πάπρικα
- 16 κ.σ. αλεύρι για όλες τις χρήσεις
- 22 κ.σ. νερό
- 1 κ.γ. αλάτι
- Άνθη περίπου 25 έως 30
- Ελαιόλαδο για το τηγάνισμα
- Σε ένα μπολ ανακατέψτε όλα τα τυριά, το γάλα, τον δυόσμο, την πάπρικα και το αλάτι.
- Αφαιρέστε τους στήμονες των λουλουδιών και γεμίστε με 1 κουταλάκι του γλυκού από το μείγμα τυριών.
- Κλείστε τα προσεκτικά.
- Σε ένα άλλο μπολ, ανακατέψτε το αλεύρι με το νερό και το αλάτι μέχρι να γίνει ένα χυλός σαν αυτόν που φτιάχνουμε τις κρέπες.
- Βουτήξτε τους ανθούς σε αυτό και τοποθετήστε τους σε μια σχάρα να στραγγίξουν λίγο μέχρι να κάψει το λάδι.
- Τηγανίστε σε δόσεις.
- Μου πήρε περίπου ένα με ενάμισι λεπτό ανά παρτίδα, αλλά αυτό εξαρτάται από τη φωτιά.
- Θα είναι έτοιμοι όταν πάρουν ένα ωραίο χρυσαφί χρώμα.
- Μετά τη δεύτερη παρτίδα μείωσα τη θερμοκρασία από το 8 στο 7 επειδή το λάδι άρχισε να γίνεται πολύ καυτό.
- Βγάλτε τους, αφήστε να κρυώσουν λίγο και σερβίρετε με τζατζίκι ή απλό γιαούρτι, ή μαγιονέζα.
