Macadamia nut cheese-filled courgette flowers

To make the macadamia cheese, first prepare the macadamia nuts by soaking them in a bowl of water for 2 hours – or even better do this the night before. Drain the nuts and tip into a food processor or blender along with 160ml water and blitz until smooth (if you are using a small, hand-held blender, then blitz several times until smooth.) As this is a soft cheese, the texture can be slightly bitty, which I personally love. If you are using a high-speed blender, make sure you don’t overheat or overblend. You want the texture to be ricotta-like.

Once the nuts are blended, transfer to a clean glass container. Add the lemon juice and zest, chives, garlic, and some salt and pepper, then mix well.

Use a metal chef’s ring for this next step, if you have one. Alternatively, you can use a small bowl lined with clingfilm. If you’re using a chef’s ring, place some baking paper under the ring and grease the inside with some oil. Fill the chef’s ring or the bowl to the top with the cheese mixture.

Chill the cheese for a few hours to set and let the flavours marry together. The cheese will keep for up to seven days in the fridge.

Put the cheese mixture in a piping bag, fill the courgette flowers two-thirds full and gently twist the tops to close them up. Once the flowers have been filled, make the batter by mixing all the ingredients together.

Heat a good amount of olive oil in a pan. Gently dip the courgette flowers in the batter and then shallow-fry over a medium heat until browned and crispy. Once fried, put the flowers on kitchen paper to drain and serve immediately with some spring greens and a lemon-flavoured mayonnaise with a few snipped chives stirred in, if you like.