Meat – Deep-Frying stuffed mushrooms

Although they may be using a different variety of artichoke, the results shouldn't vary too drastically. Ones descending from the italian varieties are often also purple in colour and will have a similar flavour

Selecting artichokes

• Squeeze the artichoke. You're looking for it to be firm and dense, indicating it is moist inside.
• You actually want the centre leaves to be compacted, indicating they are freshest.
• Try and break a leaf off, if it snaps satisfyingly then the artichoke is most likely fresh.
• Rub the leaves and check that they squeak, another sign they are moist.
• During winter, try and find ones with white blisters on its leaves as the slight bit of frost causing this improves the flavour.

As SAJ14SAJ mentioned, when doing a batter coating, you need to hold it in the oil for a second before letting it drop, so that it'll crust up before it touches the basket.

However, you also mentioned 'with some zucchini slices on top', I suspect that the batter came off entirely.

Breading for frying is a bit strange, as you need to make sure that you don't put something wet on top of something else wet (or dry on dry), and no layer too thick.

So, in the case of the zucchini, you need to make sure that the pieces are very dry before putting them in the batter ... if they're freshly sliced, they'll extrude liquid, and so you may need to coat them in flour or starch, shake them off, and then put them in the batter.