Deep Fried Green Beans

Tis the season for getting great food from the Farmers' Market while you're waiting for the stuff in your own garden to get ripe. Around here, it's sweet corn that's the talk of the town, but anyone who knows me knows I love me some green beans. Now I do really love them just parboiled in a little water and then sprinkled with some salt, dotted with some butter, and if I'm feelin' fancy, tossed around with a little lemon pepper. That to me is a perfectly satisfactory dinner. However, I wanted to do something a little different with the fresh green beans I got from the Farmers' Market (Farmer Fred's to be exact--got to go to a place called Farmer Fred's!) since the salt/lemon pepper/butter trick works fine on frozen green beans. I recalled that while in a TGI Fridays I once ordered a fried green bean appetizer that was served with a wasabi ranch. I decided if TGIF's could do it, so then could I. I hit the internet and found greenbeansnmore.com and was intrigued by Fried Green Beans (that uses only 2 TBSP oil and 2 cups fresh green beans so you know it's not deep fried). I may still try that one, but I was determined and kept looking and found the recipe for Deep Fried Green Beans. I made them and found them to be super easy (which is a lot coming from me since I'm not much of a deep frying kind of gal) and served them at dinner with some plain ranch (I'm not a huge wasabi fan). If you're looking for something a little different to do with your green beans, I'd say try this out!

Deep Fried Green Beans

1 pound fresh green beans, washed and trimmed to preferred length.
1 cup buttermilk (I just soured some milk with lemon juice, which also works)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP salt
1/2 TBSP pepper
1/2 TBSP garlic powder
Oil for deep frying

Pat your beans dry.  Mix the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a bowl.  Dip your beans in the buttermilk and then roll them in the flour mixture.  Deep fry these until they are golden brown and then drain on paper towels. 

Serve warm with your choice of dipping sauce.

For the oil, I used a combo of shortening and vegetable oil, but the recipe just said "oil for deep frying" so use whatever you think works best.  I'd say something with neutral flavor (vegetable, canola, shortening) and a high smoke point.  I don't have a fryer so I used a 2 quart saucepan and maybe (maybe) a pint of oil.  I didn't fry a lot at a time, but I got it done.  They are better sooner than they are later.

And 1/2 TBSP?  That's 1 and 1/2 tsp.  I have to look that up every time because I can never seem to remember if it's 3 or 4 tsp/TBSP.  It's 3.  If you've got a 1/2 TBSP measuring spoon, use it, but if you're like me and have to make due with eyeballing the TBSP or figuring out the tsp conversion, go with the 1 1/2 tsp.  You're welcome! :)

Butter-Braised Kohlrabi

Our kohlrabi did GREAT in the garden this year. Maybe it was a little too great: we had quite a few of the little buggars and it's hard to know what to do with them. I understand you can serve them raw with dip (which does sound tasty) and I know from experience that you can cut it up and parboil it with carrots, but there are only so many meals you can serve carrots & kohlrabi before it gets old. Because of that, I decided to trawl the internet to see if there were any other ideas and viola!: I found Butter-Braised Kohlrabi. Easy and delicious! Thank you saveur.com for this recipe!

Butter-Braised Kohlrabi

2 lbs kohlrabi, trimmed but unpeeled and cut into 1" cubes (I trimmed and peeled mine--I had let them get a little big)
1 cup chicken stock
4 TBSP butter, cubed
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves (another thing doing well in my garden, gratefully)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put the kohlrabi, stock, 2 TBSP butter, and thyme into a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Season with S&P and cover with parchment-paper circle cut to fit inside rim of skillet. (I did not do this: I used a splatter guard because I didn't feel like digging out the parchment, but your choice.)

Cook, stirring occasionally, until kohlrabi is tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover, remove pan from heat, and add the remaining 2 TBSP butter, swirling skillet until butter melts. Serve warm.

The slight carmelization I got on the kohlrabi (I didn't stir it enough) really was delicious and provided a nice counterpoint to the salt and papper vegetable-ness of the dish. If you're wondering what to do with a kohlrabi, this is it!

Spanikopita

Last night for dinner we had Spanikopita. Since I couldn't find a recipe in my cookbooks, I did some online research. I found two, one from Rachel Ray on foodnetwork.com and one from SnappySpoons on Allrecipes.com. Each had about half of what I wanted, so I combined them into one recipe. It came out pretty good, but in future I think I will omit the mozzarella cheese. Much as I love mozzarella, I thought it gave the filling a slightly rubbery texture. Here's my cobbled-together spanikopita recipe:

4 sheets phyllo dough
melted butter
1 (10-oz) package frozen spinach
1 egg
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (again, I think I'd omit this next time)
1/2 cup gratred Parmesan
1 clove garlic, minched
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 TBSP olive oil

In the olive oil, saute the garlic and onion until soft. Thaw and squeeze the spinach. Then mix the cheeses, sauteed veggies, and spinach together with the spices. Beat the egg separately and then stir that in.

Paint melted butter onto half of your sheet of phyllo, paying special attention to the borders. Fold it in half. Put 1/4 of the spinach mixture in a log shape on one end of the phyllo, leaving about 2" from the top and sides. Fold this over and then roll the spanikopita up like an egg roll. Paint the seam and ends with more melted butter and place seam-side down on a baking sheet (no need to grease). Repeat with remaining 3 sheets of phyllo and spinach mixture.

Bake in (preheated) 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden all over and serve warm.