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! :)