Finger Food Wednesday on Friday

Hi all.

I like to keep changing it up on you. Tonight (Friday) me and the fam are going to a local minor league baseball game, so FFF actually happened on Wednesday night, thus enabling me to actually get a FFF posted on an actual Friday. Also working in my favor was the fact that the little kids were off at an overnight with their grandparents. This was a good thing, because besides beef dips, FFF also includes Beer Battered Green Beans.

Say whaaaaaaaaat?

Yep. Beer Battered Green Beans. It caught my eye in the August edition of Rachael Ray's Everyday Magazine. It didn't even occur to me that they sound kinda gross until I told Mr. C what I was making. The look he gave me made me second guess myself, but thankfully I stuck with my gut instinct. The little fat cells that have taken up residence in there (largely due to my Kettle Chip obsession of '08 & '09) guided me in the right direction. The Beer Battered Green Beans turned out to be delish.

So let's get started, shall we?

First thing you'll want to do is pour out 2/3 cup of beer into a bowl. I used Corona because that's what we had in our fridge, but I think the taste of a nice amber might be good.

Let that stand for 10 minutes or until it hits room temperature and looses some fizz.

In the meantime, wash and trim a pound of green beans. Throw them into a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes or so. This crisps them all up before you have to throw them in a vat of hot oil (fry, you little suckers.... fry!).

Sorry. Sometimes I think I have too much pent up anger.

Those green beans did nothing to me. Sorry, little beans.

Let's go back to the beer.

Go ahead and mix in 1/2 cup of flour, 2 Tbs. of cornstarch, and 1/2 tsp. of salt.

Whisk it all up, and then go back to the beans.

Is this starting to feel like a Wimbledon match to you? Beer! Beans! Beer! Beans!

Anyway. Remove them from the ice bath and pat them dry.

Mix those beans up in that batter and make 'em look like this:

This next part here is where I thought I made a fatal mistake. The recipe calls for 2 cups of vegetable oil, and I discovered that I only had olive oil on hand. Olive oil doesn't handle high temps very well, so I thought that I was doomed. However, one of my better qualities is that a quitter I am not, so I forged ahead and decided to see what would happen. Surprisingly, everything turned out okay- so, all this was to tell you that you can either use 2 cups of veg. oil, or 3/4 cup of olive oil, and everything will be okay.

Working in 4 batches at a time, drop the beans into the pan and let them fry for about 3 minutes, turning once.

Sorry about the blurry pic. It's hard to take a good picture when there's tons of steam fogging the lens and little spatters of oil are jumping up and biting your arm. The next pic is better, I promise.

When you're all finished with the batches of beans, you can drain them on a napkin OR you can be savvy like me and drain them on a paper bag. It soaks up more grease and lends more space.

Salt it to your taste.

Are you still not convinced that these are worth your time and effort? That's cuz they're not...... yet. What you need to do is mix up a batch of Aioli sauce for dipping. That's when you'll begin sighing and licking your fingers.

Here's how you make the Aioli sauce:

Chop up one clove of garlic. Whisk it into a small bowl that contains 1/4 cup of mayo, 1/2 tsp. of mustard, 1/2 tsp. dried tarragon, salt, and pepper. It'll look like this:

I don't have a good picture from the family's reaction. Mr. C and 9 are not usually the most willing of subjects. You just have to know that despite how disgusted they were when they heard what I was cooking up, Beer Battered Green Beans were pretty much a success with everyone except for Roo. You wouldn't be able to tell from this pic though:

They're kind of goofy, but they're mine and I love them.

One last thing. Just in case the beef dips and deep fried foods failed to induce a heart attack, I made sure to have these in my freezer.

Luther peeps- remember these? They were worth every bit of the 50 cents and 15 minute wait in the snack bar line at school. Mint chip ice cream, sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies, all covered in dark chocolate. After a 15 year It's It hiatus in which there were none to be found anywhere in SoCal, my local Stater Bros. now carries them. God bless Stater Brothers. And god bless my 13 year old metabolism. I miss you. I want you back.

You all have a good night!