from True North
This recipe came about when we ended up getting a bounty of wax beans from Jocelyn at Jardins Bio-Santé. I love fish and chips and I love wok-fried beans, so why not have the best of both worlds? So the plate doesn’t look like a one-trick pony, I make two different batters from the same base recipe, one with a blonde beer and one with a red.
Ingredients
Beer Batter:
2 tbsp (30 mL) active dry yeast
1¼ cups (300 mL) red or blonde beer
1¼ cups (300 mL) cold water
2½ cups (625 mL) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5 mL) kosher salt
Beans:
Canola oil for deep-frying
1 lb (450 g) green wax beans, trimmed
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour Kosher salt
1 lb (450 g) yellow wax beans, trimmed
1 clove garlic, crushed but kept whole
1 tbsp (15 mL) finely chopped Italian parsley
2 tsp (10 mL) finely chopped fresh summer savory
1 cup (250 mL) tartar sauce
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Directions
For the beer batter: Dissolve the yeast in the beer and water. Allow to sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the beer mixture until the batter is smooth. Transfer to another large bowl to prevent batter on the sides from drying out, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit in a place that’s slightly warmer than room temperature until doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Beans: Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or deep, heavy pot to 375°F (190°C). Dredge the green beans in the flour. Working in batches, dip them into the red beer batter, letting the excess drip off, and drop them as individuals into the hot oil, agitating them with a slotted spoon so they don’t clump into one mass. Fry them for about 4 minutes, until the batter is crispy. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Season them immediately and generously with salt. Repeat with the remaining green beans.
Repeat with the yellow beans, except dipping them in the blonde beer batter. When all the beans are fried and salted, drop little streams of each batter into the hot oil and fry until crispy. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.
If you have a large wooden bowl, now is the time to use it. Rub the garlic around the sides of the bowl, add the yellow and green beans, the parsley, savory and the crispy batter bits. Toss well. Transfer to the serving vessel of your choice and serve with tartar sauce and the lemon wedges.
Serves 4 to 6
Nada’s Tips & Tricks: Beans are in season so have fun with them. A great veggie option for when serving fish and chips to your carnivores. There’s a recipe for the tartar sauce in the book that’s very tasty!
Recipe from True North by Derek Dammann and Chris Johns ©2015. Food photography by Farah Khan. Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. https://www.harpercollins.ca/9781443431736/true-north/