Deep Fried Veggies

 It was the playoffs and the Bears were playing. I wanted to make something special. The previous week, I had made a brisket, and the Bears won. So, of course, I was going to make the brisket again. But since this game was against the Packers, I wanted a little something extra. That is how I decided I would make beer batter onion rings and green beans.

Beer Batter Green Beans and Onion Rings

1. Green Beans: Green beans are my favorite vegetable. For this recipe, and for most of the times that I eat green beans, I buy a bag of pre-cleaned, pre-washed green beans. It's a real time saver.
2. Onions: I take one large yellow or Vidalia onion. And I cut it into rings. Then, separate the rings out. You have to be surprisingly careful when doing this. For some reason, the rings want to fall apart if you do this too quickly.
3. Flour: I put about a cup or two of flour in each of two large bowls. One will be for flouring the veggies. One will be for the batter.
4. Beer: Put in enough beer to turn the flour into a beer batter. It should be about the consistency of pancake batter - maybe a little bit thiner. I use a light beer for this. Sapporo is the best for this type of application. I usually end up using miller light or pabst. I wouldn't use a dark beer unless you're battering up some fish. One time, I was making deep fried cookie dough, and I believe I used a chocolate stout. That was good.
5. Oil: I use a smart balance oil. They sell a small bottle and a large bottle. I use one large bottle and put it in my dutch oven.
6. Heat: get the oil to around 350. As you can tell from the picture, I was obviously having some problems maintaining oil temp. It happens. It's not the end of the world, but it can tend to make your veggies greasy if your temp gets too low for too long.
7. Flour the veggies: coat the veggies in the flour. You will have to do this in batches. This helps the batter to stick to the veggies. 
8. Batter the veggies: after the flour, dunk the veggies into the beer batter. 
9. Fry: Shake off the excess beer batter. Add into the fryer. You will know when they are done when they change color to a nice golden brown.

The onion rings and the green beans were good. Very very good. And one onion and one bag of green beans made more deep fried veggies than Sarah and I could eat, even over multiple sittings. To reheat them, we put them in the oven, and they stayed pretty crispy.
Unfortunately, the Bears lost that day.