
Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Fried Green Beans. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post. The original recipe was found in the Cooking With Pryde cookbook by Pressley Ridge.
Robyn’s Take:
This week’s recipe was one that Nance found in a cookbook, scanned, and sent to me for my approval. As is the way, when I got the scan, I thought “Oh, that’ll be neat to try”, and then when it actually came time to MAKE the recipe, I was all wailing and rending my garments, asking why why whyyyyyy Nance hates me so much. I mean, I know. I KNOW. It’s my own stupid fault for okaying the recipe, right? But seriously. Why do you think Nance hates me? Is she jealous because I’ve got so many cats, you think? I bet that’s totally it.
So, fried green beans. Fried. Green beans. I swear, I’ve fried more stuff since we started this site than in all my previous mumblety-six years combined.
Your ingredients:
2 lb fresh green beans (I ended up with 1 1/2 pounds, I think. There’s only the two of us, after all!), flour, eggs, milk, salt, baking powder, and oil.
Just a note – I was all ready to make these damn things, when I realized that the milk was 2 weeks past the expiration date. Yeah, apparently we don’t use milk all that much! But I’ve read – somewhere – that you can use evaporated milk in place of regular milk when you’re cooking or baking (I don’t think I’d eat it on my cereal or anything), and since I always have a can or two of that on hand, I decided to give it a try. I’m pleased to announce that it actually worked okay, so I’m going to keep that in mind for the future.
First, you cook your green beans in salted water. The recipe gave no guidelines (“cook beans in salted water” is all it says), so I’m telling you that I boiled my beans in salted water for 10 minutes so that they were cooked through, but not overdone. You can see that I threw the beans in the pot, then remembered I was supposed to salt the water, and just dumped some water in on top of the beans. I’m such a professional.
Alice snoopervised from her spot near the top of the kitchen cabinets.
“Why you never make anything tasty, lady?”
When the beans are done cooking, drain them and let them cool.
I let them cool for about 10 minutes, then I was impatient and unwilling to wait any longer because AS USUAL I’d waited until an hour before dinner to start making this shit, and WHY do I do this?!
Place the beans on a sheet of waxed paper (I used parchment paper; I’m sure I’ve got waxed paper around here somewhere, but I have no idea where the hell it is. You’d think “With the tin foil and plastic wrap” would be the correct answer, but NO.) and then cover with flour.
I used my hands to kind of roll the green beans around so they’d be coated on all sides.
In a large bowl, mix eggs, milk, baking powder, and salt; whisk together well. Take your floured beans and place in the bowl of egg mixture, then stir so that they’re well coated. I imagine this might work better if you do it in batches, but I did all the beans at the same time.
Heat an inch of oil in a skillet over med-high heat. When it’s hot, spoon beans into the oil and fry until browned. “Turning only once”, says the original recipe. Yeah, well, fuck that. I didn’t turn them at all. I just reached in with the (metal) spoon and stirred once or twice so that the beans wouldn’t stick together too badly.
It didn’t take them too long to cook, and then I put them on a thick layer of paper towels to drain. I think it took about three batches to get all the beans done.
The verdict? NOPE. I mean, they weren’t BAD, but nothing to write home about, nothing I want to have again, and WAY too much of a pain in the ass. NO THANK YOU.
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Nance’s Take:
Our family grew our own food and that’s probably the reason I can’t be bothered with gardening to this day. I’m over the whole becoming one with nature bullshit. That dream died as a child when I was snapping bushels of motherfucking green beans while trying to avoid that little yellow bug that lurked on them. We canned the green beans (oh, the joy of washing jars in scalding hot water) and fried them in lard. Full disclosure: I do not appreciate fresh green beans.
Since this was a new recipe I decided to buy a bag of what appeared to be fresh beans. I’m suspicious of any green bean that isn’t limp and has a color that resembles camouflage hunting pants.
The color of these green beans looks fake. More full disclosure: I was also making dinner (another new recipe coming soon) and my mother was finishing up the batch of homemade pierogies we had started that afternoon. What does this all mean? My kitchen was in chaos when I made these stupid green beans.
The recipe called for 2 pounds of green beans. I had exactly 14 ounces. I realized my error after I had already dumped the full 2 cups of flour on the damn things.
This part really pissed me off because how in the hell was I suppose to stop that baking powder from clumping? I have the same problem when I make French toast and add flour to the eggs/milk. This kind of shit annoys me and if anybody has any idea how to do this, please tell me your secret.
The first green bean goes in. You can see to your left where I had another burner lit up for something else I was making. I was in A.D.D hell.
WTF? It looks like a worm.
I got fed up and put a bunch of them in the oil because I don’t have all day, beans! Note the oil that’s splattered everywhere – I was getting really cranky.
At this point I had my mom, Rick, The Beagle, Sadie, Waldo, Julie and Felina all up in my kitchen business. Trey came down to nebshit, but I told him to get the hell out of my way so he went back upstairs to his bedroom. He’s a smart young man.
I had better luck with those freaking corn dogs and y’all know what a disaster that was! Just look at that greasy mess of rubbery vegetable-tasting shit.
This is a grocery bag full of floured green beans. We each tried one, hated them, and agreed wholeheartedly to pitch the rest in the garbage.
But wait! A few brave souls tried the beans and actually liked them.
The Beagle finished the fried ones off with a little help from The Chihuahua (aka: Felina/FiFi). And now we know who the freaks in the family really are.
This is definitely a recipe that I’ll never make again.
- 2 lb fresh green beans
- 2 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 c. milk
- salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- oil (Robyn used Canola oil)
- Clip ends of green beans.
- Cook beans in salted water for about 10 minutes. Drain and let cool.
- Place beans on wax or parchment paper and cover with flour (use your hands to roll the beans around so that they're evenly coated).
- In a large bowl, beat eggs and add milk, baking powder and 1 tsp salt.
- Take floured beans and place in bowl with egg mixture. Coat beans completely.
- Fill skillet with 1 inch of oil. Heat on medium/high heat.
- Spoon large spoonsful of bean mixture into hot oil. Fry until browned - turning only once (ha) or using a spoon to stir the beans so they don't stick together too badly.
- Life out onto paper towel and drain. Salt, if desired.
I keep a box of powdered milk in the pantry to use in recipes whenever I don’t have fresh milk on hand. It’s horrible to drink, but it’s fine in recipes. 1/3 cup powdered milk + 1 cup water = 1 cup milk.
I have a bag of powdered milk that was on sale because I was going to make some kind of milk bath salts/whatever with…and then I remember that I never take a bath because my bathroom is a health hazard.
Time to Google recipes that take dried milk…
yeah…not so much. but green beans are good for the dogs haha
I’m pretty sure had I given those damn green beans to the dogs un-fried they wouldn’t go near them (even The Beagle who is a hog-face). They were in it for the grease. I know how they are. 🙂
The nerve of you calling Felina ugly!!! Those beans looked good!
Look at that dog’s eyes and tell me that’s not a hot mess. Puhleeeese. She’s insanely fucked-up looking. And the beans were gross.
I’m still waiting for anybody to notice that I did not cook those green beans first and that they actually had ice on them. Everybody is a skimmer these days. hee.
Oh, I noticed. No way I was gonna say anything to a woman who actually deep-fries. I mean, whose to say you wouldn’t come after me with that boiling oil? No death wish here.
Dude. That first picture looks a lot like something I saw in the litter box this morning.
Rachael – I actually have powdered milk in the pantry, and it didn’t even occur to me to use that instead! Hopefully I’ll remember next time I need milk and don’t have any on hand.
Really? Because the things that I seen in my litter box are HUGE compared to that bean. Motherfucking Waldo thinks he’s a St. Bernard and shit.
Well, I meant one of the kitten litter boxes. 🙂
Pierogies? (Meercat pose) you’re going to put the pierogie recipe out here right?! You said you would MONTHS ago when y’all made the Pierogie casserole and I’m DYING down here in the frozen but melting fast south.
Fried green beans look nasty. And I love green beans just about any way you can make them, but apparently not like this. Looks like too much trouble. Thanks for being the guinea pigs on this for us. (New & interesting green bean recipe being emailed to Robyn – fairly easy and delicious!!)
Patience, grasshopper. All good things come to those who wait. I can tell you that I have the iPhoto open and I’m cropping the pierogie pictures right now so it could happen oh, any month now. 😉
I love that you guys are willing to try anything at least once !!!
If you want amazing fried beans try them this way. Fresh or frozen green beans, a hot pan with melted butter, about a teaspoon depending on how many beans you have or if you REALLY like butter. Stir often and add salt and fresh ground pepper. I usually fry them for about five or so minutes (longer if they are from frozen). Enjoy !! Very easy and no extra boiling or any other steps involved.
Have a great day ladies !!!
This sounds similar to the Pioneer Woman recipe, though hers involves bacon grease and onions and cooking for a lot longer. Okay, it doesn’t sound all that much like hers, now that I put it that way! 🙂
Don’t hate me but I do like the PW green bean recipe and make it often. By the way, made the chicken casserole from last week and it was FABULOUS! I will probably add some veggies just for fun next time.
OK, why do you put flour in your French toast mixture? Doesn’t that prevent the bread from soaking up all the egg/milk/cinnamon goodness? Full disclosure: I make French toast using slices of pound cake, which I make and slice and let dry out for the sole purpose of making French toast. Pound cake also makes fabulous bread pudding. Fuller disclosure: I use cheap pound cake mix (I had to throw that in as I thought I was sounding a bit Amandaish).
Oh, and I only like green beans in chicken soup but big thumbs up for cute kitties and googly-eyed doggies!
This is an excellent question, and one that I meant to ask – I’ve never heard of adding flour in your French toast mixture and am afraid I’ve missed out on something!
Also, pound cake French toast sounds SO GOOD!
Flour in French toast???? Color me confused!
Whole eggs, a little milk, splash of vanilla and ground cinnamon. No flour needed!
Nance, no wonder Felina disapproves!! You may be the ONLY one to ever put flour on french toast. WHY???? Now, I like it with just milk and egg yolk. If you want to substitute the egg with egg nog – well that is fabulous! Also, Brioche makes fab french toast!
I will confess that I find Felina absolutely adorable no matter how spoiled she is!!! 🙂
Milk, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and , of course, Kahlua. Never heard of flour in the French Toast. I like to use French bread slices but am willing to learn. Due to the Polar Vortex we have had several French Toast dinners this winter. It is the only way to survive the Snowpocalypse! Even my friend Amanda approves of my recipe. I think it is because of the avante garde use of Kahlua.
Yikes! I don’t think I will be trying this one :)I don’t like to fry things in the house, hate the smell it lingers so long. My husband will occasionally man the fryer outside if we want shrimp or something.
Nance, I was glad to see you post-are you getting snow? The lower 48 is having our winter weather-we actually had it up to around 50°F in January, which is very, very unusual for Anchorage. We are back to regular temps, but haven’t had much snow lately, we can actually see patches of grass in our front yard. This is a very, very weird winter.
Fred really doesn’t like it when I fry inside, either. Obviously I need to get a fryer we can use outside!
Nope. You lost me at ‘fried green beans’! Hated them as a kid (probably as they came out of a can, ditto on peas) but now love the fresh or frozen variety. Frying them just not right! Fried potatoes, chicken, rice? Bring it on but leave the beans out of it 🙂
WTH!?! Felina is adorable!! Not judgy at all! She is trying to HELP you Nance 🙂
This is my favorite cooking blog, because y’all hate what you make a good percentage of the time, and I like that. Well, that and I’ve been following you two on the internet since the days of coal-burning web browsers.
Speaking as a chef who absolutely LOVES your blog, I was confused by this recipe. There is no reason to have baking powder anywhere in this recipe and it was out of order. I know you didn’t write the recipe but it should have went like this. Cover your cooked green beans in corn starch first. The corn starch allows the egg to stick to the bean. Dip in egg, then dip in flour. This way you have a “breading” that will stay on the bean when it is fried. Other wise you have a overcooked egg, baking powder covered green bean that as you know only the dogs will eat. They are actually really good if the person who wrote the recipe knew what they were doing. I’ll get off my soapbox and shut up now. Looking forward to what comes next on your site!