Fried Green Beans with Lime Aioli Dipping Sauce

Grapefruit rum, fried green beans...I'm going for a theme here.  The heat had finally hit us in the last few days and it's too hot to go out, so I'm bringing the neighborhood pub to a shady spot in the backyard.  These beans are light and crispy, the sauce is extra tangy.  Pull up a lawn chair and dig in!

I made these in a 3 qt saucepan with just a couple inches of oil.  No big deal.  No huge production. A bottle of beer mixed with a cup flour makes the  batter.  Lime, garlic, and mayo, makes the sauce.

Fried Green Beans
vegetable oil for frying

• Fill a deep pan (wide enough for the beans) with a 2-3 of inches of oil.  heat the oil to 350 to 375 degrees.

1 cup flour
salt and fresh cracked pepper
1 large bottle of beer

• Season the flour with salt and pepper, then add the beer slowly to make a thin batter, about the consistency of pancake batter.

fresh green beans

• Wash, dry, and trim just the stem end off the beans.  
• Drop the beans in the batter, and then into the hot oil.  They will fry to golden in about 2 minutes.  Drain on paper towels.  Don't overcrowd the oil or the beans will stick to each other and the temperature of the oil will drop.
• Serve hot with sauce. 

Quick Lime Aioli
1/2 cup mayonnaise
juice and zest of 1 lime
1 garlic clove, finely minced
salt and pepper

• Whisk all the ingredients together and refrigerate until ready to use.

Here are some other restaurant/pub inspired snacks...

Fried Zucchini

Chickpea Fries