I usually make some snacks with our evening tea, especially onion vada is a front runner, and second our ethakappam. Mom used to make bajji or fries with all kinds of vegetables such as onion, plantain, egg plant and even potato while growing up. My hubby is fan of snack made of onions and other vegetables are needed to use only when there is emergency, meaning run out of onions. So I won’t venture into anything if I am not satisfied with recipe.
When I was looking into Portuguese cooking, I realized it is diverse and influenced by Europe, Africa and Mediterranean. It consists of mainly pork and sea food of all kind and olive oil and vegetables such as tomatoes, Kale, olives, sweet and hot pepper, green beans, almonds, eggs, parsley, coriander, mint and species such nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. I found interesting recipe with green beans, which is fried in the same way as our baji is fried and is also served as snack or starter. Fried green beans in Portuguese are Peixinhos da Horta meaning “little fish from the garden”. This may because after frying green beans looks like slender fish. The recipe is very simple. I adapted from here.
What you need
Fresh Green Beans: ½ pound (trimmed)
All purpose flour: ⅓ cup
Water : ⅓ cup
Salt : ¼ teaspoon or to taste
Egg : 1
Ground Black pepper: ¼ teaspoon
Baking powder: ½ teaspoon (I didn’t use)
Oil : 2 cup for frying
How I made
Clean and trim the sides of green beans and cook in boiling salted water until crisp –tender or for 3 minutes. Immediately put them in the bowl ice water to prevent the further cooking. Drain and dry the beans using paper towel.
Heat the oil in thick bottomed pan or wok over medium heat to 350 degree F.
Combine flour, baking powder, egg, salt and pepper and mix with water to form a thick batter, similar to baji batter.
Dip five or six beans in the batter and fry them in the hot oil until golden brown or 4 minutes per batch. Drain using a slotted spoon in paper towel to remove excess oil.
Serve hot with tomato ketchup or any dipping sauce. We finished it without any sauce.
Enjoy with hot tea.
Preparation time: 1 hour
Yield: 6-8 serving
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will
Swathi
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Swapna Raghu Sanand says
Awesome recipe, Swathi. Totally loved it. I will surely try this.
Pari says
Hi Swathi, reached here through EC's blog. The crispies look very nice and your cookies have turned out well.
Do drop by and check out my space.
http://cooking-goodfood.blogspot.com
Pari
Priya says
Beautiful crispies Swathi..thanks for this beautiful entry..