Crispy Green Bean Fries with Wasabi Cucumber Ranch Dip

Part of Eric’s new(ish) job is exhibiting at trade shows around the country, something he’s never had to do before so it’s been a new experience for both of us. He actually spent last week in Las Vegas “working” while Charisse stayed home and went to work, something that was not well received at the Petruno household. Eric was annoyed because he was in Vegas, working 10 hour days and not having much in the way of fun. Charisse was annoyed because Eric was in Vegas without her.  When he got back, we stopped at the In-N-Out right next to the airport and Charisse got a great laugh out of watching him fall asleep midway through his burger. The next day (we slept through the morning) we talked about the blog and some of the things we’re going to change about it. After some deliberation we feel like the look doesn’t exactly match the feel and our photography has hit a virtual wall. We started this last year and we were really interested in pushing the fancy envelope. We saw ourselves as edgy ex-city people who needed a slick and polished blog. We found that we keep going back to homey feel good food with just a hint of the city. We also decided that we should have a picture of us in here somewhere, since it is a blog about us. As you can imagine it was quite the day (Eric got to order more photography stuff from Ebay and gets to take over the dining room table) and as we wrapped up we decided that we needed to fry something, a trait we’ve picked up from our friend Jen’s southern roots. Since Eric just finished a week eating crappy junk food the usual friable suspects were out of the question, so we decided to dig through the fridge and fry whatever came out, which happened to be green beans! Charisse dug out a recipe for a great dipping sauce and fired up the oil. The taste came out a lot like fried zucchini, but with green beans. The real highlight was the dipping sauce, a modified ranch dressing with just enough zing to make it exciting. 

Wasabi Cucumber Ranch Dip

What you will need

½ cup bottled ranch dressing (I used Hidden Valley)
¼ cup cucumbers, peeled, seeded, minced
1 tablespoon milk
1 ½ teaspoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon wasabi powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pinch cayenne pepper

Easiest dip ever. Put ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. Put into a serving bowl and chill until served.

Crispy Green Bean Fries

What you will need

1 egg beaten
1 cup of milk
4 cups of vegetable broth or chicken broth
6 to 8 ounces of fresh green beans
1 cup of flour
1 cup plain breadcrumbs or seasoned dry bread crumbs
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Oil for frying

Bring broth to a boil add beans and cook for 15 minutes. Transfer beans to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. 

Set out three shallow bowls. In the first mix your beaten egg and milk. Add 1 cup of flour to the second. Add breadcrumbs and remaining ingredients (except oil) to the third. A few at a time, take the beans from the water and put them through the breading process flour first, then egg then breadcrumbs. Take care not to have any excess flour on the beans or the egg might not stick. 

Heat the oil until it reaches 350*F using a fry oil thermometer. Fry beans until golden brown, around a minute to a minute and a half.

recipe found on epicurious