Beer-Battered Zucchini Fries
Beer. Battered. Zucchini. Fries.
We loooooove vegetables. Okay, not really. We pour zucchini into baked goods. We stuff squash and peppers with sausage and cheese. We bake corn with copious amounts of cheese. Now we've discovered the world of beer-battered vegetables. This may have become our favorite way to eat any vegetable. Obviously, whoever the poster child is for eating your vegetables is in absolutely no danger of losing their job to us. But, oooooh boy, is this some crazy rich zucchini.
We've had fried zucchini in a number of different ways before… battered, breaded and fried, straight-up fried like onion straws, in planks… You name it, we've tried it. These by far take the cake. We love them cut in the traditional French fry shape, which allows for much more batter per fry than something like a plank or a thicker cut. Less vegetable, more beer batter per bite? We're sold. We also enjoyed the beer batter versus a breaded version. It’s crispier and lighter and all-around memorable.
Our mom had our aunt and uncle and cousins over yesterday for some family dinner time, and we made these zucchini fries for us all to munch on while we visited and let the grill heat up. Once they hit the table, they disappeared almost immediately. The batter stayed crisp and the zucchini inside was evenly tender. Everyone raved about them and we all agreed that zucchini fries definitely need to happen again soon. And so they shall.
We need to eat our veggies, after all ;-)
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings
- Prep: 20 minutes
- Cook: 30 minutes
- Total: 50 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 medium zucchini, cut into ½-inch-thick fries
- 1½ cups ( 187.5 g ) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ( 0.5 teaspoon ) ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup ( 236 ml ) beer
- 2 quarts ( 1.89 l ) vegetable oil, for frying
Method
- Whisk together the flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and vegetable oil. Drizzle the egg and oil mixture over the flour and mix together with a fork to create a shaggy dough. Slowly pour in the beer while constantly whisking, until a smooth batter forms. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to 4 hours) before frying.
- Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven until it reaches 375 degrees F. Working with one batch of zucchini fries at a time, drop them into the batter, making sure each one is coated. Using tongs, gently add them to the oil and fry until golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel-lined pan. Allow the oil to come back up to temperature, and then repeat until all of the zucchini has been fried. Serve with ranch dressing or a spicy mayonnaise.
