If you´re not Portuguese you might not know this, but tempura was actually born in Portugal. The Portuguese call it “peixinhos da horta” aka little fish from the garden/farm and brought it to Japan in the 16th century. There it evolved into what they today call tempura. At its origins, peixinhos da horta remains a beloved dish, usually made from deep fried green beans in a flour and egg batter. It´s one of my favourite finger foods to add to a brunch as it´s super easy to make and goes heavenly with any sauce you might have at hand. I felt it appropriate to post as this week´s #homemadeMonday as a selected dish for the #brunchseries. Here´s how I make it.
Ingredients
(for two/three people as a starter)
100g fresh green beans
two eggs
50g flour
three pinches of salt
one pinch of pepper
oil to fry them in
Instructions
1. Clean the beans by cutting the ends off. You will want the beans to be about 5cm long so if they´re longer just snap them in two.
2. Cook the beans for 5 minutes and wash off with cold water. Note: I often skip this step as I prefer them crunchy!
3. In a wide bowl mix the flour, eggs, salt and pepper until they´re a gooey paste.
4. Dry the beans and run them through the paste while heating up your oil.
5. Deep fry until golden (not brown!), dry off the excess oil and serve with a garlicky yoghurt sauce.
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