North Croatian French Beans Stew (“cuspajz Od Mahuna”)

This is my grandmother’s recipe. You can use round or flat French beans (I prefer round and green). We eat this meal as a side dish to meat with potato. You can, of course eat this as a complete dish as lunch. If you want to preserve green color of your vegetables, put them into boiled water. I recommend using fresh vegetable, not canned or frozen – it is much, much better.

• Ready In: 45 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 4 portions

Ingredients

• 1000  g  French beans
• 40  g  lard (or oil)
• 30  g flour (all purpose)
• 1  garlic clove
• 100  g onions
• 1⁄2 teaspoon paprika (red, dry)
• 1  tablespoon vinegar (red wine vinegar)
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1⁄3 teaspoon pepper (grounded)
• 50  g sour cream

Directions

1. Clean the French beans and cut into 5 cm long pieces.
2. Boil the water and put French beans into boiling water and cook not more than 10 minutes. Drain the beans and put aside.
3. During this melt lard and saute finely minced onion, than add flour and fry flour (not too much) with finely minced garlic. Add cold water and stir until you get creamy mixture, add paprika, salt pepper and vinegar. Add some more water, heat it and add French beans.
4. Cover with water and cook until beans are soft or 30 minutes. At the end add sour cream, stir and serve.