ISO: ISO Book Club Menu Ideas for "To Kill A Mockingbird"

In Search Of:
You get very green tomatoes--hard as rocks. Slice thick--at least half an inch.

I put my slices on a paper towel and salt them to remove some of the moisture. then dip in egg wash, flour, egg wash and then a seasoned cornmeal. Saute in shallow oil, 4 minutes on a side.
Louis Osteen of Charleston chef fame uses them as a base for his soft shell crab.
For freezing I slice and freeze on a cookie sheet and then vacuum seal.
Actually, fried "red" tomatoes are pretty good for the ones that are not real tasty and a bit solid.

Our state farmers' market has tomatoes year round (lots from Florida, of course) for $1.29/lb. They are, of course, still tasteless until June so I might as well buy them for FGT.

 
Gretchen's pretty much got it but here are some variations and suggestions...

there are a couple of other variations - we never went through all of that when I was a kid (but I do now) we just dipped in an egg wash and then into a mixture of mainly cornmeal with a little flour added. Pan fry in oil - turning once - not deep fried. Minimize your turning because they will start to fall apart. It's also good with 'pink' tomatoes that are just starting to turn ripe but they are a little more delicate to handle. And like Gretchen, I have fried ripe tomatoes especially ones that were real firm and had little flavor - it brings out a little flavor in them.

Gretchen - I was looking last night because of our discussion - whereas the tomatoes in the store yesterday were $0.99/#, green ones were $3.99/# - can't figure why they should be that much more expensive but they were - ridiculous. Going to try and hit the farmers market this afternoon and see what I can find now that I have a hankerin and have fish, corn, okra and such for tonight - might was well have a fried supper!

Some of the places are using pretty much a flour 'batter' rather than cornmeal and to me that is just not as authentic. In the movie they used bacon grease and I think that is what the recipe Fannie Flagg gives out uses but we never did that.

Loveless Cafe here in Nashville (that is very famous for their Southern Food in case you haven't seen the "Biscuit Lady" on Oprah or all the other talk shows) makes a fried green tomato BLT and it's really a nice twist to use them just use a good bacon, a little thick and nice and crisp.

In my other post to Gretchen below you will see that another local restaurant serves them with two sauces - remoulade and a cilantro pesto dressing and tops with pickled veggies (yellow squash, zucchini, red & yellow peppers in rice wine vinegar) and it's very nice.

My favorite place in Mississippi served a platter with 'wedges' of fried green tomatoes with fried dill pickle spears, fried onions, and fried crab claws - heaven on earth! They used corn flour rather than corn meal and then served it all with a horseradish sauce. Only thing is they made killer red beans and rice and cheesecake to die for so when you left there, you were pretty miserable.

 
How weird about the green tomatoes. Our supers don't even sell them

green any time that I have noticed. Obviously they are selling to the market that wants FGT. Do you have a regional/state farmers' market in Nashville? I would think you would.

 
What an interesting thread from y'all Southern gals. I think I'd be able to ...

live round there very easily...love that kind of food.
OK, what do they call men-folk there if women folk are "gals"? (did I spell that right?)

 
Yes please, corn fritters. They (or hushpuppies) sound good, as well as...

the black-eyed peas "salsa" (we just won't call 'em "salsa" - lol. Thanks.

 
I was wondering what scuppernongs and muscadines were. Now a cookbook/financial plpanner? Gotta ask!

 
Rec:Shrimp & Corn Fritters>>>

Recipe from Turtle Draals Wildlife Bar and Grill
Key West
Serves: 6 to 10

1# shrimp
1 cup corn
1/2 cup onion diced
1/2 cup red bell pepper diced
1/2 cup scallion chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
1/2 cup fresh jalapeno pepper diced
1 1/2 cups buttermilk pancake mix
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
Juice of 1 lime
1 cup beer
oil for frying

Cook shrimp. Chill, peel and devein. Coarsely chop shrimp. Cook corn and drain. Combine shrimp, corn, and next 11 ingredients. Refrigerate for at least 60 minutes. Using a small ice cream scoop or a soup spoon, drop batter into 350 degree oil. Fry 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Place fritters on a paper towel to drain. Serve hot with cocktail or mustard sauce.

 
Muscadines and Scuppernongs...

...are the native grapes that were found growing wild in the Southeast US. They are "cluster" grapes, that form a cluster of 6-12 berries, instead of the long tapered "bunch" grapes that grow in the rest of the world, including Upstate NY. (Concord, for example.) The Latin name is Vitis Rotundifolia (round leaf) Muscadinia. There are bronze muscadines, black muscadines, and every shade of pink and purple in-between. A very old named bronze variety was called "Scuppernong", named for the river in NC where it was found growing wild, and since then, in common use, the bronze varieties (there are many of them) are all called Scuppernongs by the locals, and they call all the black varieties "Muscadines".

They evolved here in the South, and can be reliably grown where the traditional bunch grapes of the NE and Europe will not survive. They are the mainstay of southern wineries, and many new cultivars have been planted in southern vineyards, to produce extremely fine table wines, white, red, rose, dry, semi-dry, sweet. The old image of "Scuppernong" wine was a sweet wine, but that was because when wine is made in a hot climate, it turns to vinegar very quickly, and in order to mask the off taste of the souring wine, it was sweetened.

Wineries in the South have adopted the temperature-controlled "cold fermentation" method of making wine, (same as in CA) and these wineries produce palatable dry table wines in a part of the country that was not known for dry wines in the past.

There is a vineyard in GA that packs and ships fresh Scuppernongs to stores in the NE. When they start to ship (they ripen in August and September), I'll find out if there are any sent to Syracuse area, Dawn, and I'll let you know, so you can sample them. They have a thick skin, and Southerners usually pop the pulp into their mouths and throw the skin away, after sucking out the juice, but newer varieties have tender edible skins.

There has been a lot of research regarding their anti-oxidant values and it has been shown that they have 25 times the anti-oxidant levels of bunch grapes. You can even buy capsules of the dried pulverized Muscadine grape solids and seeds in Health Food stores, where there is a big demand for diet supplements high in anti-oxidants.

Try a Dogpile search, and you'll find lots of info, as if this isn't enough! HA HA!

Cheers,

Marianne

 
Yes, Deb, this is a wonderful book, but...

...the real-life story of the author is even more fascinating...a perfect example of "truth is stranger than fiction". The author, Forrest Carter, was really Asa Carter, a staunch bigot, segregationist and speech writer for George Wallace, credited with Wallace's "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" speech. The author adopted the psuedonym, Bedford Forrest Carter, a reference to the founder of the KKK, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

The book was a NY Times bestseller, published as a true story, and was made into a movie in 1998. But the book was totally ficticious.

Asa Carter led a double life, which was not discovered until his untimely death in 1979. When he died, several stories appeared in my local Alabama newspapers, which included interviews with Montgomery AL politicos who remebered him from the old Wallace days, and the details started to emerge about his two lives.I think his wife was the first to admit that he was Forrest Carter. As I read the papers, I became fascinated with his story, and with the political and social atmosphere of the 1960's in my adopted state of Alabama.

If AngAK or DawnNYS chose this as a bookclub selection, do a Dogpile fetch on "Asa Carter" and "The Education of Little Tree" and you will find lots to read. The pbs.org article is especially good. The story of the author is a read by itself!

And now you know the inside joke on the name of Sam Waterston's civil rights lawyer character in the 1991-1993 TV series "I'll Fly Away"...his character's name was Forrest Bedford.

 
If you haven't heard of or read any of the Sweet Potato Queen work...

you will be ROFLOL! I lived in Jackson MS where they are based and know some of them and was there for their first St. Paddy's day parade appearance. OH MY GOSH! They have a simple but wonderful version of Pot de Creme in the Big Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner.

Here's a link - you have to read their books - you don't have to be Southern to appreciate them. I particularly love her philosophy about the men a woman needs in her life - I just wish I had them all.

www.sweetpotatoqueens.com

www.sweetpotatoqueens.com

 
Greens and Grits Casserole

Just read Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews. Great summer read. They had a recipe for a Greens and Grits casserole in the back that looked great.

 
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