My first Not-so-Green Fried Tomatoes

[marilynfl]

Not sure where this craving came from since I didn't grow up with fried green tomatoes and actually got nauseated with the smell/taste/sliminess of red tomatoes until my mid-20's. Then, a sweet old Italian man gave me a paper bag of warm tomatoes right out of his garden and FINALLY, I got it.

3 Kumato tomatoes, see link (grocery store had no green ones)

1/2 C flour

1/2 C liquid egg

1 C Zatarain's Southern Cornmeal coating for fish

1 nob of clarified butter

1 nob of frozen bacon grease

1 drizzle of oil (who knows why)

Sandy's Blend de Provence.

Sliced each tomato into thirds, slicing off skin so meat was exposed on both sides.

Coated in flour, then egg, then corn meal, then onto waxed paper and into the frig for 15 minutes.

(I have NO IDEA why I did it this way--the process must have been absorbed from reading fried chicken recipes.)

Heated the butter/bacon/oil in a cast iron pan until I heard it pop (too thin to take a temperature) and fried each side for 2-3 minutes.

Bloated on paper towels and sprinkled with Sandy's spice blend. Short grind of pink salt.

Wow. I've only had fried green tomatoes twice in my life and I have to say that these were even better than those. Thin, crunchy shell on the outside; soft, warm tomato on the inside. Served with lemon pepper rotisserie chicken and red skin potato salad from Publix (I'm still not feeling well enough to cook a whole dinner.)

For a Pittsburgh girl who hated tomatoes growing up, I did good.

http://whatidhadfordinner.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-29-2012-you-say-tomato-i-say.html

 

[mariadnoca]

Yummmm, sounds fantastic... this brings me back to my childhood

and how Dad would get SO MAD at our neighbor who'd come "STEAL" his green tomatoes so she could make fried green tomatoes.

PS
(They were good....shhhh, don't tell Dad.)

 

[lisainla]

This sounds fabulous - I like the bacon-y addition.

 

[angak1]

I didn't grow up with them either, but DH makes them occasionally. the hard red tomatoes we usually

have year round could surely be fried up as well????

 

[melissa-dallas]

That's more or less how you Southern-fry squash too, which is one of my favorite things

 

[earnie]

We Like Em Plain

Here in Tennessee, we use salt and pepper, an egg wash, a flour and cornmeal mix, and fry them up. Simple and plain.