The Slowcook at Spydog Farm The Slowcook at Spydog Farm

Fried Green Tomatoes

October 9th, 2013 · No Comments · Posted in farming, Recipes

IMG_0854

Here’s another reason to love fall: green tomatoes.

Back in D.C., we’d get a huge hall of green tomatoes all the way into November. Not so much this year, as we only had a couple of tomato plants in our new garden here in Upstate New York. We’ve got voles or field mice noshing on the ripe ones, so we were glad to gather up a bunch of green tomatoes they hadn’t touched.

Over the years we’ve learned there are plenty of great foods you can make with green tomatoes, not least of which is one of our all-time favorite condiments, green tomato and apple chutney. My wife loves green tomato, bacon and lettuce sandwiches. She also makes a mean green tomato pizza. In fact, three years ago I gathered together all of our favorite green tomato treatments in a post you can read here.

A classic treatment, of course, is frying green tomatoes. Everybody’s heard of that, and they truly are delicious. Here you see some we made last night as a side for pork chops. Daughter made her special remoulade sauce as an accompaniment.

Making these is more method than recipe. The first advice my wife has to give is make sure to slice the tomatoes thickly–not thin–about 1/3 inch. Then lay the slices on slices on a baking sheet and season with salt, pepper and a bit of sugar. Allow to rest a few minutes.

Meanwhile, pour your favorite vegetable oil into a large, heavy skillet to a depth of 1 inch. Turn on the heat: You’ll want to get the oil to 360 degrees Fahrenheit, as measured with an instant-read thermometer.

While the oil is coming up to temperature, mix 1 1/3 cups flour and 2/3 cup cornmeal in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. Dredge the tomato slices first in the flour mix, then the egg mix, then the flour mix again. In batches, lower the tomato slices into the hot allow and cook until golden, turning the slices as necessary. We like to use spring-loaded tongs for this.

Remove the fried tomato slices to a baking sheet covered with paper towels to drain. Serve warm and thank the gods of fall for green tomatoes.

Leave a Comment

Please note: Your comment may have to wait for approval to be published to ensure that we don't accidentally publish "spam". We thank you for understanding.

*

There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.