Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Fried Green Tomatoes


Dear Daughter and I have really taken to several southern dishes. Fried green tomatoes is one. When I saw some beautiful green tomatoes at Krogers, I bought a few and decided to fry them. I had never fried tomatoes before, and quite honestly, I'm not a fan of frying. In fact, I can't remember the last time I fried something -- years and years, I think.


Today was the first day in a a couple of weeks that DD and I were both home for dinner, and we made a "date" to eat together. I was determined to fry the green tomatoes. This is what I did:


In a small paper bag, I mixed equal parts of finely ground white cornmeal and flour, and added about 1 tsp of Tony Chachere's seasoning, which is basically garlic salt with some paprika and cayenne added. Then I sliced the tomatoes about 1/3 or 1/2 inch thick, threw them in the bag one at a time and shook until they were coated. In a 10 inch cast iron skillet, I heated about 1/3 inch of canola oil until sizzling, then friend the tomatoes until they were golden brown on each side. I drained them on paper towels, and we ate them with rice, hummus and siracha sauce. We'll be having mango smoothies from the Vitamix for dessert.


They were very tasty, but they have a way to go. For some reason, the cast iron pan had hot spots, so some of the tomatoes got very, very brown -- too brown -- and my inexperience at frying helped them to get too brown as well. I think they needed more salt in the coating, too. The lemony hummus, though untraditional, really brought out the tartness of the tomatoes. All in all, it was a tasty meal.


I'll want to try this again, for sure.

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