This post has been a long time coming. I don’t mean I made these a long time ago and am just now blogging them. No, I mean they have been on my bucket list for months now and I’m just now getting around to them. This is actually the second time I have made them this month, but the first time they didn’t turned out right. It all started when I picked up some green tomatoes at a farmer’s market and asked for some tips on frying them. The women that sold them to me told me about this Whistle Stop batter mix that was the “best thing to fry the tomatoes in.” So, of course I gave it a try. I was reluctant at first because I thought, “If I use a batter mix, I can’t really blog about that. I wouldn’t have made anything.” Yeah, that should have been the least of my worries.
Have you ever heard the expression “If you want something done right, do it yourself”? I should have done it myself! The batter mix just made a coating of hard shell around the tomato. When you bit into it, sheese! It was like biting a brick! There was no texture except “hard,” and no real flavor either. So, I was on a mission to do it better. And I did.
The two things I really wanted out of the tomatoes were texture and flavor! So I bought a cast iron skillet, and used bacon and cornmeal. “Yeah,” I thought. “That oughta do it!”
I sliced up my tomatoes,
set up my breading station,
Ingredients
- 1 lb bacon, (I used turkey)
- Vegetable oil (optional)
- 2 medium, firm green tomatoes
- 1/2 C milk
- 1/2 C whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- Other seasonings (optional)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 C cornmeal
Instructions
- Use a mandolin to slice each tomato into 8, 1/4 inch thick slices. Cook bacon in cast iron skillet. Remove bacon and leave grease in the pan. Add additional oil if necessary and heat to medium.
- Meanwhile, set up breading station using 4 shallow dishes. Milk in the 1st; flour, salt, pepper and seasoning in the 2nd; eggs in the 3rd; cornmeal in the 4th. Dip a tomato slice in the milk, then the flour mixture, then the egg, then the cornmeal. Fry tomato slices for 2 minutes on each side. If they are browning too quickly, turn the heat down. They will need about 4 minutes total for the tomato to become slightly softened on the inside. Repeat for all tomato slices. Remove tomatoes and drain on paper towel covered plate. Serve warm.
For fried green tomatoes my mom always just covered them in flour, added salt and pepper and died in vegetable oil. I will try your way this summer.
I just made some tonight but put some dijon mustard with the egg and I did not have the cornmeal so used Italian bread crumbs with grated parm cheese! I will try your 4 tray separate dips next time. Do you use really green tomatoes or let them sit a day or two to develop some color? I thought the ones with some color were more mushy but more flavorful. Thanks, Teresa
Sprinkle sugar on them before frying it will carmelize them. Oh so good.
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I like mine best with just a touch of color.