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Key intro music … da ta da!!! Welcome to another installment of our “Garden to Table” feature here at SRFD! From time to time we showcase some of our home-grown vegetables in easy, delicious recipes. This Southern Classic was a special request by Traveling Husband and I must say, they’re the best I’ve ever had. It’s nice to know I haven’t completely lost my Southern roots by cooking too much Quinoa! I don’t fry food very often, for all the obvious reasons, but a splurge like this is worth the extra steps on the treadmill.
Since my husband is the master gardener at our house, I’m typically very agreeable to our little arrangement: he grows it, I cook it and of course we both eat it! Sometimes I even pick it too.
While making my green tomato selections, I snapped a few photos of the Daylilies. They’re really happy this year in spite of the excessive heat.
And now for the star of our little feature presentation, happy green tomatoes.
Fresh picked, washed and ready for their photo shoot.
I was impressed with their professional pose-ability. Here they are next to their little red cousins modeling shinny, smooth, green skin. These firm, round maters were perfect for this recipe!
They must have been superstars the way my husband and I were taking turns snapping photos.
We make a pretty good tomato paparazzi team.
Alright … I’ll stop playing with my food and get on with it!
Slice the tomatoes into 1/3 inch slices.
Firm and unblemished, these will be very easy to cook. Dredge in a cornmeal and flour mixture seasoned with salt and pepper. Dip into a buttermilk and egg wash and dredge again in the flour mixture. Fry in an cast-iron skillet in moderately hot vegetable oil (approximately 350 degrees). Turn once browned and continue cooking on the other side. Remove to a paper towel lined plate or cooling rack. Season with sea salt while hot. Cool and serve.
Try not to burn your mouth eating them fresh out of the skillet. Crispy, juicy perfection, period. Goodness these are a special treat!
Served with a small salad of arugula, ripe Roma tomatoes, feta cheese and your favorite light dressing, dinner is done.
Fried Green Tomatoes – a special treat
Fried Green Tomatoes
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup full-fat buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour *
(these tomatoes were made with a gluten free flour mixture – see note below)
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 large, firm green tomatoes, sliced 1/3 inch thick
vegetable oil for frying
Sea salt to taste
Lightly beat the egg and buttermilk together in a shallow bowl. Set aside. Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt and pepper in a pan or shallow bowl.
Pour vegetable oil into a large cast-iron skillet to 1/4 inch deep. Heat to 350 degrees. Dredge tomato slices in the flour mixture, then dip in the egg mixture. Shake off the excess egg and dredge again in the flour and cornmeal. Gently slide the tomatoes in the hot oil. Cook tomatoes in small batches until golden brown on both sides. Remove to a paper towel lined plate or cooling rack. Sprinkle hot tomatoes with sea salt and pepper to taste.
* Note – for an all purpose gluten free flour mixture we used the following recipe: 2 cups brown rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch and 1/3 cup tapioca flour. Mix and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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You’ll be seeing more tomato recipes soon as we have about 25 plants this year. Some are volunteers, others starting growing in the compost bin and some we planted ourselves. If you’re looking for the best ripe tomato recipe I’ve ever tried, check out this one posted last year for Marinated Tomatoes. I can’t wait to make it again. So incredibly delicious! It’s going to be hard to top that one.
Have a lovely weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!
Tricia
The Café Sucré Farine says
It's amazing how beautiful unadorned fruits and veggies are, love these photos. The fried green tomatoes look phenomenal!
EM (Wine and Butter) says
I LOVE that movie and have always been desperate to try them. We have 'healthy' method for frying in cornmeal that we learnt from school and I would love to try it here. Very jealous of your tomato bounty!!
flecksofgreen.com says
I have to admit that the thought of fried green tomatoes has never been appealing to me in the least. But, I'm beginning to think that that's because I've never actually seen them! Yours look delicious and if they were in front of me, I think I would dive right in!
Velva says
Those are some beautiful fresh green tomatoes-No doubt your husband is a master gardener. The tomatoes look perfect.<br /><br />I enjoy fried green tomatoes. I have not made them myself but have enjoyed it over the years at the hand of another cook. They look delicious.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing.<br /><br />Velva
The Slow Roasted Italian says
I have never had Fried Green Tomatoes, but yours really put them on my priority list! These look delicious. My garden is growing painfully slow due to the heat, so perhaps this fall.
Blond Duck says
A Southern classic!
Liz-Dennis says
Tricia,<br />After reading your blog this morning, I went right out to our garden and picked four medium-sized green tomatoes–then walked to the corner meat market for some thick-slab bacon. Our son is here from Chicago today helping his dad on a house project, so I wanted to serve a yummy lunch. BLT sandwiches, including your recipe for fried-green tomatoes, was a big hit! If you haven't
Traveling Husband says
Wow Cuz! My mouth is watering! I'm going to lobby for us to try that!
Angie's Recipes says
wow What a fabulous tomato dish! The marinated tomatoes look pretty awesome too.
Shelia and Mister Bean says
Oh, I wish I had one right now! I always look forward to fried green tomato time!
Tanna at The Brick Street Bungalow says
I sure do wish I had that plate of gorgeous fried green tomatoes on that bed of delicious salad! YUM!!
Mary says
Would you believe that I still have never had a fried green tomato?! They have been at the top of my list for this year, but due to our traveling far more than normal, my garden has fallen victim to the heat. I'm missing all the lovely produce at my fingertips and already counting the days until we can begin planting our fall garden!<br /><br />If we could just manage to stay in town for more
Big Dude says
You know what I like better than fried green tomatoes?<br /><br />Give me a minute I'm still thinking, I'm sure there must be something. Oh well.<br /><br />Yours look delicious and all of the presentations make we want to dive in. Great post and I liked the humor.