Fried Green Tomatoes

This is a great southern recipe that is delicious itself as an appetizer or as a surprise under a juicy burger. Turn it into its own sandwich altogether by layering it onto chewy pretzel bread or a flaky biscuit. Or, layer the fried green tomatoes with fresh citrus and some healthy greens. Top a fried gren tomato with sausage for the perfect spicy-meets-juicy flavor. Go crazy and, once the green tomatoes are fried, drizzle them with my Homemade Remoulade Sauce; it will surely impress.

cooking information

• Yield: 12-15 Individual Slices
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cooking Time: 10 minutes

all ingredients

• 4 Green Tomatoes
• 1 Cups Flour
• 4 Eggs
• 2 Cups Yellow Cornmeal
• Salt/Pepper
• Vegetable Oil

recipe instruction

1. First, clean your green tomatoes. Slice the tomatoes into ½-inch-thick slices. (You don’t want to slice them too thinly or they’ll become mush once they are cooked.) Discard the core and the base of the tomatoes.

2. Next, season lightly both sides of the tomato slices with salt and pepper.

3. Create three stations for breading your tomatoes — one with flour, another with eggs whisked with a bit of water to thin them out, and another with cornmeal.

4. To a large saute pan, add enough oil to be about one inch up the sides of the pan. Preheat to medium-high heat.

5. When your oil is hot enough, dredge your tomatoes first in the flour, then in the egg, and finally in the cornmeal. Add immediately to the hot oil. (The oil should be high enough to completely surround the tomato.)

6. Flip the tomato after one minute or so of cooking to make sure it browns evenly. After both sides are browned, remove from the oil and let drain on paper towels.

7. Serve hot with remoulade sauce.

cooking tips

• Green tomatoes are important to this recipe because they are unripe tomatoes and can withstand the heat of the oil.
• The tomatoes can be sliced and seasoned beforehand but if you bread them too early the crust will become mushy and won’t crisp us when fried.
• A great way to figure out if your oil is warm enough without a thermometer is to sprinkle a little cornmeal into the pan. If it floats to the top and begins cooking, the oil is ready; if the cornmeal sinks to the bottom right away, the oil isn’t ready.
• When frying, the more you place in the pan the lower the temperature will get, so don’t overcrowd the pan. Also, allow a couple more minutes for the second batch of slices as the temperature of the oil fluctuates with the movement in the pan. More than anything, stay on top of the tomatoes as they fry.