Fried Green Tomatoes

Last week we cooked an ultimate Southern classic Fried Green Tomatoes, Baby Back Ribs, & corn on the stove!


Here is the recipe for the Fried Green Tomatoes:
1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon garlic powder
Pinch of cayenne
1 1/2 cup of buttermilk
Kosher salt & freshly ground peper
4 large unripe tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch think slices, ends removed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Hot Pepper Sauce & Lemon Wedges for serving

Directions:


**In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, garlic power and cayenne together. ** Pour the buttermilk into a seperate bowl and season with salt & pepper. Dip the tomatoes in the buttermilk and then dredge them in the cornmeal mixture, coating both sides well.

**Instead of the cornmeal, flour, cayenne and garlic powder we used.


(This is must have for your pantry for frying and you get this big tub from your local Sam's. This blend was amazing on the tomatoes and gave it a refreshing lemon-y taste! Highly recommended by the butta clan!)

Place a large cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is hot, pan-fry the tomatoes (in batches - don't over crowd the pan please!) until golden brown and crispy on both sides, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Carefully remove the tomatoes and drain on paper towels. Serve with hot pepper sauce and lemon

Butta lesson #1: We had a dicussion on corn meal & grits. The buttas always ask a lot of questions and they found out both corn-meal and grits are made from corn and they get their names from how finely the corn is ground. Just an intresting side note & a lesson from the butta kitchen!!

When cutting the tomatoes - pit out the end so you can use the most of your tomato!

Then slice - make thick slices so they hold up better when frying!
Butta lesson #2 of the night: Why are they fried green tomatoes and not regular tomatoes? And what exactly is a green tomato? Green tomatoes are not yet ripe tomatoes, not a different or special type of tomatoes. Because they are harder than tomatoes they can be fried, regular red tomatoes would fall apart.


Here are our dipping bowls. They key to this is to keep one hand wet and one hand dry. Also the recipe says to dip in milk, then in the batter. We tried that way and also double dipping - we dipped in the batter, then in the milk and back in the batter. We pan-fried each one to see what we liked better and we loved the double dip! Test out both & see what your taste buds like the most!!
Remember to season the bowls with salt & pepper!!



Remember your hands!!


& flip!

Enjoy!!