Fried Green Tomatoes

Confession:  I do not like tomatoes.  Clarification: I do not like fresh tomatoes.  I like pretty much anything made out of  tomatoes however.  So when Greg picked the last of our tomatoes off the vines before the hard freeze he challenged me to find a recipe and make fried green tomatoes.  I wasn't really excited to try them because I have a tiny bit of prejudice towards them.  I don't really like red tomatoes and I thought green ones would be worse.  But I tried them and guess what, I loved them.  They were a little sweet, a little spicy, a little crunchy, a little not.  I had no idea that they would be that tasty but all those Southerners can't be wrong.  The stuff you use to coat the tomatoes with makes a lot and so I dipped my chicken in it and fried that too.  Delicious.  I was also a bit worried about the remoulade sauce that was recommended as a dipping sauce, but it was also very tasty.  I didn't put in the entire ½ teaspoon hot sauce since I wanted it to still be kid friendly.  Think a slightly spicy fry sauce. I hope you like them too.

 

Fried Green Tomatoes

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes for each batch
Yield: 4 servings as a side dish
Family Friendliness: Those that tried it, liked it.
 

Ingredients:

3 medium, firm green tomatoes
Salt
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 T. Cajun seasoning – optional
½ c. milk or buttermilk
1 egg
1/3 c. cornmeal (it was recommended to me to use white cornmeal, which I found at Wal-mart.)
½ c. fine dry bread crumbs
¼ c. peanut oil or other vegetable oil
Directions: Cut unpeeled tomatoes into ½ inch slices.  Sprinkle slices with salt.  Let tomato slices stand for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix the flour and Cajun seasoning in a shallow bowl.  Mix buttermilk and egg in another shallow bowl.  Mix bread crumbs and cornmeal in another shallow bowl.  Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat.  Dip tomato slices in the flour-seasoning mix, then buttermilk-egg mixture, then the cornmeal-bread crumb mix.  In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 3-5 minutes on each side or until brown.  Set the cooked tomatoes on the paper towels to drain.  Serve with remoulade sauce.

Remoulade Sauce

Yield: ¾ cup

¾ c. mayonnaise

1/8 c. mustard (Creole mustard if possible)
½ T. sweet paprika (I used regular paprika)
½ t. to 1 t. Cajun or Creole seasoning
1 t. prepared horseradish
½ t. pickle juice (dill or sweet)
½ t. hot sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced and smashed
Directions: Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl.  The remoulade is better if left for a few hours to let the flavors meld.  Keep refrigerated.

This recipe was originally found at www.simplyrecipes.com