Like making fried green tomatoes. Thanks to some friends on facebook, I was suddenly inspired to make these for lunch today. They posted
this recipe, which I generally followed.
I chose two of our nicest, biggest tomatoes from the garden, and sliced them in thick slabs.
I dipped them in milk, then the dry mixture, then did both again, attempting to get the coating to stick well. It might have helped.
My peanut oil was nice and hot, perhaps too hot. And my BIG MISTAKE was not choosing a frying pan that was deep enough. I know better than this. However, if I have one flaw (one? ha!), it is that my frugality will usually win over my wisdom. I didn't want to use a lot of oil (and this was left-over oil, so that should tell you how insanely frugal I am) in my large chicken fryer. See how active that oil is? I nearly caught the kitchen on fire. I stopped at 3 tomato slices because I was afraid to continue....
However, they turned out fine. Now, folks, this is not fancy fare. However, I am not wild about the breading. It was too much corn meal, not enough flour, and too salty -- probably my fault for using Lawry's. It's important to leave the tomato in the oil long enough to cook it, so it is soft and not hard like a normal green tomato. I turned the heat down a bit to get it under control, and cook it slower.
They're really delicious -- well, I've had fabulous ones in restaurants. Remember, it's actually a fruit, so the flavor of the tomato is NOT like some cooked veggie. It's sweet because it's a fruit, but also tangy because its not ripe yet. Very nice combination. Next time I'll do a better job.
The indifference of the quality, however, has not kept me from eating them all up :)
I chose two of our nicest, biggest tomatoes from the garden, and sliced them in thick slabs.
I dipped them in milk, then the dry mixture, then did both again, attempting to get the coating to stick well. It might have helped.
My peanut oil was nice and hot, perhaps too hot. And my BIG MISTAKE was not choosing a frying pan that was deep enough. I know better than this. However, if I have one flaw (one? ha!), it is that my frugality will usually win over my wisdom. I didn't want to use a lot of oil (and this was left-over oil, so that should tell you how insanely frugal I am) in my large chicken fryer. See how active that oil is? I nearly caught the kitchen on fire. I stopped at 3 tomato slices because I was afraid to continue....
However, they turned out fine. Now, folks, this is not fancy fare. However, I am not wild about the breading. It was too much corn meal, not enough flour, and too salty -- probably my fault for using Lawry's. It's important to leave the tomato in the oil long enough to cook it, so it is soft and not hard like a normal green tomato. I turned the heat down a bit to get it under control, and cook it slower.
They're really delicious -- well, I've had fabulous ones in restaurants. Remember, it's actually a fruit, so the flavor of the tomato is NOT like some cooked veggie. It's sweet because it's a fruit, but also tangy because its not ripe yet. Very nice combination. Next time I'll do a better job.
The indifference of the quality, however, has not kept me from eating them all up :)
1 comment:
I tried making these once, so long ago now that I'm ready to try again. But not this year, probably, when I don't even have enough *green* tomatoes to make it worth the trouble. Your tomatoes I've seen photos of, green or red, are so lovely and BIG.
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