Fried Green Tomatoes – Three Ways

Late last week we were given a Freeze Warning.  Even though it should go with saying that it was inevitable, I was just not ready for it and absolutely did not plan ahead.  So, after a long week at work, I came home on Friday night and began to harvest everything that would not survive the night if i didn’t tear it out.  Sans gloves and with the help of a headlamp, I harvested the last ~26 pounds of our 2013 tomatoes, ~14 pounds of which were green.

In the past, we have laid every last one of our green tomatoes out on a table in the garage to ripen up over the course of several weeks.  However, while most of them have ripened in the past, there is always a handful of tomatoes that just never turn and instead, shrivel up and mock me.

So, this year I am determined to use as many of our smaller, super green tomatoes as possible while they’re still green and what better way to do this than by making Fried Green Tomatoes!  In my exhausted daze on Friday night, I posted a picture of a few of our green tomatoes on my Ever Growing facebook page and come Saturday morning, I had a couple of recipes to try!

Fried Green Tomatoes – Take One
Judith offered: My Dad always swore by the simple version: Dipped in flour, then egg and finally in crushed saltine crackers before frying. Delicious!

I made a batch just as stated above.

Fried Green Tomatoes – Take Two
Ellen offered: For fried green tomatoes, you can fry them in canola or bacon grease. We don’t really ever eat crackers, so I dip them in spiced flour (garlic powder, salt, etc). Also, it needs to be a higher heat when frying or they will be mushy.

I spiced the flour with a little garlic powder, salt, pepper and tiny pinch of cayenne.

Fried Green Tomatoes – Take Three
For the third piece of my experiment I winged it and used blue corn corn meal as the final layer.

The Steps

• Heat your oil of choice in a deep pan on medium-hot heat
• Gather your green tomatoes (I used both Romas and Cherokee Purples)
• Slice them into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices
• Dip a tomato slice in plain flour
• Then dip it in eggs that have been beaten with a little splash of water
• Last, dip it in your chosen flour mix
• Carefully place your coated tomatoes into the hot oil
• Remove tomatoes from oil with a slotted spoon after 4-5 minutes
• Set to drain over a strainer over a bowl
• Eat hot (but be careful, they will be hot!) and enjoy!

I wish I could say there was a clear winner here, but all three recipes were great!  The only things I might change would be a bit more cayenne and some corn starch to Take Two in order to spice and crisp them up a bit more than they were.  Now I’m on the hunt for the perfect dipping sauce!

What is your favorite way to fry up green tomatoes at the end of the growing season?  Please share your recipes or links in the comments below!

xoxo,
M