Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried green tomatoes are an infamous southern dish.  We had never made them before but when we got green tomatoes from our CSA last week and decided what better to do with them then attempt to make this classic dish?  We researched several recipes and decided to go with a basic panko breading.  Whenever we are making something new we usually turn to the internet and look at a several different recipes.  We usually don't end up following any of them exactly but it gives us a good jumping off point.  As you can see there are really no measurements in this recipe.  We just used what we thought would be right...cooking isn't an exact science.  

 

Ingredients
Green tomatoes
Eggs
Milk (we used cream bc we had it and not milk)
Panko
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Paprika
Cayenne
S&P

Heat oil in cast iron skillet over medium heat to 350 degrees.  You don't want to get your oil too hot or your breading will burn before the inside cooks.

 

Begin with green tomatoes.  You can see that a couple of ours are starting to get a little red.  The key is that they cannot be soft.  If you slice it and it is juicy and the seeds just fall right out then that tomato shouldn't be used.  When I sliced the top tomato it was too soft and juicy so I didn't use that one.  The smaller red one was fine.

Slice tomatoes to approximately 1/4 in. thick pieces.  Salt & pepper tomato slices.

Set up 3 stations to for coating the tomatoes.

1. Mixture of predominantly flour with generous amount of garlic powder and onion powder.  There is no exact measurement here but you can see that there is a decent amount of each.  Stir these ingredients together.

  

2.  Egg/milk mixture.  This is 2 eggs & approximately 1/4-1/3 C of cream.  Milk or buttermilk are also good for this.

3. Panko, paprika & cayenne.  We used several shakes of paprika (10ish) and a few shakes of cayenne (3-4ish).  Again this does not have to be an exact science.  Stir together.

Dredge the tomatoes in the flour mixture.
 

Then coat with the egg mixture.

Finally coat with the panko mixture.  I layed the tomato down in the panko and made sure to pat the panko mixture on to both sides so that it was good and stuck on.

This is what your tomatoes should look like.  Hopefully by this point your oil has reached 350 degrees.

 

Gently place tomato slices into oil once slice at a time.  Do not overcrowd the skillet or you will have trouble turning these.  Fry one side and then the other.  Turning until both sides are a nice golden brown.

Remove from oil and lay on a paper towel covered plate while you finish cooking the rest of the slices.  At this point, lightly sprinkle with salt.  If you are making a huge serving and are worried about them staying warm you can place them on a baking sheet in a warm oven.  I wasn't making too many so I didn't have to worry about that..

We had this for dinner last night with grilled pork loin chops (seasoned with some of our favorite Shenandoah Spice Company spice mixes) and grilled potatoes and onions from our CSA.  And in my opinion, most fried foods are best served with ranch for dipping!

These were so good.  You can use this same method to fry zucchini and pickles (as well as tons of other things) as well.