Every year as the tomato plants start dying off I ponder over the last few green tomatoes hanging on and wonder if I should finally try making fried green tomatoes. In my 33 years of life I had never tried them. The thought of eating a green tomato is not that appetizing, but add "fried" to anything's name and I develop a craving for it.
People seem to either love or despise fried green tomatoes, given the opinions I've heard. Curiouser and curiouser. Yesterday I finally decided to satisfy my curiosity.
Following the directions given in this youtube video (click for link), I picked several of the best looking green tomatoes and doubled the recipe for breading them. If it turned out to be a success I couldn't risk not having enough, you know....
They were so pretty!
The breading process included flouring, then dunking in an egg and milk mixture, and finally coating with a cornmeal, crumb, and seasoning mixture.
Breaded and waiting for the oil to heat up...
The verdict: as much as I wanted to love fried green tomatoes, they are definitely an acquired taste. I don't hate them, but they're too much work for a flavor I'm not in love with. I can see why people love them...and if I had grown up eating them I'd probably love them too. The tomato offers an acidic, slightly sweet and sour punch that was reminiscent of the ground cherry (tomatilla) jelly my Grandpa used to make. We found the flavor was best if countered with ranch dip or hot sauce, and when they were left to fry till dark brown. I thought maybe a thinner tomato slice would have been better in balancing the flavor between it and the breading as well. The breading was great, and I used the excess to fry up some zucchini...a much more familiar flavor to our taste buds.
I know what you mean about the movie....
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to try fried green tomatoes! You made them look delicious. :)
You may like them! Let me know if you try them :)
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