Disclaimer: I have no real claim to green tomatoes. The farthest south I ever lived was Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The first time I ate a green tomato in any form was when I was roughly fourteen and went with my dad to visit Oklahoma and ate at someplace called something like Annie’s Fry Shack. I don’t even remember it.
I am here to report the facts, though, and the facts are as follows: as delicious as ripe summer tomatoes are, green tomatoes are even better. They’re tangy and surprising and delicious and you won’t be able to find them in a few months, so get on it now.
There are many ways to eat green tomatoes, and I suspect that all of them are delicious. For instance, I can speak to how good green tomato chutney is, and I have even heard of a vegetarian green tomato version of mincemeat pie. But for now, we will focus on two tried and true (to me) versions of green tomatoes: fried, and pickled. Again, I will reiterate that I wasn’t raised eating this, so I am probably definitely wrong about the best way to make it, and am excited to be corrected in the comments so I can eat green tomatoes better harder faster stronger.
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
Ingredients:
Desired number of green tomatoes
Cornmeal
White flour
Dill
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
1. Using a knife (preferably a tomato knife, but a paring knife if you don’t have one, you philistines) carve out the stem situation from your tomato. Then slice into 1/4 inch slices.
2. Set up a breading station, which usually means two sort of shallow bowls, and one flat plate. Fill the first plate with a liquid; some sort of milk, or soymilk or almond milk, are recommended. I used Corona, because I haven’t had any almond milk in the house in months but i do have cheap beer. Judge away. In the second bowl, have your cornmeal/flour/spice combination. I’m not going to tell you amounts. You have to follow your heart. The dill is all my invention, honestly. Prefer paprika? White pepper? Go for it.
3. Anyways, as is probably obvious: Put your slices of green tomato first in the liquid, then in the breading mixture, then on the plate. Have a frying pan of canola oil over medium heat on the stove. I’m not going to tell you how much canola oil. Your call. I put plenty, because in the bastardized words of William Stafford, fried foods should be fried, and healthy foods should be healthy. The darkness around us is deep, etc.
4. Once all your slices are coated in flour/cornmeal mixture and your oil is hot, drop them in! Hopefully there’s some sizzling action. Let them cook for some amount of time on one side — maybe five minutes, or until the breaded coating is a nice golden brown. Then flip them with a spatula and let them cook for less time on the other side. I trust you on this.
PICKLED GREEN TOMATOES
via Amazing Ribs
Ingredients:
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 1/4 cup distilled water
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 pound firm green tomatoes (about 5 plum tomatoes or 2 regular green tomatoes)
1/2 serrano chile, stem removed, or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half
4 tablespoons dill seeds
1/2 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1. Take a large, clean jar (you can use a real canning jar if you want, but it’s okay if you don’t) and put in your garlic, pepper, dill, and serrano and/or red pepper flakes. If we were doing real pickling, we’d sterilize the jar and stuff, but because I’m terrified of botulism, these are just refrigerator pickles and the jar just has to be regular amounts of clean. Confession at this point: I don’t own any dill seeds and never have, so I just use dried dill. My pickles have always still been delicious.
2. Slice your tomatoes into quarters (mine were big tomatoes, so I cut them into eighths). Arrange inside the jar in such a way that you can fit as much tomato as possible.
3. In a nonreactive (glass, porcelain, or stainless steel) container, heat the vinegar, water, and salt together until the salt dissolves. I don’t have a nonreactive stovetop pot, so I usually put all this in a Pyrex container and microwave it. You do what you have to do.
4. Once the salt is dissolved, pour the hot brine over the tomatoes until the jar is full, and close the lid. Ta da! Wait until this cools, and then stick it in your fridge for a few weeks, shaking occasionally to redistribute all the briny goodness. I usually wait for two weeks, and then get too impatient and eat all of them at once and make myself sick but have no regrets. And then you just have a jar full of brine! Which you can actually do a lot with, and also you can feel free to just re-use it with more tomatoes (or cucumbers) at least once. Pickling: the gift that keeps on giving! Or pickling! Or whichever!
It’s like being back in my Grams kitchen. Thanks for the warm fuzzy memory inducing post!
Whenever I see these get baked posts my thoughts are always: “if someone made this for me, I would totally make out with them”.
Frying up some green tomatoes tonight..Wanna come over for dinner?
Exactly. Yes.
Also Digger, the process seems to take weeks… so like have you already started preparing them? :p
I was just gonna order them from a place down the street and pass them off as my own in the hopes they would have the same “effect” on you.
There are places that make these?!! I thought they were like magic food. Where is it that you live? I dunno girl, I think I’ll be able to tell… like it would be a toss up between you and the delivery person probably. Or the chef. Always make out with the chef.
Ok..Wait..If I make them..Then that makes ME the chef..I’d best get to cooking now!
Dear Rachel,
Could you, um, like just come cook these for me? I really want them. KThanx.
-Lizz
That fried green tomato* recipe looks quite tasty! If you’re feeling daring, I’ve always found that some shredded parmesan cheese on top and some horseradish sauce makes them EVEN BETTER.
*The fried green tomatoes at the Dinosaur BBQ (Original is in Syracuse, my hometown, but I hear there’s one in Harlem and one in Rochester) are the best I’ve had ever ever ever ever ever. If you’re in NYC, Go get them. Right now.
I catered for an event where Dinosaur BBQ had sampling and they were SO nice and their steak was so incredibly delicious, but most importantly they were SO NICE! They fed us more than the guests <3
Thank you, Rachel
I ate fried green tomatoes in a random diner in a tiny California town and have been dreaming of them ever since
Fried green tomatoe on a kaiser roll with bacon and mayonnaise. Best thing that can be eaten.
I was the only one in my family that would eat fried green tomatoes and I only ever got them when the family got together to make fleisch kuechle.
I hear these can be found at the Whistlestop Cafe! Have wanted to try them ever since seeing the film…
TOWANDA!!!
i thought i was the only one thinking this
I live in the southish region of the US, but had somehow managed to not eat (or not remember eating?) fried green tomatoes until this summer. I was in charge of a friend’s garden for a while, so I made some. Since I did it on a whim using only ingredients I could find in the house, my “recipe” was as basic as it gets, but they still tasted great. I used an egg/milk mix for my liquid and flour with salt/pepper/Tony’s for batter. I’ve since had them at restaurants, and I’m pretty sure there’s no wrong way to do them. I love the beer idea.
Also, I had never heard of pickling them before now, but I’ll definitely be trying it. My mom used to make pickled eggs (which sounds completely revolting but if you can get past that are actually quite good, and you probs won’t get boutilism), but these sound better and maybe safer?
BTW, I’m pretty much convinced that green tomatoes are the only reason to have tomato plants. I hardly ever use tomatoes once they turn orange/red because green ones are just SO good.
Tony’s! The best seasoning ever.
My mom used to make “meatless mincemeat” out of green tomatoes (I imagine it was something like this). It was actually pretty delicious.
Rachel,
This girl is from Old School East Texas. We ate FGT when I was a kid and this was way before that sappy movie. Your recipe was great! The dill was a nice addition to my family recipe. I strongly recommend cornmeal over flour or it will be to doughey. Good job.
once you have the picked green tomatoes, put ’em on a sandwich with sharp cheddar, spinach or arugula, dijon mustard, and green apple slices…it’s awesome.
wow, I’m really full of sandwich recipes today.
Will you come make me this sandwich?