I’m feeling rather smug today. You see, I woke up unconscionably early yesterday (Sunday) morning – 9AM, having gone to bed at 3! – and decided that the thing to do was go to the Dupont farmers market for fresh plant-based goodness. As I approached the first stand, I could hear their bright green goodness calling my name, beckoning to my then-less-than-now cholesterol-coated heart strings.
I knew I was trapped, so I just went along for the ride. I called my mom and told her that (a) I was coming for dinner, and (b) we were having fried green tomatoes. My parents house, you see, is where all my serious cooking happens these days: they have an awesome kitchen, while I have a toaster oven.
After a ridiculously long wait, the 90 bus finally came to take me up North. Scouring my parents’ cookbook collection, I found but one recipe for this vaunted staple of American cuisine, and this was quickly rejected, as it involved mayonnaise. So I thought about what I wanted from the dish, and how I felt it should taste. A quick trip to the store for supplies, and the experiment began:
Green tomatoes
Salt
1 cup corn meal
1 tablespoon flour
Freshly ground pepper, to taste (I used quite a bit)
Buttermilk
Brown sugar
Oil.
– Slice the tomatoes into rounds, just under 1/2 inch thick, lay out on a plate.
– Salt them, not too heavily but a good bit on each tomato.
– Let sit 30 minutes (this draws out the juices)
– Make batter by mixing Corn meal, flour, and pepper in a wide bowl
– Pour buttermilk into another bowl
– In a large cast iron skillet, heat oil as hot as it gets
– Dip each tomato slice in buttermilk and then dredge in the batter
– Fry. About 2 minutes on a side, then 2 minutes on the other, then again on the first, etc. about 10 minutes. You want them to be still gooey in the middle.
– Remove from pan, place on a paper towel and immediately sprinkle with a TINY BIT of brown sugar.
– Do the next batch.
Be sure to do these in batches. Unless you keep your pan very well seasoned, the first batch won’t work.
I ended up eating them with hot sauce (I would have added Cayenne to the batter, but my grandmother does not eat Cayenne), and I’m feeling a bit smug about this dish. It was really good.