Fried Green Tomatoes

                                                                                  

With all the rain here in the Blue Ridge Mountains this Spring and Summer, growing vegetables was either fabulous or disheartening, and I heard both kinds of stories from home gardeners.  I’m a container gardener, and my Better Boy and sweet cherry tomatoes grew profusely – seeming to love the rain, as you can see in the photo below:



These are the lovely cherry  tomatoes that grew on a vine 7’ tall!  I had to get on a step ladder (I’m 5’2”) to pick the ones at the top.  Anyway, I had lots and lots of tomatoes.  I gave them to friends and ate tomato sandwiches until I couldn’t, even offered some to the neighbors and Jess said she was “tomatoed out!”

It’s September now, and the growing season is pretty much over here in the mountains, where Autumn is already bringing cool, misty mornings, but one tomato plant won’t give in.  It’s producing bowlfuls of hearty green tomatoes that will never ripen.



But that’s OKAY!  Because it’s Fried Green Tomato time in my kitchen – one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Fried Green Tomatoes is one of those recipes that everyone makes differently.  If you follow my blog, you know I simplify recipes as much as possible.  Most of us don’t have lives that allow for cooking complicated recipes from scratch. 

Below is a simple three-basic-ingredients recipe that anyone can follow.

You will need: 
A plate with some mayonnaise on it, and a plate with some seasoned Panko.

Slice some of those beautiful tomatoes.  You might even find a little pink inside!


Heat a little oil in a large frying pan.  Dry the tomato slices with paper towels, smear them first with mayonnaise, them evenly coat on both sides with the Panko crumbs.  Fry them, turning to cook evenly until golden.  Drain on paper towels. 


Top with a grind of sea salt and cracked black pepper, and you’ll get one of the most delicious ways to eat tomatoes that will look something like this:


Now I ask you – was that so hard?  Anyone can do this.  Choose the oil that you consider to be healthiest, and don’t eat fried food everyday.  You’ll live to be very old and very happy with Fried Green Tomatoes in your life.  Bon Appetit!  ~Jo