fried green tomatoes?!?

[foxy fairy]

While cider-tasting yesterday, we spotted a big basket of the farm's green tomatoes and grabbed up quite a few. Now we're going to invite some friends over to (no kidding) watch the movie, which is one of my all-time favorites, and serve fried green tomatoes!

I know to slice them, salt/pepper them, and then dip in milk-flour-egg. Question: For the outer layer -- bread crumbs or cornmeal?? Which tastes more scrumptious? I think I'll go for cornmeal b/c I want to try it and I think the texture would be more unusual. Oh, and I'm going to fry in bacon fat (YAY!)

[mtleahy]

My grandmother who was a share-cropper farmer only cooked what she could grow or raise. Fried green tomatoes were my favorite dish she ever cooked, and she cooked a lot of good ones. She sliced them very thin, where most restaurants I get them at slice them thick. I much prefer thin. She did the buttermilk and seasoned flour. No cornmeal or bread crumbs. Of course they were always fried in lard or bacon drippings. (Vegetable oil, what's that? : ) I have tried to duplicate this many times and always come up just a little short, because hers had that extra ingredient, LOTS OF LOVE!!! Oh the memories : )

[alkapal]

i do a blend of fine cornmeal and flour. had some recently with panko as well. Nice and crrriispy! aioli is good with them (talk about fusion cooking!)

[Mattkn]

Agree with the cornmeal and rice flour...makes them nice and crispy. I also add a little bacon fat...makes a good gravy!

[ElizabethS]

I dip the egg covered thick slice of tomato into a 50/50 mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan (with lots of garlic and salt and pepper) - perhaps because cornmeal isn't that common an ingredient in Canada - it's delicious!

[GrillMaster]

Ditto on mixing in some flour. Just as good as green tomatoes are squash and zuchini. I never do one without the other.
You can also do a fried green tomatoe benedict. Good stuff!!!

[Dax]

http://www.progressivefarmer.com/tabi...

That is supposedly the recipe from the Irondale Cafe outside Birmingham, AL, which is the basis for the whistle stop cafe.

[Goomba]

Cornmeal mixed with flour is my standard. Mostly cornmeal though. And bacon drippings are a must!
I had some recently at the Oliver Hardy street Fest in Harlem, Georgia and they were so heavily coated in a tempura type batter and you couldn't taste or appreciate that there was even a tomato slice under it. What a shame :(
No sauce needed for me.

[katecm]

Don't forget a sauce for the top! A traditional remoulade can be nice, but I like a spicy, garlicky warm fresh tomato sauce.

[mainsqueeze]

I had excellent fried green tomatoes crusted with polenta the other day. They were stacked on top of each other with a caramelized onion chutney-type sauce in between. It was amazing!

[kkbriggs]

I prefer cornmeal, or a mixture of cornmeal and rice flour. I've only once had them fried in bacon fat, but it is an ethereal experience. Mmm. Can I come over? :)