After cheffing in Miami for some years, I decided to move north, and took a nice easy drive up the coast stopping in Hilton Head to relax by the ocean. The restaurant where I ordered dinner had a menu with southern selections and for an appetizer, I ordered the fried green tomatoes with apricot jelly. I had not eaten fried green tomatoes before and found it to be a great addition to my personal favorites.
My final destination in the Carolinas brought me into Southern cooking. I located a great farmer’s market to buy fresh produce, meat, seafood, local honey, herbs, wine and cheeses. The green tomatoes were jumbo size, but perfect for the recipe to recreate those crunchy, tasty fried slices that I later served the family, along with a dish that included grilled fish.
My brother never liked tomatoes. For 25 years, he was stuck with the childhood memory of the time he bit into a “cherry tomato and it was nothing like a cherry.” He refused to eat them since that experience, until the day I made them after my visit to the farmer’s market. He tasted and loved them. His exact words were, “that is the only way a tomato should be eaten.” In fact, I’ve become a slave to making them and creating new ways to serve them on burgers, as a side, and with new dips and toppings… Recently, I decided it was time teach him how to make them on his own.
It’s best to select firm, but not exactly rock hard, green tomatoes. If they are not green tomatoes, they’ll likely be too soft to hold up.
Slice them evenly, and close to 1/2” thick so they maintain when frying. There are other ways to prepare them, however, here I taught my brother how to do a 3-stage breading method.
Dish 1 – needs seasoned flour.
Dish 2 – is whipped eggs with a splash of buttermilk.
Dish 3 – should be a mix of Panko, cornmeal or a mix of both, then season with sea salt, and ground black pepper. If you want to add a little more flavor, you can always blend other spices in any of the components.
To keep them hot, I line a sheet pan with parchment paper or paper towels and put the oven.
I use canola heated between 330 – 350 degees F. You want these to be fried to a golden color and not blackened in oil that is too hot, so you’ll need pay close attention to what’s going on in the pan. Since the slices are thick, it’s good to take it slow and flip so they cook evenly and soften up on the inside, but not to a mushy state.
Once they’re golden, use the tongs to take them out and place on the sheet pan lined with parchment. If you’re not serving immediately, or have many more to cook, like we always do… put them in the preheated oven to stay hot.
For appetizers, I make different dipping sauces depending on the end result. This time I made a nice chipotle lime aioli, and since my brother and I were hungry for a bigger meal, I grilled Black Angus burgers and built a mountainous double-patty with jalapeño pimento cheese, butter lettuce, on a toasted onion bun, a thick layer of that chipotle lime aioli, and of course, my brother’s favorite, a dill pickle.
While we were cooking, I was thinking about how, when we were kids, we used to come home from school and make giant pots of mac-n-cheese and other food coma snacks. Since those days, there’s been a lot of progress. He’s a good student, gotta give him that, but I have a feeling he’s still going to need me to fry the green tomatoes.