Summer’s bounty is looking promising

I snapped this picture last evening. These tiny green lobes are the future baby roma tomatoes calling out to my spaghetti sauce. Everything but the watermelons, pinto beans, cucumbers and swiss chard are in the ground, good to go. Calling all bees and pollinators!!!

Southern Fried Green Tomatoes
Use 1 or 2 nice sized round (not roma for this) green tomatoes—slice–not too thin, not too thick
buttermilk for soaking
Canola oil for frying (trust me, a fried green tomato is worth it)
a mix of corn meal, a tad of flour, and panko bread crumbs for dredging
salt/ pepper/ hungarian paprika and any other dried seasoning combination that may strike your fancy–sprinkle it into your cornmeal mixture and toss well with a fork)

–Slice unpeeled tomatoes placing in a shallow dish, cover with buttermilk for 30 min unrefrigerated– or– longer in the fridge but do let them sit out for at least 30 minutes before you’re ready to cook, allowing them to come to room temp as this helps in the cooking process.

–when you’re ready to cook the tomatoes, pour enough oil in a skillet to easily hold the tomato slices—no deep fat fryer necessary, I just use a cast iron skillet–Lodge or a Le Creuset or even just a stainless frying pan such as All Clad. Heat up the oil–I drop a bread crumb in the heating oil and when the bread crumb sizzles, I’m good to go. ( I am not of the thermometer variety)

–take a tomato slice from the buttermilk, allowing it to drip off any excess liquid. Dredge the tomato in the cornmeal mixture ( a mix of primarily corn meal, add a tad of flour and some panko bread crumbs, add some salt, pepper, and I like Hungarian paprika and maybe a little creole seasoning for a kick, or dried thyme, a smidge of cayenne…suit you own taste buds)

–begin placing prepped tomatoes into the hot oil–fill the pan but do not over crowd or your slices will not fry evenly–probably just 3 or 4 slices depending on the size of slice.

–Watching closely, use tongs to turn tomatoes once they’re lightly browned on the first side. Once the slices are nice and lightly browned on each side, remove from pan and place on a rack in order to allow any dripping oil to drip away…if you just put them on a plate directly out of the pan, they tend to sweat on the bottom losing that nice crunch as they become soggy….

I just lightly salt them—you may serve them with a horseradish sauce, a flavored mayonnaise, greek yogurt, etc.. maybe a nice sweet and sour onion confit sounds tasty..

I don’t have a picture of my fried green tomatoes but I do have one of my fried eggplant–which gives you some idea of the color you’re looking for…substitute eggplant if you’d like but they need to soak a while longer in the buttermilk to loose any bitterness from their seeds

Also here is a shot of my favorite appetizer—bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, fresh herbs, a touch of country dijon mustard and feta cheese—ummmmmm, pour the prosecco and enjoy

And lastly a warm tomato flan I made that was to die for (yes Val, I am still here, but it is a heavenly dish) served with a warm infused basil olive oil—

I’ll add that recipe later as this post was just intended to be a picture of baby tomatoes—see what happens when I start thinking about the bounty of the garden—-nothing like a garden fresh tomato, or eggplant, or corn, or zucchini, or squash, or………………………