Fall is definitely here. There are many signs; cooler mornings & evenings, days getting shorter everyday and an overall feeling in the air that summer has left us.
Our plants are starting to look
haggard and spent.
Our tomatoes are greener than green with no sign or real hope of even turning red this year.
Accepting this inevitable fate of our tomatoes we decided to put them to use anyway by making some fried green tomatoes.
Neither of us had actually made fried green tomatoes before. Being from the Midwest G has had them but T had not before this.
We found a recipe on Tastespotting from Life's Ambrosia blog that served as our initial starting point from which created our version.
The tomatoes although beautiful and green were hard as rocks. Wasn't fully sure how they'd taste good even fried.
First we sliced them, not to thin, not too thick. Knowing we love our tomatoes well seasoned when they're ripe we figured they needed to be well seasoned "green" as well.
The next step was to coat them for frying. We set up our station with seasoned flour, beaten eggs and panko for coating.
While G prepared our outdoor frying station on the grill burner..(yes, I still hate frying inside of the house.) I was working with incredible hulk fingers from the coating mixture. Haven't figured out how to do that gracefully yet. If you know a mess free strategy we'd love to hear it.
I went ahead and prepared our vinaigrette sauce for the stacked tomatoes: nothing fancy; prepared pesto sauce
(gotta love Trader Joe's) extra virgin olive oil, grey salt & at last minute champagne vinegar added too.
Next I sliced the fresh mozzarella.
We were ready to get frying now. We brought out everything we needed to get our outside "fry station" going.
Once the peanut oil was up to 350 degrees we placed the panko coated tomatoes into the oil.
The tomatoes turned golden brown after about 2 minutes and then we flipped them.
Once they were done we drained them on a plate lined with paper towel before stacking them with the fresh cheese
and then placing them into a 300 degree oven just to keep them warm and encourage the cheese melting process.
The looked scrumptious we were pretty excited to give them a try. After plating them we drizzled them with a bit of the Pesto vinaigrette.
We were pleasantly surprised just how good they were actually. The crispy tomato was slightly tart but the creamy cheese added a great soft component. The vinaigrette helped balance out just how rich the tomatoes & cheese were. Over all a great appetizer or side dish. If you have green tomatoes hanging out on your vines we highly recommend this recipe.
First we sliced them, not to thin, not too thick. Knowing we love our tomatoes well seasoned when they're ripe we figured they needed to be well seasoned "green" as well.
The next step was to coat them for frying. We set up our station with seasoned flour, beaten eggs and panko for coating.
I went ahead and prepared our vinaigrette sauce for the stacked tomatoes: nothing fancy; prepared pesto sauce
Next I sliced the fresh mozzarella.
We were ready to get frying now. We brought out everything we needed to get our outside "fry station" going.
Once the peanut oil was up to 350 degrees we placed the panko coated tomatoes into the oil.
The tomatoes turned golden brown after about 2 minutes and then we flipped them.
Once they were done we drained them on a plate lined with paper towel before stacking them with the fresh cheese
and then placing them into a 300 degree oven just to keep them warm and encourage the cheese melting process.
The looked scrumptious we were pretty excited to give them a try. After plating them we drizzled them with a bit of the Pesto vinaigrette.
We were pleasantly surprised just how good they were actually. The crispy tomato was slightly tart but the creamy cheese added a great soft component. The vinaigrette helped balance out just how rich the tomatoes & cheese were. Over all a great appetizer or side dish. If you have green tomatoes hanging out on your vines we highly recommend this recipe.
I, too, detest frying and am not keen on hulk fingers (hoping one of your readers has some good advice on that!) but this looks damn good. If my tomatoes don't color up by next weekend I very well might be trying these.
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