green tomatoes

so we put together an assembly line for fried green tomatoes. step 1: slice tomatoes, salt and pepper them, let sit for 10 minutes. then proceed to dip in the following items in the following order: milk, flour, eggs, and cornmeal. be prepared for the mess and have patience to wash your hands once you get these guys into the fry pan.

cook on each side for just a couple of minutes in a few tablespoons of oil (we used olive oil). put them on a plate with a paper towel and salt immediately. we had some sour cream and sweet chili sauce on hand (an odd combo that worked quite well). i imagine some fresh squeezed lime on top would be pretty good too.














in round two of the green tomato experiment, i ventured into the sweeter side and tested a recipe for green tomato bread (recipe below). it turned out very much like zucchini bread. don't know that you can actually taste the tomatoes, but my coworkers seemed to enjoy it.

in non-green tomato news, we went to the last MI farmers market of the inaugural season yesterday, and i got greenhouse tomato envy (i could make a really bad joke here about being green with envy, but i'll spare you...kind of):


green tomato bread
3 c flour (i used "white whole wheat" whatever that means)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c white sugar (preferably organic evaporated cane juice)
1 c brown sugar
1 T cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c veg oil (i used a light olive oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c finely chopped green tomatoes
1 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts

preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour 2 loaf pans. in mixing bowl fitted with paddle attachment, sift together first 6 ingredients. add eggs, oil, and vanilla until just incorporated, then add tomatoes and nuts. (i found the batter to be a little dry at this point, so i added a little bit of milk - 1-2 T - to bring it together). pour into loaf pans. bake about 50-60 min - test w/toothpick. cool on wire rack.