Day 211, Part One: Fried Green Tomatoes

Today is Saturday, and it's summer, and we are at home, which means that this morning we visited the farmer's market in Moscow, Idaho, which, as usual, was the highlight of my week. We've been out of town a lot of weekends lately, so I haven't had too much time to browse my local growers' booths lately, which means that when I do, I go a little overboard. Today's haul included beets, sugar snap peas, cherries, several kinds of squash, eggplant, eggs, three or four varieties of pepper I've never heard of and four beautiful green tomatoes.

I've never been to the south, or to some southerner's home where they fried green tomatoes for me. I've never seen them on restaurant menus that I recall, because I think I would have ordered them. I've never even seen the movie--maybe five or ten minutes when it was on TV. But I've always thought fried green tomatoes sound delicious, so I was more than eager to fry them. When we got home, I went straight to the Food Network website to look up recipes; I assumed Paula Deen's would be first on the list. Strangely, I had to hunt for Paula's, but after perusing a few options I landed on Tyler Florence's version, which were simple and would help me use up two ingredients I already have lying around: buttermilk and cornmeal. I calculated the calories (as you recall, I'm trying to lose weight) and, because I'd been good today, found I could have a lovely fried treat for dinner. I was a very happy cook.

As you can see from the picture above, I didn't achieve amazing color on my tomatoes. I haven't fried anything in a while and at first my oil wasn't hot enough, and then for the second batch it was too hot. Still, I managed a wonderfully crispy crust and the tomatoes were still firm but hot all the way through, and not too oily, which I enjoyed. I mixed up a little sauce with some mayo, buttermilk, salt, pepper, and hot sauce--a lovely accompaniment. For protein, a little grilled chicken.

I have to say, even produced by an amateur, fried green tomatoes are delicious. If I ever have a garden with a tomato plant, I will probably pluck quite a few fruits before their time, just so I can deep fry them.