The kids didn’t have school again for yet another non-reason, so my daughter pulled out my tomato plants for me in exchange for me taking her to get her Homecoming dress. There were a couple of tomatoes on the ground but the plants are done for the year. I’m grateful for having a super tomato season! Last year the dried up tomato plants didn’t compost well so this year we chopped the up into a leaf bag to recycle.
Last weekend we saw Ben and Heather from Pleasant Farms at the downtown Frederick farmers’ market on Market Street. I got two green tomatoes and they were handing out a fried green tomatoes recipe that has buttermilk in it. You can see that by the time I finally sliced the tomatoes to fry, they had turned yellow – really beautiful though, right?
It’s important, as I’ve pointed out before in the cooking oil discussion, to use an oil like coconut oil instead of olive oil for frying. It has a very high smoke point, which means that the oil can become very hot before smoking and will produce a crisp crust when frying.
Buttermilk Green Tomatoes
2 green tomatoes
1/2 C buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 C breadcrumbs
1/4 C cornmeal
1 T garlic powder
1 T paprika
1 t sea salt
1/4 t pepper
1/4 C organic coconut oil
Cut the tomatoes into 12 slices about 1/4” thick. Whisk egg and buttermilk. Blend all dry ingredients in another bowl. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat.
Coating the tomatoes is a three-step process. First, plop the tomato slices in the dry ingredients. Flip over so both sides have a light dusting of the dry ingredients.
Second, dunk the tomato slice in the buttermilk mixture.
Third, place the tomato back in the dry ingredients. Flip over to thoroughly coat, then set your slices in the hot oil. Be sure not to crowd in the pan so they do not stick together and you can flip them easily. Fry in three batches of four tomatoes. You may need to melt a little more oil around the edge of the pan toward the end. Put the slices on some paper towel out of the pan and then onto a serving plate.
