Note, this post has been updated since its original pub date in 2022.
Even before I lived in the South, I loved Southern food … fried okra, collard greens, succotash, black-eyed peas … and I really, really love fried green tomatoes. Yea, if I could spend an afternoon at the Whistle Stop Café with Idgie, I would be in heaven. So, here’s a perfectly fabulous method for making the delicacy just be warned you could have a slight grease fire in your kitchen because if you cook like me, well, you might have a tendency to space out a little and you may (or may not) burn a batch or two. It’s OK though. Just pick the burnt edges off and eat them anyway. “Towanda!”
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
PREP TIME: 20 minutes | COOK: Stove Top, medium high heat, 15 minutes
- 8-10 green tomatoes, use green tomatoes—really green, no red and no yellow
- 1-2 cups canola oil for frying
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- Dash of salt
- Dash of cayenne pepper
Rinse tomatoes and gently dry them. Cut tomatoes into ⅓-inch-thick slices. For the coating: In one bowl combine equal amounts cornmeal and flour and a dash of salt and cayenne pepper. In another bowl, combine two eggs with ½ cup plant-based milk. Dip sliced tomatoes into the dry mix, then wet and then dry again. Note, sometimes people sprinkle a little sugar on the tomato before dredging in the flour and egg mixture to cut down on the bitterness. Just know that the most important thing is to dip the tomato in the flour, then egg and flour again. There has to be a thick coating created.
Heat canola oil in a cast-iron skillet. Put a couple droplets of water on your fingertips and sprinkle them into the oil. If the water pops back up, the oil is ready. Layer the bottom of the pan with the tomatoes, making sure they don’t overlap. Fry until they start to brown around the edges. Flip them and keep flipping until they turn golden. Once both sides have a nice golden color, remove them onto a paper shopping bag to drain the grease. Done. Enjoy!
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